“The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has completed its acquisition of the Warner Grand Theatre … to serve as the symphony’s new concert home, and has pushed back its projected debut there to fall 2020 to accommodate the complex project of renovating it,” writes Jim Higgins in Friday’s (12/29) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The symphony also announced Friday that it has received State of Wisconsin approval for more than $8 million in historic tax credits and recently received conditional approval for federal historic tax credits. To date, the MSO has raised $93.5 million of the $120 million it believes necessary to convert the building into a venue seating 1,750 concert-goers, said Mark Niehaus, MSO president.… The MSO announced its plan to acquire the theater in December 2016…. At present, the symphony plays about 23 weeks a year in the Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall, which is also used by the Milwaukee Ballet, the Florentine Opera, the Marcus’ Broadway series and other productions…. The Grand’s interior has many acoustic qualities that would make it a desirable concert hall, Niehaus said…. The theater was built in 1930 as a home for movies and vaudeville performances. It closed in 1995.”
Posted January 3, 2018
Pictured: The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and former Music Director Edo de Waart, now Conductor Laureate, at Milwaukee’s Uihlein Hall. The orchestra will perform in its new home, the renovated Warner Grand Theatre, beginning in 2020.
