Mahler “Titan” Symphony – Resident Artist Festival Showcase

Friday, August 8th, 2025
7:00 pm
Sherman’s Park, Dance Hall

Tickets:
$20 General Admission

Free general admission for students 17 and under!
Caroga Arts offers FREE admission to concert goers 17 and under for all Caroga Arts presented concerts at Sherman’s.

CLMF Resident Artists perform Klaus Simon’s chamber arrangement of Mahler’s 1st Symphony and the world premiere of Michael Douglas’ piece for cello and orchestra, featuring soloist Tommy Mesa.

Vendor: Stump City Brewing

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Cuban-American cellist Tommy Mesa has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. The recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s 2023 Medal of Excellence, its highest honor, Mesa has appeared as soloist at the Supreme Court of the United States on fouroccasions and with major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, Madison, New Jersey, San Antonio, and Santa Barbara, among others. Mesa gave the world premiere and subsequent tour of Jessie Montgomery’s cello concerto in the 2022-23 season, with performances at major halls across the United States and Brazil including Miami’s New World Center and Carnegie Hall. His orchestral recording debut of the work was released in July 2023 on Deutsche Grammophon.

Orchestral highlights of the 2023-24 season include an extensive performance tour of Cuba and performance debuts with the Calgary and Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestras; the Ann Arbor, Bay Atlantic, Columbus, Greenwich, Gulf Coast, Knoxville, Quad City, Reading, Waterbury Symphony Orchestras; and Boston’s Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Mesa returns to the Indianapolis Symphony as cocurator and featured performer for their chamber music series this season, premieres a new work by composer Andrea Casarrubios to kick off the new season at Bargemusic in New York, and will be featured in solo recitals with pianist Ilya Yakushev throughout the country including Jamestown (Rhode Island), Laguna Woods, and Sarasota. Past performance features include recitals at The Academy of Arts and Letters, Bay Chamber Concerts, University of Miami’s Signature Series, Columbia University, Flagler Museum, The Heifetz Institute, California Center for the Arts, Meadowmount School of Music, Strad for Lunch Series, International Beethoven Project, Perlman Music Program Alumni Recital, and major universities across the United States.

This season celebrates several new recording releases and subsequent tours, including albums with pianist Michelle Cann and with bandoneonist/composer JP Jofre. In the spring of 2023, Mesa was featured in an exclusive artist showcase on NYC’s classical station WQXR that included selections of his upcoming album of world-premiere recordings by Black and Latinx composers with Cann. He also has an album release scheduled with pianist Olga Kern in 2024 and with The Crossing Choir in 2025.

In the fall of 2018, Kyle Knox assumed the positions of Music Director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and Associate Conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Recent past and upcoming conducting credits include the Milwaukee Symphony (on both their Family and Connections concert series), the Madison Symphony’s Beyond the Score (including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4), their full annual Education Series (including their Fall and Spring Youth Concerts, Community Concerts, Symphony Soup, and the Bolz Final Forte), as well as Concert on the Green. In works for the stage, Kyle led Mark Adamo’s Little Women for Madison Opera, and later helped coordinate a studio artist showcase in the first ever collaboration between that company and WYSO. Other stage credits include Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, and Transformations with UW Opera, as well as Die Fledermaus, The Gondoliers and H.M.S. Pinafore with Madison Savoyards. Additionally he has conducted UW Music Clinic’s High School Honors Orchestra.

He was formerly a clarinetist with the Milwaukee Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, and Philadelphia Orchestras, and on faculty at UW-Milwaukee. His festival credits include Tanglewood, Spoleto (Italy), Santa Fe Chamber Music, and Bowdoin Summer Music Festivals, as well as the New York String Orchestra Seminar. He has recorded for the Koch and Naxos labels and has been featured numerous times on NPR’s Performance Today.

Kyle has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, Tan Dun, Sean Shepherd, Huang Ruo, and Jonathan Leshnoff, among many others. Nico Muhly’s chamber work Service Music (2004) was written for and dedicated to him. His debut album, a recording of Conrad Susa’s chamber opera Transformations (the work’s world premiere recording) was recently released on Spotify.

Kyle studied conducting with James Smith, and clarinet with Ricardo Morales and Yehuda Gilad. He holds degrees from Juilliard and UW-Madison.

2025 CLMF supporters receive early access to tickets for individual shows.
Individual tickets for the public go on sale on April 17th, 2025.

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