Quality '07 performances were not in short supply

By Tom Strini - JS Online
Posted: Dec. 24, 2007
Original Story URL: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=699208

Milwaukeeans never tire of saying that the quantity and quality of our performing arts outshine those of cities twice our size.

We keep saying that because it's true. This year's top 10 list for classical music and dance could have been a top 20.

1. Present Music Thanksgiving program, Nov. 18, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Artistic director Kevin Stalheim has taken Milwaukee on an extraordinary, decades-long musical adventure, and not only through the vast range and number of new compositions he's commissioned.

Stalheim has also reached out for fruitful collaborations with other groups around town. On Nov. 18, the most significant of many collaborators were conductor Sharon Hansen and her Milwaukee Choral Artists. They joined . . . the Present Music ensemble and various guest artists in a rare and exquisite performance of Messiaen's "Trois petites liturgies de la presence divine."

Hansen, also director of choirs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is one of the finest conductors I know. She had complete command of this difficult score and great feeling for its profound beauty.

MCA ANNOUNCES ITS VERY
FIRST CD!
"Exultate: The Music of Milwaukee's School Sisters of St. Francis"
Recorded Live October 16, 2004

CLICK HERE - ORDER NOW!

Read some recent reviews of Milwaukee Choral Artists concerts. Click here to read the reviews.