Local music on stage
Exhibit highlights 200 years of melodies and memories
Their profession aside, hymn writer Anna Hoppe, pioneering electronic composer Otto Luening, “Wake Up Little Susie” co-writer Felice Bryant and jazz singer Al Jarreau all have something in common: Milwaukee was their home.
Those musicians are among the dozens spotlighted in a new Milwaukee County Historical Society exhibit, “Melodies and Memories: 200 Years of Milwaukee Music.”
A year in the making, “Melodies and Memories” follows the template for last year’s “Brew City MKE: Craft, Culture, Community,” covering a broad topic aimed to intrigue a wide audience, said Historical Society Executive Director Mame McCully.
“When people think of history they think of what’s gone,” McCully said. “This exhibit celebrates Milwaukee history, but is relevant to people today.”
Ben Barbera, the society’s curator of collections, concedes the two-story exhibit couldn’t cover everything. The exhibit has a glass case just inside the entrance that will feature a rotating display of overlooked Milwaukee music history stories and artifacts. (Suggestions can be emailed to info@milwaukeehistory.net.)
Still, “Melodies and Memories” is comprehensive and illuminating. It covers Milwaukeearea music industry players such as headphones manufacturer Koss and sheet music publisher Hal Leonard, and venues past and present, from the Milwaukee Exhibition Hall to the Pabst Theater. It explores ethnic music, spanning from Native American to polka, and religious music figures like Michael Nemmers, a composer for the Catholic Church who settled in Milwaukee in 1885.
Classical music contributors are celebrated, including John-David Anello, founder of the Florentine Opera; Tin Pan Alley songwriter Charles K. Harris and the Milwaukee Police Band, the oldest in the country. The Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, local jazz veteran Manty Ellis, Country Music Hall of Famer Pee Wee King, cabaret singer Hildegarde and onetime Capitol Records act the Legends all get their due.
Barbera scoured through the society’s archive of 60,000 items to pull out music artifacts like a zither-mandolin hybrid, invented locally by Louis Kelnhofer. The historical society also received items from 20 volunteers, including posters for late clubs Teddy’s, Cafe Voltaire and the Starship, and bulletin boards of band business cards from shuttered Bay View
drum shop Faust Music.
Visitors can play ukuleles, violins, drum pads and other instruments, on loan from Cascio Music and Brass Bell Music, or take a turn on a parlor piano inside the museum’s bank vault. Two interactive music stations let visitors sample 67 songs related to Milwaukee’s music history, from the “Summerfest Polka” to a track from veteran hip-hop crew the Rusty Ps.
A series of events include a Florentine Opera recital Jan. 19 and a family day Feb. 4. Three happy hours are planned from February through April, with a pair of panel discussions in the works.
“Melodies and Memories” opened Monday and continues through April 29, with a smaller version running from May through October.