Present Music joins Milwaukee Public Museum for unique concert

Present Music is joining forces with the Milwaukee Public Museum to present an evening of unusual and engaging musical exploration of some of MPM’s most popular exhibits.

The ensemble’s Time, Nature, Culture, Sound — An Exploratory Concert will fill the museum’s halls, exhibits and lecture areas with both contemporary and ancient music designed to engage concertgoers in new dimensions of discovery.

The April 29 program is a first for both organizations.

At first, Kevin Stalheim — Present Music’s artistic director — perceived the logistical limitations of the museum’s narrow hallways and crowded exhibit spaces and concluded the idea of a concert there was impractical. A Present Music fan who also is a museum volunteer convinced him otherwise.

As he spent time with the museum’s exhibits, Stalheim said, “I saw all these cool places that started to excite my imagination and had me conjuring up all possible sounds. Once I started walking around, I was hooked.”

Stalheim approached MPM president and CEO Dennis Kois, who proved very receptive to the idea.

The 7 p.m. concert begins and ends on MPM’s ground floor, where a display of ancient instruments will greet concertgoers. The crowd will be divided into groups that will begin at different points within the museum and travel from one exhibit and musical performance to another.

Some areas have permanent seating, but in others seating will be limited, with much of the audience encouraged to examine the exhibit while the musicians perform.

The evening will end with a Latin jazz performance for all concertgoers.

Evoking the past, imagining the future

Stalheim’s concert planning experience took him in musical directions he hadn’t before explored and exposed him to ancient instruments with which he had little prior experience. To evoke the spirits of some of MPM’s most ancient exhibits, he called on instruments first created thousands of years ago, while more contemporary and futuristic portions of the programs had him looking ahead to synthesizers and electric guitars.

“The time span of this concert is enormous,” he says. “We go from music representing the beginning of time to music of the future. My hope is that the unique combination of new and ancient sounds within the exhibits will create an enticing and contemplative experience.”

Stalheim got caught up in the study of ancient instruments, including bone flutes and conch shells, in developing the evening’s musical agenda. Music performed on a Peruvian water vessel flute also is part of the program.

“I really got hooked on the Aztec death whistle, which sound a lot like human screaming,” he adds. “The Aztecs used it in ceremonies and when going to war.”

The instruments will be used in modern compositions, which Stalheim hopes will create soundscapes that add to the ambience of the various exhibit settings.

‘A spirit of contemplation and imagination’

Many of the museum’s exhibits will be enlivened with carefully chosen music.

Local percussionists Julio Pabon, Bony Plog-Benevides and Mitch Shiner will perform in the Pre-Columbian American exhibit using instruments and replicas dating as early as 20,000 B.C.

Chicago-based contemporary music collective Ensemble Dal Niente will perform composer Ashley Fure’s “Something to Hunt” in the prehistoric Hell Creek exhibit. Stalheim says the music reflects the predatory activity in the gory dinosaur tableau.

Traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian music and dance will be performed by Malia Chow and Hale O Malo in the Pacific Islands exhibit. Other evening highlights include the Present Music Ensemble performing George Crumb’s hauntingly beautiful “Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)” and, in the museum’s Woodland wildlife area, a performance of “Strange Birds Passing” written for eight flutes.

One of the evening’s most interesting compositions is reserved for the Rain Forest exhibit. Present Music commissioned a work by composer and Grammy Award–winning pianist Cory Smythe, which was inspired by the sounds of nature and features nature itself.

“The music was written for ‘amplified plant,’” Stalheim says. “There is a special microphone you can hook up that will capture the sounds made by a plant. There’s also is a piece written for a musical saw, and taken together they represent the growth and destruction of the rain forest.”

The evening’s big unknown for Stalheim is how the museum’s acoustics will respond to the instruments’ sounds. Areas like the Dome Theater, which will host visuals of the cosmos while futuristic music plays, will be reliable. Other locations have Stalheim scratching his head.

“The acoustics change everywhere you go, and we won’t be able to rehearse on-site until right before the performance,” he explains. “The groups will have from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. to get used to the space, but that’s it.”

Regardless of — or perhaps because of — the acoustical challenges, Stalheim believes this will be one of Present Music’s most unique performances, as well as something special for Milwaukee music and museum fans.

“Some people are going to see this as ‘party at the museum,’ but this program was conceived in the spirit of contemplation and imagination,” Stalheim says. “Our fans will know what to expect, but others new to us really won’t know what they’re getting into.”

On Stage

Present Music’s Time, Nature, Culture, Sound — An Exploratory Concert is at 7 p.m. April 29 at various locations in the Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W. Wells St. Single tickets are $25, with half-price student tickets available with a valid student ID. To purchase tickets, go to presentmusic.org or call 414-271-0711.