Present Music Announces Bold and Visionary New Season

MILWAUKEE, WI — Present Music, Milwaukee’s fearless contemporary music ensemble, proudly announces its 2025–26 season, an innovative lineup of concerts that celebrate cultural connection and musical exploration. Season subscriptions are available now, offering a front-row seat to some of the world’s most highly regarded composers and performers, in some of the city’s most breathtaking spaces.

For more than four decades, Present Music has filled a cultural void in Milwaukee with new sounds, ideas, and visions of what concert music can be. This upcoming season continues that tradition with a wide-ranging slate that includes a live-scored ciné-concert, a Valentine’s Day performance art piece, Mexican Day of the Dead festivities, a sonic exploration of the immigrant experience, and a special appearance by four-time GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble The Crossing.

“Our concerts reflect not only the amazing cultural and stylistic diversity of our times, but also the critical need for awareness and empathy,” said Eric Segnitz, Artistic Director of Present Music. “In addition to three exciting new commissions and a visit from a world-famous choir, we’ll offer a variety of multicultural music expressed in multidisciplinary ways; film, dance, art and poetry all contributing to a lively mix.”

Below is the complete 2025–26 concert season, curated to spark curiosity, exchange cultures, and meet the era we live in by reimagining what live music can be:

All Souls Eve
Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31st, 7:30pm
Milwaukee Art Museum

Featuring a new piece, “Music of the While” from Viet Cuong commissioned by Randal Lindert in honor of Cecile Cheng, and Christine Rundblad. Also: Mexican Day of the Dead festivities with music by Gabriela Ortiz and Miguel del Águila, and an Evan Chambers song-cycle, “The Old Burying Ground.” Presented in partnership with the museum’s exhibit “The Bradley Collection of Modern Art: A Bold Vision for Milwaukee.” Conducted by Deanna Tham.

Major Sponsors Ellen & Joe Checota’s
Thanksgiving: Of Being Numerous
Sunday, Nov. 23rd at 5:00pm.
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist

In partnership with the cathedral, this annual concert features Philadelphia’s four-time GRAMMY-winning choir The Crossing with a newly commissioned piece, “Of Being Numerous” by composer Christopher Cerrone, based upon the poetry of George Oppen and commissioned by Jan Serr & John Shannon. Caroline Shaw’s recent work “Ochre” will also be performed. Southern Ho Chunk family drum group, the Little Priest Singers will anchor the concert.

Avant-Garden of Love
Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13th-14th at 7:30pm
Jan Serr Studio

This popular concert returns with a new commission from composer and post-modern balladeer Corey Dargel, exploring how AI might misconstrue human emotions like love. There will also be the first Milwaukee performance of Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Double Sextet,” and performance art from avant-garde luminaries for a twisted Valentine’s Day.

Rituals, Spells and Charms
Friday and Saturday, March 20th-21st at 7:30pm
Jan Serr Studio

A ciné-concert conducted by David Bloom. Marking the arrival of spring will be a screening of “Radhe Rahde; Rites of Holi” about India’s colorful spring holiday with a live score from jazz great Vijay Iyer. Canadian composer Nicole Lizée will offer an ode to Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds,” and DJ-composer Jlin Patton’s funky “Little Black Book” will be choreographed.

Who Are You?
Friday, June 5th, 7:30pm
Milwaukee Art Museum

A program exploring immigrant experience conducted by David Bloom. Present Music will join composer-flutist-vocalist Nathalie Joachim in her recent “Ki Moun Ou Ye” digging into her Haitian-American heritage. Presented in partnership with the museum’s exhibit “Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery,” as well as their extensive Haitian art collection.

Subscriptions are on sale now and single tickets will become available on Monday, Sept.1st at presentmusic.org

In addition to this season’s offerings, Present Music has added a special concert, “Fragments of Time: the Violins of Hope,” 4:00pm on Friday, September 12th, 2025 at the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin. Featuring “Different Trains” by Steve Reich, works by Yotam Haber, and stories and instruments from a traveling Holocaust collection, this concert is intended to promote healing and understanding. Sponsored by Tim & Sue Frautschi and the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin.
Present Music’s 2025-2026 Season Features the work of:

Described as “alluring” and “stirring” (New York Times), the music of Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed several hundreds of performances worldwide. He is currently the Pacific Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence and serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Composition at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Christopher Cerrone is an internationally acclaimed, three-time GRAMMY-nominated composer whose works are utterly compelling and uniquely his own. Upcoming projects include the LA Philharmonic, Roomful of Teeth, and Present Music with The Crossing. He is a recipient of the 2025 Rome Prize and was a 2022 resident at the Laurent House Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. In 2021 Cerrone joined the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music at The New School.

Corey Dargel is a composer and songwriter whose music is imbued with a gentle assault on pop and classical idioms. The New Yorker calls Dargel “a baroquely unclassifiable composer of ingenious art songs.” According to the New York Times, he’s “original and consistently provocative…”  Salon says Dargel displays “the unmistakable complicating impulse and rococo ingenuity of a conservatory-trained new music-obsessed mind.” He has been the subject of in-studio interviews broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition and WNYC’s Spinning on Air, and done educational residencies at the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana and the New School.

Described by the New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, and multicultural gateway,” Vijay Iyer is a composer and pianist revered across multiple musical communities. His honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, three GRAMMY awards, the Alpert Award in the Arts, and was voted DownBeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year four times. He is also a prolific composer for classical ensembles, with works premiered by the London Philharmonic, Bang On a Can, ICE, and The Silk Road Ensemble. Mr. Iyer is a tenured professor at Harvard University.

Nathalie Joachim is a GRAMMY-nominated performer and composer. The Haitian-American artist is hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice” (The Nation). Her creative practice centers an authentic commitment to storytelling and human connectivity while advocating for social change and cultural awareness. Ms. Joachim is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Princeton University and is regularly commissioned to write for orchestras, instrumental and vocal ensembles, dance, and interdisciplinary theater. She is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum of Modern Art.

About Present Music:
Since its founding 1982, Present Music’s mission has been to commission and perform new concert music, bringing over 100 new works to life. Ensembles range from a core group of seven musicians to an ensemble of 20 or more. Present Music has had the privilege of working closely with many of the nation’s top composers, including John Adams, Henry Brant, David Lang, Caroline Shaw, Ingram Marshall, Missy Mazzoli, Bright Sheng, Roberto Sierra and Michael Torke.

The not-for-profit organization has a long and impressive track record for identifying outstanding talent early in the artists’ careers.  Present Music’s discography includes world premiere recordings on the Cantaloupe, New World Records, Argo, Albany, Aoede, Northeastern, Naxos and Innova labels. The group is led by Artistic Director Eric Segnitz and Conductor/Advisor David Bloom. Present Music was founded by conductor Kevin Stalheim, who was Artistic Director for the first 37 years of the ensemble’s existence until 2019.

www.presentmusic.org

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.