"Make Milwaukee": Week 1 | Present Music's "Wild Man" Stalheim

 

Listen: I love Present Music. Their concerts are always engaging, their approach to putting together performances is dead on, and everybody involved in the organization is really cool. Of course, that doesn't mean that I should just go out and feature them for the campaign. Fortunately, they made Rick's list of what makes Milwaukee a creative place. So how do we go about featuring a group that plays new composer-based music? While Rick is a big fan of Present Music's music, it's the spectacle that keeps him coming back to their concerts. And at the center of that spectacle is Present Music's Artistic Director, Kevin Stalheim. When we first contacted Present Music for this interview, Kevin was up north getting some cross country skiing in, so the idea was in danger of falling flat. Refusing to accept defeat, Rick and I tried to organize an interview with Kevin on his cell phone while he was in the process of skiing. Thankfully for us, he got warmed out and came back to town. So on an early Sunday aftenoon, Rick and Kevin talked about doing flips off of stages: