12 minute read

MSO Opens Virtual Season in the New Bradley Symphony Center

By Rick Walters

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) had hoped to open the 2020-21 season in October in spectacular fashion at the renovated 1930 Warner Grand Theater, now renamed the Bradley Symphony Center after the late philanthropists Harry and Peg Bradley. COVID-19, which has impacted nearly all performing arts groups, prevented that but is not the only factor. This summer, the building sustained millions of dollars in basement flooding damage in a storm. Delays are occurring as extensive repairs are underway concurrent with continuing construction.

The most overused word of 2020 must be “pivot,” and circumstances have forced the MSO to pivot. In August, MSO announced plans for an all-virtual season performed by scaled-down ensembles. MSO president and executive director Mark Niehaus stated, “While we wish we could be together sooner, we look forward to the day when we can officially open the doors of the Bradley Symphony Center to our community. It will be well worth the wait!”

Ticketed virtual performances will begin in the 1,650-seat Allen-Bradley Hall at the end of January, and MSO considers the possibility of socially distanced concerts; the complete season will be announced mid-November. Some works will highlight sections of the orchestra, as well as music by under-represented composers, such as Eleanor Alberga, Jessie Montgomery, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and James B. Wilson. More standard fare by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francis Poulenc, Henry Purcell and others will also be programmed.

NOT WHAT WAS ENVISIONED

Choosing repertoire for a chamber orchestra or chamber ensemble is vastly different from a typical MSO season, which features large-scale works, adding as many as 25 players to the 70-musician roster, and sometimes with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus of 150-plus voices on stage. It is not the season that music director

Ken-David Masur, who started with MSO last season, had envisioned. Nevertheless, he said, “…we will pour our hearts into creating a virtual season that will transcend our physical distance and continue the perpetual wonder that is music.”

The orchestra played an acoustical test in the Warner Grand Theater as long ago as 2001. In a recent Doors Open Milwaukee virtual tour, Niehaus stated that MSO began talking with architecture firm Kahler Slater six years ago about the combination of renovation and new design. One principal challenge was moving the historically protected million-pound back wall of the theater 35 feet to create a larger stage area. Architect Chris Ludwig spoke about the design of the contemporary south addition, which is connected to the restored original theater lobby: “The exterior glass enclosure features a unique art glass as a contemporary companion to its art-deco counterpart of the original Warner movie palace. The couple paired together provide a harmony of historic and modern.” An important benefit is the leading role the Bradley Symphony Center is playing in the revitalization of West Wisconsin Avenue.

EXCELLENT ACOUSTICS PROMISED

Niehaus visited other former movie theaters around the country that have been converted into concert halls. “Ours is the most shoebox shaped. Because it’s smashed in the middle of the block, [the original architects] were forced to create a theater that is long and skinny… For an orchestra, the optimum shape is a shoebox. All the great orchestra halls in the world are this shoebox shape.” The concert-going public anticipates what are promised to be excellent acoustics, which are certainly much better for unamplified orchestral sound than in the multi-purpose Uihlein Hall.

MSO has made efforts to post online content, including 20 programs to stream on mso.org through December, as well as the 2020 Radio Broadcast Series with WFMT. The musicians have been on furlough for the last few months, something that is unfortunately common to performing arts organizations across the country. Benefits have remained in place, and furloughed employees are eligible for unemployment compensation. Most players are teaching lessons online, and some are teaching in person with distancing. Some have created online performances of various kinds, including MSO musicians performing in a recent virtual Frankly Music concert of chamber music. The official MSO Facebook page is active, as is the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Musicians Facebook page. The orchestra’s YouTube channel lists dozens of videos.

In the early weeks of the pandemic when we were all trying to adjust to a restless new normal, I received a text from an MSO musician that simply said, “You’ve probably seen this.” I had not. I was caught completely off guard when I opened the link to see and hear MSO players—each individually in a Brady Bunch-style video box—in a beautifully edited account of the soulful “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. I burst into sobs, realizing how much I miss MSO concerts.

Rick Walters is vice-president of the classical division at Hal Leonard LLC, and has written classical reviews for the Shepherd Express for more than 20 years.

THIS MONTH IN MILWAUKEE 15 THINGS TO DO THROUGH DECEMBER 6

BY HARRY CHERKINIAN, ALLEN HALAS AND DAVID LUHRSSEN

CACTUS CLUB’S DIGITAL DREAM (SATURDAY NIGHTS ON VIMEO)

In an effort to keep providing Milwaukee with great local music, Cactus Club has shifted programming online in addition to regular carryout orders from their Bay View location. Digital Dream is an online streaming series featuring performances from Milwaukee artists on a weekly basis. The club streams four days per week on average right now, including concerts on the weekends and Reachout Radio DJ sets on Friday nights. You can get the full schedule of digital programming at cactusclubmilwaukee.com.

