Author : Kirstin Roble

• Lifestyle July 30,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Think outside of the big-box | Shopping local boutiques

  While the days are still warm and sunny, take the opportunity to flip your wardrobe. Boutiques all along the Lake Michigan coast have opened their doors to shoppers, and there are great options for bargain hunters and fashionistas alike. For clothing, take a short trip up the interstate to Mequon. REDD Boutique, formally E Street Denim, features a plethora of popular and lesser known brands, inclu.... Read More
• Milwaukee, News July 04,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  First Stage Academy offers a dramatic summer camp

  Summer is here, and the familiar activities of the season are in full swing in Milwaukee. Head to Bradford Beach and you will find volleyball scrimmages all day long. Local beer gardens are filled to the brim, with customers sampling some of the finest beers that Milwaukee has to offer.  For students, summer often means summer camp. But not every camp requires you to head to the woods. One of the.... Read More
• LGBT, News, Progressive June 08,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Milwaukee theater groups embrace LGBT audiences

  As political climates have shifted decade by decade, the LGBT community has gone from a discriminated-against minority to a favored one to embrace, in some circles. In Milwaukee, one of those circles is the performing arts community, already seen as a stereotypical hub for queer artists and audiences. Many of Milwaukee’s theaters are making their implicit ties explicit, with a variety of events .... Read More
• Entertainment, Music May 23,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Present Music lets its ‘Nation’ pick its latest program

  This June, Present Music will end its season with a great evening of music. The twist? None of the audience members have any idea what they’ll be coming to see. "Present Music Nation" is the ensemble’s second version of this “choose-your-own-concert” format. They first tested it with Choose, a concert in June 2012 that also featured a program of audience-selected pieces. Audience develop.... Read More
• Entertainment, Music May 08,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Early Music Now teaches a clarinet history lesson

  In September 2013, Milwaukee’s Early Music Now offered audiences a unique history lesson. The subject: the clarinet and how the woodwind instrument evolved over several centuries.  But if you missed it, don’t worry. Early Music Now has put the class back on the curriculum and re-invited its de facto instructor, Eric Hoeprich, to teach us about the instrument through a wide sampling of music. .... Read More
• Entertainment, Music April 10,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Alverno uncovers music’s Quincy Jones

  Alverno Presents artistic director David Ravel went to DJ Jordan “Madhatter” Lee last year with a challenge: completely reinterpret the songbook of an American composer.  It was a tall order, but the collaboration turned out even larger than Ravel or Lee expected. “I thought about re-interpreting Michael Jackson’s music first after meeting with David Ravel,” Lee explains. “I didn’t .... Read More
• Entertainment, Music March 27,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Nearly 40 years strong, the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus sings its own tune

  Since 1976, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been a valued partner to its orchestra, performing alongside it whenever needed. On March 28 and March 29, the stage is their own. In "MSO a cappella," the chorus will perform a series of vocal works without the usual orchestral accompaniment. “This is not the first time we’ve done a concert like this,” said chorus director Lee Erickson.... Read More
• Entertainment, Stage March 13,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Skylight’s ‘Snow Dragon’ takes its first flight

  Skylight Music Theatre will take a bold step this month, staging its first world premiere opera since artistic director Viswa Subbaraman took over the company in 2013. The Snow Dragon, by Thai-American composer Somtow Sucharitkul, is a fantasy epic about a boy who can travel between his world and a realm of eternal cold — and also a real-world drama illuminating the sensitive issue of domestic .... Read More
• Entertainment, Stage February 26,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  Back to the fold | ‘Elmer Gantry’ returns to the Florentine

  In March 2010, the Florentine Opera took a risk on a new work. The opera, Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s Elmer Gantry, which had received its world premiere performance three years prior, took the stage that month to high acclaim from Milwaukee audiences. It was only a hint of what was yet to come. The Florentine’s recording of the opera won two Grammys — for best contemporary class.... Read More
• Entertainment, Music January 30,2015 by Kirstin Roble

  MSO performs Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Age of Anxiety’

  Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra veteran guest William Wolfram returns to Milwaukee on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7 to perform one of the best Leonard Bernstein pieces you may have never heard. Completed in 1949, The Age of Anxiety (Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2) drew inspiration from Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden’s poem of the same name. Bernstein said the Pulitzer Prize-winning poem left him “breathless�.... Read More