David Jensen

writer • music historian • pianist

David Jensen is a freelance writer, music historian, and musician based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As publications manager for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he provides original program notes for all of the orchestra’s classical subscription performances, historical essays about the orchestra and its chorus, and editorials for local print publications. His work is regularly read by thousands of concertgoers each season in Encore, the MSO’s playbill, a periodic publication of which he manages all aspects of compilation, editing, and production. In honor of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus’ landmark 50th anniversary in 2026, he researched, sourced original archival materials, and produced historical essays for Celebration of Song: A History of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, a retrospective booklet paying tribute to the nationally acclaimed chorus and documenting its rise to fame.As archivist and historian for the orchestra, David’s work has helped to preserve the MSO’s artistic legacy. He maintains the institution's archives, housed at the Bradley Symphony Center, preserving thousands of press clippings, film photographs, concert programs, documents, and recordings dating back to the orchestra’s inception in 1959. He’s given presentations on the orchestra’s history, overseen archival installations, and completed the MSO’s digital performance record by compiling data from the orchestra’s first thirty seasons of concertizing, distilled from thousands of pages of program books.David received his Bachelor of Music degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he studied harmony and voice leading, ear training, music history, philosophy, and literature. A passionate advocate for the viola, he served as the principal violist of the college's premier symphonic ensemble, the Concordia Orchestra, while simultaneously working as a section violist for the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. He studied historical musicology as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served both as a teaching assistant for the sophomore survey of Western music history as well as a student library assistant at Mills Music Library, the university’s academic music library and the largest such institution in the state of Wisconsin.In his spare time, David enjoys reading, film photography, yoga, meditation, spending time in the natural world, and playing the piano. In May 2026, he made his debut as a pianist at the Bradley Symphony Center as part of the venue’s very first Milwaukee Musician Showcase, playing works by Yann Tiersen, Clara Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Maurice Ravel. The “quiet, captivating sentiment” of his performance was noted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which praised the “gentle elegance he brought to his interpretations.”

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