THE COOPERAGE’S COVID COUCH SERIES (SATURDAYS, 9 P.M. ON INSTAGRAM LIVE)

The Cooperage is a staple of Milwaukee’s live scene, normally offering high-quality concerts of the local and touring variety out of their Walker’s Point location. The venue’s Covid Couch Series features a weekly athome concert via Instagram Live, keeping Milwaukee’s local acts performing on a regular basis. The streams can be found on The Cooperage’s Instagram page: @cooperagemke.

THROUGH NOVEMBER 28 “SEAMS: CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE ARTISTS” @ PORTRAIT SOCIETY GALLERY

In an online post during election season, gallery director Debra Brehmer spoke of the world “as a place that was unravelling.” Little wonder that she would gravitate toward “SEAMS,” a body of work by 17 artists in which everything is “stitched together in some way, with”—those missing elements in our nation’s leadership—“care, civility, dignity.” The quilts on display come in various sizes. Among the largest is Heidi Parkes’ I Know the Stars are There Beyond the Clouds (2016), a piece that strives to match its title by touching the ceiling and trailing onto the floor below. Portrait Society is open noon5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday and by appointment.

THROUGH JANUARY 23, 2021 “SILHOUETTE: CAPTURING THE HUMAN FORM IN CONTEMPORARY PRINTS AND ART JEWELRY” @ RACINE ART MUSEUM

The human form has interested artists since art began as prehistoric cave drawings. The idea of depicting the human form in the dark outlines of silhouettes became popular in the 19th century. The current exhibition at RAM draws from the museum’s permanent collection to explore the “human form as a compositional element, storytelling device or representation of an idea.” It’s a wide ambit to be sure, and it includes colorful textured figures in jewelry and fragmented figures in black and white prints. RAM is open Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m.

STREAMING NOVEMBER 7 FLANNEL FEST 2020

Normally one of the premier music events of the fall, Boone & Crockett are going virtual with this year’s edition of Flannel Fest. This year’s livestream will benefit The Cooperage as well as the National Independent Venue Association, featuring performances from local headliners including WebsterX, Astral Hand, You Win!!!, SistaStrings and more. Supporters can purchase Flannel Fest merchandise and hot toddy specials at Boone & Crockett leading up to the streaming event on November 7.

STREAMING NOVEMBER 11 DEWITT CLINTON ZOOM READING SPONSORED BY BOSWELL BOOK CO.

In his latest poetry collection, By a Lake Near a Moon: Fishing with the Chinese Masters, Milwaukee’s DeWitt Clinton adapts verse from classical Chinese poets, respectful of their imagery and sense but with a contemporary word-pictures and sensibility. Tang dynasty poet Tu Fu (712-770) never referred to Fox News or the weather report or described the sound of car tires in the winter slush. Clinton isn’t the first American poet to look to China, but he took his lead not from Ezra Pound but Kenneth Rexroth’s 1971 collection One Hundred Poems from the Chinese. “I became quite enthralled with each one, and so I began writing ‘response’ poems to a few of his translations,” Clinton explains, “finding them engaging, tender, sublime… I became spellbound by them.” Go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/ meeting/register/tZAsf--ppzosE9OzN7JuaSQu7G6UD6Avy-s

NOVEMBER 19-JANUARY 1, 2021

HOLIDAY LIGHTS Normally, there would be a kickoff extravaganza in Pere Marquette Park to mark the start of Holiday Lights, but what’s normal in 2020? This year, the performances will be broadcast by WISN 12 starting at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, as the bright lights switch on across Cathedral Square (“Community Spirit Park”), Pere Marquette (“Tinsel Town Express”) and Zeidler Union Square (“Plaza Powered by We Energies”). Instead of the usual Jingle Bus ferrying festivalgoers, a self-guided virtual tour with interactive map will be available. Pedestrians can check out window displays with the likenesses of famous Milwaukeeans on and around East Wisconsin Avenue. And Jingle Joy gift boxes can be purchased at a drive-through in Zeidler Union Square, 5:30-8:30p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, Dec. 3-9. For more, visit milwaukeeholidaylights.com.

