Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra — Local services in Milwaukee

We recently attended the Black Panther film performance and sound bites dinner at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony Center is a beautiful, massive space great for any event. They open up early before the performances to allow guests to grab a drink, snack, or mingle with others. There is a couple bar and snack area open to purchase items.

TLDR: Sound bites dinner: 4/10 MSO performance and experience: 10/10

We arrived 90 minutes early for the Sound Bites dinner and were seated at our own table in a separate section of the dining area. The tables were huge for two people and I felt a little far away from my husband. Everyone was seated and a little confused on how the dinner was going to go. We snacked on some hors d'oeuvres and got our drinks before dinner was served. There were crackers, cheese, vegetables, salmon bruschetta, a salad, and vichyssoise (potato soup). Soon after, we were served our appetizer, ratatouille, which was very good. Next was beef and fries with some sauce, then a pork chop and piece of casserole to share. It was difficult to know what we were eating as they only thing we were told what it was, was the ratatouille. Also, about halfway through the dinner our waitress that we had disappeared and another person came to to serve us. We were kind of getting ready to leave, since she wasn't there, but then another person came out to give us more food. The whole experience lacked information. We weren't given a menu of what we were eating before we starting eating, we were only told what one dish was, and we weren't sure how many courses/plates of food we would be getting. It would be nice to get an email leading up, a print out, or at the very least told what we would be eating to prepare. We ended up not eating a lot of the last dish since we had filled up on the others, thinking that was it. The food was mediocre, and I was not sure how it was chosen, by what the performance is? seasonal items? It would've been cool if the chef came out and announced anything. I would've been more satisfied going to the food and beverage cart and not doing the formal dinner. It wrapped up about 5 minutes before we headed to our seats, due to the delays with the waitstaff and no one knowing if we needed to stay for another surprise plate of food. I would not do the Sound bites experience again.

The performance hall is a beautiful restoration and space. The seats are comfortable and have enough space. We sat on the lower level and had a great view of the stage and move screen. I would like to try sitting up on the balcony to see all of the performers. The whole performance was great, we had a special guest appearance from Massamba Diop, playing the Senegalese talking drum that is featured in the film. The orchestra played SO well, you wouldn't know the difference. It was a fantastic experience and will love to go back to see...

The MSO has been my home for the past 15 years and now fully controls their own symphony hall, the Bradley Symphony Center, a state of the art renovated 1920’s movie theater in downtown Milwaukee. They perform a variety of repertoire from standard classics like Beethoven’s Ninth to new works by composers of all ethnicities and genders. The MSO’s Educational programming reaches thousands of school kids each year by bussing classes into their beautiful performance space and giving students the opportunity to hear world class music in a fun and engaging way. The Pops programming brings in nationally renowned artists and singers from Broadway to the bands like Violent Femmes and Stewart Copeland. The Film series is a must go as the orchestra performs the complete soundtrack of composers like John Williams to blockbuster movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Back to the Future, Elf and more as these movies are played on a gigantic screen in the symphony hall. Each concert provides a wide variety of repertoire and the atmosphere is clean, light, open, casual, friendly, and not overly stuffy or complex. Highly recommend this orchestral experience to anyone looking to hear and experience one of the nation’s ascending orchestras in arguably Wisconsin’s best acoustically sounding...

I am a subscriber, this is my first year.

ANY city's orchestra is a treasure, but this level of world class talent and repertoire is usually only found in state-capitols or "major" cities! With the addition of the new Symphony Center DOWNTOWN this was shaping up to be an INCREDIBLE season!

Then... COVID.

I almost took away one star because of how confusing their website was, and how their mailings were vague and it seemed the goalposts kept moving... but this was not a typical year! And with the pandemic and a new facility under construction I'll give it to them. ❤️ The box office is not always open (COVID again) but when you get them on the phone they are very helpful. If you leave a message they DO call back!

Eventually they had us rank five concerts from the season we wanted to attend, mail that in, and we will be receiving tickets to two of them. Meanwhile they are streaming all concerts to subscribers. As a concert sound engineer I can say the stream sounds EXCELLENT, and is beautifully shot. They are archived on the subscriber's website for repeat viewing, though I do not know for how long...

I am VERY looking forward to my first concert in the new hall, and to renewing my subscription next year to keep my...