In its early years, Musical Offering, Ltd. had a special emphasis on early keyboard music and, under its original name, Historical Keyboard Society of Wisconsin, presented such international stars as fortepianists Steven Lubin and Malcolm Bilson. Featured ensembles included The Mozartean Players, the Castle Trio, Boston Museum Trio, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Carlin Fortepiano Trio, Musica Antique Koln, and the New Mozart Ensemble of London. Appearing also were the distinguished harpsichord and clavichord artists Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt, John Gibbons, Colin Tilney, Joan Benson, Edward Parmentier, David Schrader and Kim Heindel. Special relationships were forged with conductor Christopher Hogwood and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra. Many singers also graced our stages: Ian Patridge, Sanford Sylvan and Musical Offering’s own Bach Collegium Choir directed by Richard Kieffer.
Concurrently, Ensemble Musical Offering (later known as Milwaukee Baroque), was formed as Milwaukee’s Midwest Bande for Early Music. It has had the great fortune to work with such early music icons as recorder player Marion Verbruggen, Baroque violinists Stanley Ritchie and Marilyn McDonald, as well as countertenor Jeffrey Dooley. Musical Offering and its ensemble brought the music and world of J.S. Bach to Milwaukee stages, as well as special projects devoted to Mozart’s Nature, Mozart’s World, Spain and Its New World Empire, Beethoven: The Second Style Period, and lately, In Harmony: At Home with Biedermeier.
All projects were supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. as well as the Wisconsin Humanities Council. This has allowed Musical Offering to garner renowned national and international guest speakers.
Artistic Director Joan Parsley and Ensemble Musical Offering.
Goethe Haus President Ted Wedemeyer, Artistic Director Joan Parsley, Fortepianist Extraordinaire Steven Lublin, and Dr. Paul Smaglick, German American School and Language Society, pose for a snapshot in Parsley's redone Biedermeier dining room. By popular demand, Lubin returned for the 2007-2008 season.
Visiting lecturers have included: Joshua Rifkin, Daniel Melemed, Sheridan Germain, Tanya Kavorkian, Donald Posner (Bach projects); Jost Hermand, Allesandra Comini, Owen Jander, William Meredith (Beethoven project); Raymond Erickson, Yvonne Kendall, Ramon Martinez, John Patrick Donnelly, S.J., Suzanne Stratton, Louise Stein, Lance Grahn, Sara Nalle (Spanish Baroque); and Sylvester Kreilein, Leonard Schulze, Kimberly Redding, Carol Dittrich (Biedermeier project).
Since 1988, Musical Offering has been offering quality early music performances in Milwaukee County and has gained a national reputation for its work in curriculum development (K-12) by designing Artist-in-Residence programs in the Greater Milwaukee Area. In June 2000, it was the recipient of the national “Early Music Brings History Alive” award given by Early Music America, the national networking association for early music.
Both the Milwaukee Art Museum and Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art have been the recipient of Joan Parsley’s work with curators of these respective museum’s in bring to the life the worlds of Mozart and Beethoven in the exhibitions "Fashions and Furnishings in the Age of Mozart" (MAM -1991) and "Beethoven: The Second Style Period Exhibition" (Haggerty Art Museum – 1994). It has also cooperated on special projects with Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point Center for the Arts and the West Bend Art Museum.
Its performance activities through Ensemble Musical Offering has been a valued affiliate of the Milwaukee Symphony’s arts and community education program, Project ACE. Its Artist-in-Residence programs have taken place at Wauwatosa East High School, Whitefish Bay Middle School, and Milwaukee School for the Arts. More recently, the Ensemble has also been Artist-in-Residence at Milwaukee’s All Saint’s Cathedral.