STREAMING NOVEMBER 22FEBRUARY 22, 2021 PRESENT MUSIC, “THANKSGIVING: WHEREIN LIES THE GOOD”

Present Music’s annual Thanksgiving concert has joined The Rep’s A Christmas Carol and the Milwaukee Ballet’s Nutcracker as the city’s seasonal hallmarks in performing arts. With the pandemic threat hanging over indoor events, Present Music swapped its usual Downtown setting in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist for a Zoom video. As always, the program strives for transforming what began as a WASP history lesson into an inclusive event representing the full spirit of giving thanks. This year’s concert includes Alex Weiser’s “and all the days were purple” sung in English and Yiddish by soprano Eliza Bagg; the world premiere of Mark Stewart’s “To Whom It May Concern, Thank You”; and work by Robin Holcomb and Michael Torke along with performances by the event’s annual mainstay, the Bucks Native American Singing and Drumming Group.

STREAMING NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 13 NEXT ACT THEATRE, THE CHRISTIANS

Playwright Lucas Hnath takes us straight into a contemporary mega church of today, which features a congregation of thousands, a vestibule coffee shop and a baptismal font the size of a swimming pool. Quite a change for its pastor, Paul, who started out in a tiny storefront 20 years earlier. It’s finally mortgage burning day, but Pastor Paul will give a sermon that will “shock his flock” during the live church service and challenge their faith in this virtual production.

NOVEMBER 28

SMALL BUSINESS

SATURDAY

The odds seem stacked against locally owned small businesses, pitted for attention against big box stores, shopping malls and—increasingly— internet sales. Small

Business Saturday began in 2009 as a way of drawing attention back to the sort of shops that endow cities and neighborhoods with character by owners who know and care about their goods and services. “Supporting Small Business Saturday is equivalent to supporting your community,” says Rachel Taylor, executive director of the Brady

Street BID. “With the many struggles of operating a business during the COVID pandemic, it’s more important than ever that people support the businesses in their community, so that the community can continue to be vibrant and strong.”

“Supporting local small businesses is more important than ever this year,” adds Missy Hughes, decretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the state’s leading economic development organization. “Small businesses employ nearly 90% of Wisconsin’s workers, so shopping with them is really an investment in our communities. Our Main Street Marketplace online shopping portal, mainstreetwi.com, makes it easy to shop the best Main Street retailers around the state—all in one day.” Think global, shop local!

CHRISTMAS CAROL

While A Christmas Carol’s Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and those three ghosts socially distance from the stage this holiday season, The Rep gives us a glimpse into “the other side of the darkness” that is Jacob Marley’s soul. In an intimate, one-character presentation, veteran actor Lee E. Ernst shows us what happened to Scrooge’s partner in the afterlife in Tom Mula’s fascinating perspective of the infamous lost spirit seeking redemption. A team of medical and technical experts worked together to devise a safe and healthy plan for this live show. STREAMING DECEMBER 3

ARTISTS” @ JEWISH MUSEUM MILWAUKEE

Joseph Stalin called artists “the engineers of the human soul.” He put great stock in their work, respecting and fearing their influence to shape or undermine his vision for the world. Under the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe, artists were regimented and censors were ready to pounce, albeit the rules loosened, tightened and shifted according to the changing dictates from the Kremlin. UW-Milwaukee Associate History Professor Christine Evans will discuss how dissenting artists such as Luba Lukova, currently featured at the museum, navigated the shoals of censorship.

STREAMING DECEMBER 4-14 FIRST STAGE, THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Considered to be William Shakespeare’s first play, the comedy was also one of the first to explore the playwright’s later themes of actors reversing gender roles. As a First Stage Young Company performance project, the focus is actor-driven with minimal production values. The emphasis is all on the words and language, which for Shakespeare and First Stage fans provides all the entertainment needed to add some classic theater to your holiday viewing.

DECEMBER 4-13 MEMORIES DINNER THEATER, ANOTHER NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Echoing upon the themes of cynicism versus belief first seen in the holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street, this musical comedy brings us to more current times. Karol, a disillusioned social worker, meets an elderly man sitting alone on a park bench. Thinking he’s homeless, she offers him food and ends up with an uninvited “houseguest” due to a malfunctioning security system. Is this Kris Kringle or just a kindly old man? Find out as Karol confront her feelings about the true meaning of Christmas. Food safety and social distancing procedures are in place at

DECEMBER 1-24

MILWAUKEE REP, JACOB MARLEY’S

this Port Washington venue.

STREAMING DECEMBER 6 JIM BRICKMAN, “COMFORT AND JOY AT HOME!”

Ever the holiday trooper, Jim Brickman brings his Christmas classics back to the Marcus Center, virtually this time around, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6. The pianist will be playing a number of his own seasonal creations, such as “The Gift,” “Sending You A Little Christmas,” “Angel Eyes” and “If You Believe.” A portion of each ticket purchased will be donated to the Marcus Performing Arts Center. So, join in the holiday spirit and have yourself a “Merry Brickman Christmas” while

“ART UNDER COMMUNISM: UNOFFICIAL

helping out an arts organization. 7 p.m., jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.

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