Photo by Ming Liu
In life, there are endless choices to be made – every day you are forced to make hundreds of them. What to wear. What to eat. What to do. What to say. What music to play at Present Music’s 30th Anniversary concert.
Wait, what?
That’s right. Present Music is giving the power to the audience at the aptly titled concert Choose on Saturday, Jan. 7. Through e-mail blasts and online voting, Present Music fans chose six contemporary music selections, which will be revealed at the concert. The songs fell into categories such as wild, gritty, rhythmic, light, delightful, goofy, clever, haunting, beautiful, mellow and contemplative. Though voting has closed, you can preview all of the music choices here. You’ve probably never heard of any of the composers, but it’s more exciting this way because the results are totally unpredictable.
“I am a very opinionated artistic director and thought it would be fun to give the audience members a chance to see what I do,” says artistic director Kevin Stalheim. “I wanted people to research the music and get an insight into my job.
“It’s very uncommon for a performing group to do this – it’s kind of like a radio request show,” he adds. “We hope to do this again for sure.”
The concert will showcase seven different pieces, including Donald Erb’s Souvenir, which also relies on audience participation. This musical extravaganza, complete with neon ping-pong balls, black lights, balloons and silly string, will feature the 11-member Present Music ensemble and 15 additional amateur instrumentalists from the audience (chosen prior to the concert). These performers will create sound effects with their own instruments – whatever may be on hand, like that rusty trumpet laying around the house from middle school band. “The piece is played in the dark and starts off soft and mysterious, goes to strange and ethereal, then grows over seven minutes to pure pandemonium,” says Stalheim.
Present Music has already had quite the season with a world premiere at the Water concert in August and the forthcoming world premiere of Buffalo Nation in April, one of the largest commissions in Present Music history.
“In general we’ve just been thinking big, doing big things all year to commemorate this anniversary,” Stalheim says. “We want to show Milwaukee that we might be getting older, but we are still thinking about the future.”
Choose is also a celebration of the Shepherd Express’ 30th birthday. “The Shepherd and Present Music are the same age and we’re kindred spirits,” says Stalheim. “When I talked to them and told them what I wanted to do they joined – simple as that. They like what we do and have always supported us.”
Tickets for the concert and after party (which will include free food, a birthday cake and music from the polka band The Squeezettes) are $15, $25 and $35 (students are half price, but must order by phone). Click here to purchase advance tickets or purchase at Turner Hall Ballroom starting at 6:30 p.m. on January 7. Call 414-271-0711 for more information.
One More Not To Miss
Next to Normal is running through Jan. 15 at The Milwaukee Rep – Hurry, it’s almost over! Straight off of Broadway, it’s be receiving rave reviews in Milwaukee, too. I went to check it out and can say the hype is legit. Though it’s a dark musical about one family’s crisis, the pop-rock score is incredible.
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9: Whitechapel, Impending Doom, Miss May I, Oceano, I Declare War at The Rave ($16)
Saturday, Oct. 23: Blonde Redhead and Pantha du Prince at Turner Hall, 8 p.m. ($18)
