Lawrence’s collaborations with Mile of Music continue to grow as music festival hits 11th year

Mile of Music continues to grow stronger, as does Lawrence University’s involvement in the all-original music festival in downtown Appleton.

The 11th edition of Mile of Music runs Aug. 1-4, featuring more than 200 artists across nearly 40 indoor venues and multiple outdoor spaces on or near a one-mile stretch of College Avenue—from the Lawrence campus on the east end to Richmond Street on the west end.

As it has since its inception, the festival will feature a strong Lawrence presence.

• Led by Leila Ramagopal Pertl ’87, music education instructor, the Music Education Team (MET) will again be staffed by many Conservatory faculty, students, and alumni. The 36 music educators will present 40 hands-on music-making opportunities for the community during the four-day festival.
• The Lawrence Lawn Main Stage, located on Main Hall Green in front of Ormsby Hall, will again serve as one of the festival’s marquee outdoor spaces. In addition, Memorial Chapel and Harper Hall will see a steady flow of festival performances, and the green space outside of the Music-Drama Center and the nearby Mursell House will be home to Music Education workshops.
• The inaugural Lawrence Chamber Music Festival, designed for advanced instrumentalists ages 18 and over, will include multiple collaborations with Mile of Music artists.

Mile of Music will feature more than 700 live music sets over four days, all with free admission. Live music can be found throughout the day and evening in most every bar, coffee shop, stage, and open-air space in the downtown, with the largest crowds gathering in Jones Park and Houdini Plaza. With no big-name headliners, the festival is built on the appeal of discovering up-and-coming artists and soaking in new music. Launched in 2013, it has grown into one of Wisconsin’s signature events, drawing upwards of 85,000 music lovers. The Music Education Team events—a broad array of interactive activities that include song writing, dancing, and drumming from global traditions represented in the Fox Cities—are built into the fun.

A PBS Wisconsin film crew will be in Appleton throughout this year’s festival, filming for a program set to air in 2025. It aims to “capture the essence, energy, and impact” of the homegrown festival that has drawn national attention.

“Mile of Music has always been about more than just the music; it’s about community, connection, and celebrating both originality and creativity,” Dave Willems, creator/curator of Mile of Music, said in announcing the PBS plans. “We are honored to have PBS Wisconsin document our journey and share it with Wisconsin and the world in the wonderful and very original way that they do.”

Music Education Team brings community

Brian Pertl ’86, dean of the Conservatory, called the collaborations with Mile of Music a beautiful fit for Lawrence.

“I think it is easy to forget just how unique and ground-breaking this is,” Pertl said, noting that Willems and Mile of Music co-founder Cory Chisel, a singer-songwriter who now teaches two songwriting courses at Lawrence, embraced Ramagopal Pertl’s vision for the Music Education Team from the outset 11 years ago.

“They then supported her completely to make the Music Education Team a signature feature of Mile,” he said. “In any other music festival, 40 individual events would be the entire festival. The MET has been made up nearly exclusively of LU alumni music educators and current music education students.”

Meet the Music Education Team and search the MET schedule of events.

Ramagopal Pertl said highlights this year will include Lawrence percussion professor Jean Carlo Ureña González leading a merengue dance party celebrating his Dominican Republic roots as part of the festival’s First Songs Concert; the introduction of a theater workshop; a mental health focus built into the Dance Workshop Series; a Mindfulness Series that will build community through multiple forms of artistic expression; and a new Playground Games session.

“More than 7,000 community members made music with us last year, and more than 56,000 in the past 10 years,” Ramagopal Pertl said.

The MET events will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 2 and 3 before concluding between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Aug. 4.

Chamber music collaborations

The Lawrence Chamber Music Festival kicked off July 21 with more than 40 young adult musicians from all over the world gathered on the Lawrence campus for two weeks of chamber music workshops and high-level public performances under the tutelage of Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty and special guest artists. The opening week of workshops and performances will lead into a series of performances in collaboration with Mile of Music artists Julia Blair ’11, Julie Williams, Ben Mulwana, and Pegasis.

Michael Mizrahi, the Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music and director of Lawrence Summer Music Programs, said the 50-minute collaborative sets give the chamber festival students a high-level, real world music experience, give the Mile of Music artists the opportunity to make music in new ways with talented backup players, and give Mile of Music fans a fresh music experience.  

“The students have to plan it to the minute, they have to do their transitions, they have to talk about the pieces, they have to banter with the audience,” Mizrahi said. “That is all stuff younger musicians might be a little scared to do. And they do it in front of 500 people in the Chapel or in a packed Copper Rock. It’s this beautiful moment where we get to put them out there at the end of two weeks. ‘Here you are, out in the world playing a major music festival.’ It’s really awesome.”

Lawrence venues are beckoning

Lawrence venues will bring Mile of Music fans to campus for multiple performances.

The Mile of Music schedule is searchable by genre, date, venue, and artist.

“Lawrence University has always been an instrumental piece of not only the Music Education Team but other showcases, too,” said Kim Mauthe, a member of the Mile team. “A music festival with a Conservatory of Music in the same vicinity is a natural fit, and we are grateful for the continued partnership with Lawrence.” 

Among Lawrence alumni performing at the Mile will be Michael Murphy '23 and Julia Blair ’11. Murphy will be playing two shows—10:10 p.m. Aug. 1 at Riverside Bar and Grill and 2:20 p.m. Aug. 4 at McFleshman’s Brewing Co. Blair will play four shows, two of which will be in collaboration with the Lawrence Chamber Music Festival—10:30 a.m. Aug. 3 at Copper Rock and 2:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at Heid Music. Her other two performances are at 8:40 p.m. Aug. 3 in Harper Hall and 2:35 p.m. Aug. 4 on the patio behind Jim’s Place and Wooden Nickel.