Milwaukee Symphony's Speakeasy shows put audience onstage a few feet from great musicians

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra spent $90 million for a new concert hall so I could sit onstage about 10 feet away from one of the world's leading pianists.

Of course, the MSO didn't renovate a '30s movie palace with an Art Deco lobby into a concert hall just so I could get a closeup view of Vijay Iyer's left hand at work. Opening the Bradley Symphony Center was key to the orchestra's long-term survival strategy of maximizing the number of performances it could stage in a home of its own.

Iyer's concerts April 13 fell under the Speakeasy banner, one of the newest tines of MSO's multi-pronged effort to reach new audiences.

Ticketholders entered through an obscure side door on North 2nd Street, following instructions to use a secret knock — unless a friendly MSO hospitality staffer or security guard already had the door open, as they did when I arrived.

Most of us sat at tables on the stage floor itself, with additional seating in the choral loft at the back of the stage. Tickets included one free drink coupon.

Pianist Iyer, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Jeremy Dutton set up near the front lip of the stage, facing the tables with their backs to the theater seats in the concert hall. Taking a moment to absorb this unusual situation, Iyer joked that the darkened space behind him was a "gigantic bass cabinet."

About 180 patrons heard the two concerts by Iyer, one of the most adventurous jazz pianists and composers working today and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant."

"We feel like this set up … offers unique experiences for patrons to attend concerts in an active and intimate way, which is more formal than a club or bar, but less formal than a concert setting," MSO Director of Communications Erin Kogler wrote in an email message.

MSO President and Executive Director Mark Niehaus came up with the concept. It came from his annual practice of seeing local jazz trio The Commercialists play Vince Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown" Christmas music each holiday season. Once he bought out a performance at the small club where The Commercialists were performing so he could bring friends to the show.

The Commercialists performed MSO's first Speakeasy show in December, attracting nearly 330 people for two shows.

MSO plans to present more such Speakeasy shows. While Niehaus, a New Orleans native, loves this arrangement for jazz, he could also see small classical performances in this format.

"Why not have a classical artist who spends the weekend with us hang out for an extra day and do something neat on stage?" he said.

The Speakeasy series is not MSO's only small-scale initiative. Its Lynn Chappy Salon Series sets concerts by MSO musicians in private homes, such as an April 18 concert by principal cellist Susan Babini and first associate concertmaster Ilana Setapen. Salon concerts have a capacity of 40 to 100 people, depending on the size of the home.

As the MSO continues to move beyond the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, "we're a little bit more outward facing," Niehaus said. "I'm really looking forward to Chill on the Hill ... That's one of our favorite concerts of the year down in Humboldt Park."

Back in the day, Niehaus said, programming like Pops concerts and movies with orchestra would have been viewed as successful only if they enticed people to the classical concerts. That's not how he sees it today. People who go to Pops, films and other shows are part of the MSO family, too, he said.

Something is working, because the MSO's earned revenue, which includes concessions as well as ticket sales, is growing.

In the 2018-'19 season, which took place in the Marcus Performing Arts Center and was the last full season unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, MSO reported earned revenue of $3,891,906. Last season, in the Bradley Symphony Center, MSO reported earned review of $5,243,678. Projection for the current season is over $6 million, Kogler said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MSO Speakeasy shows put audience onstage, a few feet from musicians