- [Announcer] Milwaukee PBS.

Our story is you.

(dramatic music) - American Dream was something that was so distant, but always colored with a certain sweetness.

(lively piano music) I'm Ken-David Masur, Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

(piano music continues) I grew up in the town of Leipzig in Germany, in the state of Saxony.

It was the second largest city after East Berlin and East Germany.

I was born in 1977, twelve years before the reunification.

My mother is a Japanese musician, singer.

She met my father, who is a conductor and who, at the time, was Music Director of the Kapellmeister, as we call it, of the Gewandhaus, one of the really great traditional orchestras in Germany, and they met in Rio de Janeiro.

For the most part, I really felt that I was this German kid.

And then occasionally, of course, people would point out that perhaps I didn't look as German as they did, being half Japanese and was sometimes called things.

But I grew up otherwise just like a German boy who loved everything that all of my friends loved.

I was my mother's only child, and so I was constantly trying to find friends, knocking on people's doors, even though I didn't know who would lived there, I just thought maybe there's somebody there to play with.

And it was a time when you could do that.

The American Dream seems something that everything regardless what it is, must be much better.

Life is better, music is better, food is better, colors are brighter.

And it was after the reunification, of course, that we saw more of what is the idea of the West and watching TV shows that would come over such, as a boy, I think one of the first things I remember seeing on TV was the sitcom Alf.

And yeah, it was one of my favorite things to watch as a boy.

We thought about imagery from America and, of course, when guests came from America to our home and brought, you know, candy and gifts and things that looked completely different.

I think that what we know from what came from America in terms of also jazz and things that I think my father would sometimes say, you know, here's a recording, or an LP of, you know, things like Duke Ellington.

(jazz music) I came to the United States, we came to New York when I was 13 years old, and I entered school there in New York, the German School of New York.

And it was difficult for me because I remember that when my father got the appointment to be Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, it was not an easy decision.

But when the decision was made, of course, he and my mother wanted to introduce me in a way that would ease me perhaps into this city and into the life that was so different from what I had known.

And so, as a young teenage boy, they brought me to New York City to live for a couple of weeks across from Lincoln Center in one of those hotels, and I remember because of jet lag, getting out of bed in the middle of the night, and it was on Broadway, and, of course, the street was so busy and noisy.

And the next day I said, "I'm not coming here".

I think my mother loved this after my reaction to not stay in the city, but to move just 30 minutes North of the city where you have more quiet, there's more peace, more nature.

That helped me ease into understanding that American life is more than just the hustle and bustle of New York City.

- [Interviewer] Do you have dual citizenship?

- No, but I'd like to.

I'm a German citizen with a Green Card, and because I'm now the only non-American citizen in my family, I've made plans to become a US citizen.

(soft orchestral music) For me, the American Dream was always something that was, I think an idea, a dream, and rooted in imagination, also a little bit of fantasy of what are perhaps your own hopes, even in music, just feeling free to try anything without being judged.

And during our daily lives, we are concerned with things, we are worried about things, but when we are all in the concert hall together, at least for those two hours, we know that we will have peace.

And I'm realizing that this is the same for the country, really, that is the home of the American Dream.

That the more freedom you're given, the more responsibility and the more challenges also you have with it.

And this is why it's become clear to me that actually our idea to keep up this imagination of what the American Dream is, is about bringing the people together on a personal level, in your neighborhood, in the communities immediately that we are connected with, family, and especially after all the recent events that we had to face, not taking things for granted, especially the things that are closest to you.

I think I've questioned the American Dream about... Is it really true that we can use the privilege that we've been given about freedom of speech and freedom of thought and of creativity in the right way without hurting one another.

And I think seeing that it's sometimes gone to a much more uncivilized form.

I think that every time that happens, and that we witnessed that, and that I see that the American Dream idea gets shattered and gets damaged in a sense.

And that's when I feel it's much more important to understand that we, on the inside, I think with a hope of coming together, a level of joy, positivity and with this feeling that we are all actually blessed to be given this life, and blessed to be given family and loved ones, and experience that and be able to share that with others, that we are responsible for that.

(upbeat orchestral music) - [Interviewer] So part of the American Dream is, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, what makes you happy?

- I think simple things, having the liberty to create, to do programming that brings voice to people who didn't have a voice perhaps, or not enough of a voice, to find out about the huge range of people and of cultures, to be able to do that through art and through music, and much of that has really started here in the United States.

I am living the American Dream, I'm living a dream.

I feel that I'm gifted with extraordinary performances, rehearsals, moments of music in the home with extraordinary musicians, especially here with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, in an extraordinary new concert hall, exploring some of the great music that has been written and that has not yet been written, and that I can be part of being in the process of being created.

And that is absolutely a dream come true, and I'm very grateful that I can do it here in Milwaukee.

- [Announcer] Milwaukee PBS.

Our story is you.