About the Concert

The concert, in which we welcome Ken-David Masur to the conductor's stand of the Dresden Philharmonic, is dedicated to America. We celebrate with him the 100th birthday of his father Kurt Masur, who was the chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic from 1967 to 1972. In 1969, Kurt Masur inaugurated the Kulturpalast, founded the Philharmonic Choirs, and in 2017 witnessed the establishment of the orchestra academy of the Dresden Philharmonic being named after him. When he took office as chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1991, Thomas Hampson sang Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs." Ken-David Masur continues his father's program with "Visions of America." Including "Letters from Lincoln" by Michael Daugherty, it features a song cycle based on authentic letters from Abraham Lincoln. These letters shed light not so much on the statesman, but rather on the thoughtful, doubting, and human Lincoln. Themes include responsibility, loss, war, personal grief, and moral integrity, pointing to something that may be currently at risk of being lost.