Present music

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Mission and History

Present Music is one of the leading ensembles specializing in new music in the United States. Its mission is to "engage artists and the audience in imaginative and provocative experiences with new music through ensemble performance and education." Founded and based in Milwaukee since 1982, Present Music has worked closely with many of the nation's most exciting and important composers, and has firmly established a large audience for new music in Milwaukee.

Present Music has toured extensively throughout the United States and has participated in several major international music festivals including the 1992 Interlink Festival of New American Music in Japan, the Bang on a Can Festival in New York City, with the Istanbul Symphony at the 1999 Istanbul International Music Festival and, most recently in Beijing and Shanghai, China. Present Music has also toured across the United States, including performances in New York and Memphis.

Present Music performs at a number of unique concert locations that include the new addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by the Spanish Architect Santiago Calatrava, Bader Hall at the Zelazo Center for the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the recently renovated St. John's Cathedral, and the First Unitarian Meeting House in Madison that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A listing of programming from past seasons can be found in the Archive.

Present Music has received numerous important national grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Reader's Digest / Meet the Composer Commissioning Program, the Aaron Copland Fund for American Music, as well as winning the ASCAP/CMA Adventuresome Programming award an unprecedented three times in the past seven years. The ensemble has been broadcast on National Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio.

At its heart, Present Music is Artistic Director Kevin Stalheim. Six times a year Stalheim develops a season of programs to be performed in Milwaukee by the Present Music ensemble, which ranges from a core group of seven musicians to an ensemble of twenty. The Ensemble expands and contracts to allow for a diversity of instrumental combinations and the requirements of each program. The artists that make up Present Music engage the audience in imaginative and provocative concert experiences that have been described as "crackling with wit and intelligence," "wildly varied," "fun," and "unpredictable." "Core" members of the group include the violinist Eric Segnitz, percussionist Terry Smirl, flutist Marie Sander, clarinetist Bill Helmers, cellist Karl Lavine, and pianist Phillip Bush.

Present Music is committed to the creation of new work and nurturing emerging composers, and has commissioned over 20 major new works in the past ten years. Composers who have worked in residence or have been commissioned by Present Music include John Adams, John Harbison, Michael Torke, Kamran Ince, Joan LaBarbara, Roberto Sierra, Bright Sheng, David Lang, Eleanor Hovda, Jerome Kitzke, Qu Xiaosong, Scott Lindroth, Lois V. Vierk, Daron Hagen, Mary Ellen Childs, Daniel Lentz, Jerome Kitzke, Juliet Palmer, Guy Klucevsek, and many others.

Educational Programs

In addition to its performance season, Present Music manages an education program having composers work "in residence" with young people, assisting them in composing and creating meaningful musical works. Called the Creation Project, the program culminates in public performances of the student compositions by student and professional musicians.

Engaging youth in imaginative and provocative experiences is part of Present Music's mission. Our education programs are designed to promote participation and discussion through interactive exercises and include repertoire from a wide variety of musical styles that have been influenced by world cultures and new technology. While focusing on the role of the composer through performance and demonstration, presentations also include discussion of multi-cultural influences and topics that are vital to the art of our day.

Through The Creation Project, Present Music brings the excitement of musical creativity to students in elementary and high school. Students are challenged to compose original music under the direction of a composer in residence. Student creativity is not bounded by their individual performance skills as members of the Present Music ensemble together with student musicians perform completed work. Just under 100 student composers participate in the program each year at local schools and organizations.

Present Music is proud to be a cultural partner in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Arts in Community Education Program (ACE) servicing students in grades K-8. ACE is based on the belief that integration of the arts within the daily curriculum is critical to a student's development of interdisciplinary and critical thinking, problem solving, self esteem, self-confidence, motivation, cooperation, listening, communication and creativity.

Connecting Students, Musicians, Composers and Audiences

The Present Music Creation Project is a partnership between Present Music, professional local composers, and several Milwaukee schools and community centers, to collaborate with them in creating, performing and responding to new musical works written by students, young people and living composers.

Schools, community centers, and their students will explore the creative process during a 10-week period by having composers work "in residence" with young people, assisting them in composing and creating meaningful musical works that will be performed and heard the public. The Creation Project will culminate in public performances of the student compositions by student and professional musicians for audiences that will include student peers, teachers, administrators, families and the general public.

Additional features of the Creation Project include:

• Present Music ensemble performing a concert of music by living American composers at each school

• National composers working in residence with Present Music will visit schools to discuss their music and careers

• Select student compositions will be performed on Present Music subscription concerts

• Student compositions will be performed at the biennial MPS city-wide music festival held in May of each year

• An exhibition of scores and audio tapes may be mounted at various schools, at Present Music concerts and at other public locations

Recordings

Present Music can be heard on eight compact disc recordings that include the composers Kamran Ince, Michael Torke, Jerome Kitzke, Kimmo Hakola, Daniel Lentz and Joseph Koykkar on the Argo, innova, Albany, and Northeastern labels.