Milwaukee Ballet Brings Back Orchestra

The Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra will play for The Nutcracker, the Milwaukee Ballet‘s traditional holiday show, this coming December, the Ballet has announced. The organization had previously announced that in order to cut costs, recorded music rather than a live orchestra would be used, as Urban Milwaukee was the first to report.

But today the Ballet offered this news flash: “We are now thrilled to share that thanks to the contribution of a first-time, anonymous donor, the Orchestra has been fully funded to play every public performance of The Nutcracker this season!

“We are deeply grateful for this incredibly generous donation and overjoyed to have the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra with us for the holidays. We also thank all of our dedicated subscribers, donors, and ballet enthusiasts for their continued patronage and support throughout challenging times.”

While the donation assures that the orchestra, which has performed with the ballet since 1970, will play this year, the organization had told the musicians union that it had decided to go without the orchestra for the next three years of The Nutcracker. So the issue will arise again in 2026.

“Even as we celebrate this unexpected gift,” today’s announcement by the ballet noted, “we ask audiences to be aware that the difficulty of rising operational costs outpacing revenue growth remains. This one-time full-coverage donation has provided relief for The Nutcracker‘s live music during the 2025-26 Season ahead, but we continue to face financial obstacles in the coming year.”