MCO Commitment

Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra
A Commitment to Excellence, A Commitment to Milwaukee

Artistic Excellence

The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra carries out its mission and vision through a sustained commitment to artistic excellence and integrity in terms of what repertoire is performed and how this repertoire is presented within the community.

This commitment to artistic excellence and integrity creates concert experiences that can be described as compelling, passionate, challenging, engaging, intimate and inspiring. The MCO experience leaves participants – audience members and artists alike – with a long-lasting impression of excellence.

The MCO commitment to artistic excellence includes:

• Create intimate, expressive music-making experiences that welcome and embrace audiences of all ages and ethnicity;
• Present compelling, satisfying programs and services;
• Devote energy as a re-creator of core repertoire;
• Program unusual and/or unfamiliar music;
• Deliver a level of individual and group artistic excellence that amazes audiences; and
• Serve as a passionate advocate of contemporary music.

This commitment to artistic excellence sets a standard for the MCO to develop and consistently deliver live, innovative and entrepreneurial programs and services, that inspire all involved. Such experiences serve to enrich all involved as participants on stage or in the audience, which underscores the MCO’s contribution to Milwaukee as a valued and valuable cultural asset of the greater metropolitan Milwaukee community.

A commitment to excellence also mandates that the MCO commit to a high standard of financial viability through effective leadership and management, as determined through consistent and constant evaluation in meeting specific business performance measures. Meeting standards in these major focus areas is essential to ensure the MCO’s sustainability to serve future generations.  

The MCO Value to the Community

What difference does the MCO make to musicians and audiences?

The MCO serves many stakeholders within the community, all of whom benefit as the various needs of each are met. The MCO: 

• Creates an avenue for dedicated artists to pursue their passions to the fullest by creating performance opportunities of music they love but would not otherwise have opportunity to perform, as the MCO presents repertoire that is not performed by large symphony orchestras. 
  
• Creates an inviting atmosphere for audiences and artists, as performances typically are presented in intimate settings. Such settings are essential, as chamber music is described as the music “of friends, by friends, for friends.” In such settings, audience members and musicians benefit: musicians appreciate the acoustics of an intimate hall, and audience members adore the experience of proximity to artists as they feel more connected to and involved with the performance. For audience members in particular, this creates an exceptional concert experience, for newcomers and aficionados, as the experience is more personal and friendly and the artistic quality is exceptional.
  
• Offers the Milwaukee community unique, up close and personal access to chamber music.  

What difference does the MCO make to Milwaukee?

The MCO has a unique opportunity to serve metropolitan Milwaukee area audiences, artists, businesses and communities, as the MCO helps create an attractive and well-rounded arts community. The MCO value to the community includes its ability to: 

• Create another option for professional artists to pursue highly desired performance opportunities, serving as an additional lure for Milwaukee to retain and recruit professional artists who currently reside in or may consider making Milwaukee their home. 
  
• Ensure a diverse and vital arts community for audiences, by providing classical music concert opportunities and alternatives beyond the traditional large symphony orchestra. MCO is unique concert event, without rival in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. 
  
• Develop an inspired and appreciative arts community, as those who attend MCO concerts come away feeling more connected due to the more personal concert experience. This, in turn, helps fuel appreciation not just for the MCO, but for other performing arts groups as well. 

What difference does donor support make to MCO and arts community overall?

Donor support, at all levels, is essential, just as the well-being of all the arts is essential for the well-being of individual arts groups. The MCO is an independent performing arts organization and exists because of a passion for music artists who perform with the orchestra bring to the concert stage. This passion, along with critical donor support, has sustained the MCO for more than three decades. Milwaukee cannot have one (MCO passion) without the other (donor support).  

Simply, and more specifically, donors play a significant role to help the MCO create and sustain myriad benefits for the greater community, including to:

• Offer a high quality of life – for residents and artists – through a depth and diversity in arts offerings from a vibrant and vital performing arts community. 
  
• Create an ability for MCO and other performing arts organizations to co-exist – to the mutual benefit of each and to the benefit of the greater community.