Local Talent: Milwaukee Musician Showcase Debuts at the Bradley Symphony Center
David Lewellen
PUBLISHED
Tagged Under: 2025.26 Season, Bradley Symphony Center, Community Engagement, Special Presentation
The Bradley Symphony Center is for everyone, not just the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
That has been the MSO’s vision since it moved into its own facility five years ago, and the upcoming Milwaukee Musician Showcase is a new way to invite the community into the building.
The free event on Friday, May 15, is designed to highlight the wide range of musicians in the city who do not play for the MSO. “We don’t celebrate ourselves enough in Milwaukee,” said Terrell Pierce, the MSO’s vice president of operations. “We wanted to create an opportunity for the musicians of Milwaukee to feel at home and perform here.” The concert hall is “not just for the MSO,” he said. “It’s a resource for the city of Milwaukee.”
The work of recruiting performers has largely fallen to Marquita Edwards, the MSO’s director of community engagement, who will also serve as the host of the concert. By putting the word out through her contacts, their networks, and advertising the event on digital platforms and social media, the MSO found a lineup of performers from many genres that will fill an evening of about two and a half hours.
“Our mission is to reach the community, and we have a diverse community,” Edwards said. “We’re here to provide music to the community, and we’re not so stuffy as to say that we’re exclusive. We want to be inclusive.”
Concertgoers will hear music for guitar, drumline, and jazz, as well as established volunteer classical groups such as the Concord Chamber Orchestra and the Black String Triage Ensemble.
Performers submitted clips of their work so that the symphony could do some screening for ability, and the slots filled up quickly. This year is the first for the showcase, although the kickoff to the symphony’s Bach festival two years ago bore some resemblance to this event. Pierce hopes that in the future, the pool of talent and interest will expand enough to make it an all-day celebration.
The showcase concert is one result of the MSO’s Community Advisory Council, a group of about 10 people of various ages and backgrounds that meet quarterly to help the organization broaden its reach. “They enjoy good music, and they understand the power of music,” Edwards said, “and they come up with ideas to deliver on our mission.”
When the MSO was a tenant at the Marcus Center, it sometimes had to find other performance venues out of necessity when other groups were using the building. But taking the show on the road is “still a part of our DNA,” Pierce said. “Now we can be more intentional about our partnerships. We’re always trying to find places to collaborate.”
The Bradley Symphony Center has also hosted groups such as the Festival City Symphony and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, and it has been rented by many touring acts. The MSO’s ownership of its own facility “has achieved key strategic growth in the orchestra’s operating model and ability to expand programming and audiences,” Pierce said. “And there’s still opportunity to build on that expansion.” He rattled off a list of upcoming nonmusical events that the concert hall will host — “and that’s not even mentioning how excellent it’s been from the orchestral side.”
“This is big,” Edwards said of the musician showcase. “We hope it will grow and give people with talent a chance to come and share with others. It’s a way to recognize their hard work and say, ‘We appreciate you.’”
