Photo Courtesy of Present Music
Dan Petri
I first met Dan Petry in the mid-‘90s when he worked with Florentine Opera. He was promoting their production of a new opera based on the tragic life of Oscar Wilde. Although he moved between various arts organizations in the years since, his approach remained the same. Petry was unfailingly helpful, proactive but not pushy. Some people in his role have been happier sitting in gray cubicles staring at screens. He loved his jobs and the arts he actively promoted.
Dan Petry died recently of natural causes. He was 71.
Petry was a Columbia University-educated marketing and development manager who worked with large as well as small organizations. His interests spanned music and theater. Petry freelanced for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Milwaukee Opera Theatre and held various full-time roles with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Early Music Now and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Since 2018, he was devoted to Present Music, Milwaukee’s ensemble-promoters for that delightful oxymoron, contemporary classical music.
“For me, Dan was an ideal person to work with,” says Present Music’s artist director, Eric Segnitz. He credits Petry with being instrumental in furthering the ensemble along with Present Music’s founder Kevin Stalheim. Petry had “boundless energy, a million ideas, and really an unstoppable force—everything seemed possible to Dan. So his passing comes as a shock and a great loss to all of us. But he taught us some important things; to love people more, and to appreciate the beautiful things in life—including music. That was Dan.”
My last conversation with Petry occurred a week or so before his death. He reached out about Shepherd Express co-sponsorship of Present Music’s opening concert in the group’s 45th season. He was always thinking of ways to promote the arts in Milwaukee.
