Creation Project

The Present Music Creation Project is a partnership between the Milwaukee-based leading new music ensemble Present Music, professional local composers, and Milwaukee schools and community centers, to collaborate in creating, performing, and responding to new musical works written by students and living composers.

Present Music’s well-established Creation Project places composers with Milwaukee-area schools and community organizations to assist students in creating their own meaningful musical works through individualized composition mentor sessions. The program culminates in a public performance of the students’ compositions performed by Present Music’s professional musicians, typically a string quartet. Programs often include collaborative side-by-side performances of student compositions by students and Present Music musicians together, and also include student participants experiencing and engaging in a studio recording session of their newly composed works played by Present Music musicians at Milwaukee’s own professional recording studio, Tanner-Monagle Studio.

Upon completion of the intensive 10- to 15-week residency, Milwaukee students in grades 6 through 12 learn how harmony and melody interact; how to construct rhythm; the significance of musical form/composition theory; how to orchestrate for an ensemble; how to express their own voices and communicate through music; how to collaborate, problem solve, and publicly present their work; and they gain a deep appreciation and understanding of the creative composition process.

Students gain the opportunity to connect with their own artistry and realize their musical potential through the Creation Project, composing their works side-by-side with professional musicians and hearing their own music and the music of their peers come to life.

Present Music collaborates with Milwaukee Public Schools, including our long-time partner Reagan High School, and other organizations in Milwaukee for the Creation Project each year, working closely with school district/organization staff to identify schools and individual students that can most benefit from the Creation Project.

Healing Harmonies

Supporting its mission through outreach, Present Music has partnered with the music therapy center Healing Harmonies to enrich the lives of individuals with adaptive needs through live music and music therapy.

Present Music provides inclusive, interactive music programming for adults with a wide range of adaptive needs at Healing Harmonies. Participants are adults between the ages of 18 and 65 who have a special needs diagnosis that may include cognitive, motor, emotional, psychosocial, and/or behavioral delay. Participants come to Healing Harmonies from diverse Milwaukee communities, and many are transported from organizations that serve the special needs community including St. Coletta and Project STRIVE.

Musicians from Present Music work closely with resident music therapists from Healing Harmonies to create a curriculum of music activities tailored to each participants’ unique needs. Sessions include performance of live music by Present Music musicians coordinated with joyful activities led by music therapists that are designed to help individuals with special needs develop their motor skills, improve social communication, and express emotions.

Music therapy activities in the program also help adults with physical and developmental disabilities to move more freely and increase their self-confidence. Over a period of 8 to 12 weeks, participants deepen their connection to music in a social setting with a small group of their peers. The length of each series of classes allows for relationship building and repetition of playful musical activities, helping participants grow their skills and gain confidence.

Participants in the program experience the well-documented socio-emotional and cognitive benefits of music as a result of the program.

ComposeMKE

ComposeMKE participants collaborate to create an imaginative piece of new music that they can perform. Over course of six to ten workshops, a professional composer will work with sounds that are meaningful to the participants and introduce them to various styles of contemporary music.  The composer will lead a group of 15 to 20 participants and facilitate a creative composition process.  Participants DO NOT need prior musical training.