The Artist Series at the Pabst was created by local music lovers who wished to bring
chamber music to Milwaukee, as there was no other performance series for chamber music in
the city at the time. Alan McKracken at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater needed a non-profit
partner to separately run such a series, if one was to develop.
The formative event was a 1976 fundraising party at Max and Tybie Taglin's Shorewood home
in which they asked attendees to support the new series, and also to volunteer to lead the
series. For many years, the series was successful and hosted important artists such as
Leontyne Price, Isaac Stern, and Phillip Glass. In 1993, the Hal Leonard Jazz Music Series
was established within the Artist Series, and was also successful.
A volunteer board managed the series until 1998, at which time the board hired the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to manage the series. The relationship was not successful, and
the series lost most of its money.
Michael Cudahy purchased the Pabst Theater in 2002, and according to the Taglins, the
"timing was right" to dissolve the series. The Pabst Theater continues occasionally to
invoke the name of the series in concert promotions, but for all practical purposes the
Artist Series at the Pabst has ended.
