MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Milwaukee Ballet is finding new ways to support live music in light of financial concerns they experienced this summer.
"I love music. I love our musicians, and I will fight to keep music live, but at the same time, I will fight to make sure that we have a Milwaukee Ballet here for the future. My legacy depends on making sure that the Milwaukee Ballet survives,” said artistic director Michael Pink.
In July, the Milwaukee Ballet decided to use recorded music for The Nutcracker instead of having the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra musicians perform, citing financial reasons.
"It was a decision that our board and our organization felt we had no choice but to make. Otherwise, we would never have dreamt of making that decision,” said Pink.
Watch: Milwaukee Ballet finds ways to support live music ahead of performance season
The decision was quickly reversed in less than two weeks. Pink explained that an anonymous donor stepped in, allowing the ballet to bring back its orchestra for its shows. He says the ballet and its orchestra have had a long-standing relationship of more than 50 years and that he's delighted to reinstate live music.
"Shows the power of the single donor who can make a huge difference to us, the ballet, and our arts organizations in general. We know that live music has been a key part of this organization,” said Pink.
In the spirit of support, the ballet is running a live music matching campaign until the end of September. Any donation up to $50,000 will be doubled and will go toward the Live Music Fund.
"Every gift that's made during this period of time will have double the impact, not only in dollar value, but also in terms of how many artists they're supporting, because they're not only supporting our dancers. They're supporting our musicians as well, which is really wonderful,” said executive director Tai Pauls.
Pauls says this is all made possible because of a different anonymous donor and that every donation helps.
"It's all going to help us make sure that we can continue making live music possible in the future,” said Pauls.
While the match donation campaign will continue for the rest of September, people can buy Nutcracker tickets on sale this week, September 9-11.
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