Every few months for the past 12 years, Anne Katz and David Wallner have turned their near-east bungalow into an intimate concert venue.
They gutted their living room, hauled folding chairs from the basement and squeezed about 50 people into their home to enjoy a night of acoustic music. Artists traveled thousands of miles to perform at Our House Concerts, and some stayed overnight at the couple’s home.
The series became a passion project for Katz and Wallner, two music lovers who have lived in Tenney-Lapham for about four decades. With over 80 concerts held to date, it has become a neighborhood staple, creating a community of visitors and musicians.
“We believe in building community and the concerts help us do that,” said Wallner, a retired teacher and former City Council member. “Music brings people together, and that’s a big part of what we want to do.”
Katz and Wallner’s 19-and-a-half-year-old cat Izzy (who recently rose to fame on the Cats of Madison Instagram) also joined in on the fun. Even though he can’t hear, he enjoys the vibrations of the music and sometimes curls up next to the guests, said Katz, executive director of the nonprofit Create Wisconsin.
Both carefully vet the artists they feature, and some are even famous, including the Americana/folk band Birds of Chicago. Led by Grammy nominee Allison Russell, the Birds of Chicago performed at Carnegie Hall in 2019.
However, Katz and Wallner made their own Carnegie. In the warmer months, they move the music outside to their neighbor’s yard, which fits about 100 people. A musician told them, “It’s the Carnegie Hall of concerts in the background!”
On April 29 at 7:30 p.m., Our House will host Canadian singer-songwriter Lynne Hanson, who some have described as “Canada’s queen of Americana.” Tickets cost $20, and all proceeds go to the musical guests.
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Anne Katz and David Wallner live in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood.
How did you two meet?
Anne: I’m from New York, but I moved to Madison in 1984 to work for a theater company. I’ve never been anywhere near the Midwest. I don’t know anything about Wisconsin. I don’t care about Wisconsin.
I moved to the apartment building opposite where we live now, in the basement. David lives on the first floor. And that’s how we met. He is from South Dakota.
We got married, then we moved to a small house on Jean Street. And now we live here. We didn’t leave the block.
How did you start hosting house concerts?
Anne: We like music. We threw a big backyard party and hired musicians to play. And then David retired, so we had more time to talk about doing concerts. We saw two local musicians performing at a restaurant, one of them Sims Delaney-Potthoff from the band Harmonious Wail, and we asked them if they wanted to do a concert. They said sure.
After that, we said, “Well, that’s good. Let’s do something else!” And after 82 concerts, that’s what we’re doing. We had no idea we’d be doing this for over 10 years – and we have no signs of stopping.
Dave: Now we get requests about five to 10 times a month from people who want to come here. It’s crazy. In the last six months, we have heard from a duo from Brazil, a couple from Italy and a guy from Australia. We only do about 10 shows a year, so we turn down most requests because we can’t afford it.
Anne: We could have done more, but it was a lot of work to promote them and tear down the house.
How much work does it take, and what keeps you from doing it?
Dave: It’s like running a small business.
Anne: Very informal.
Dave: I probably put in 25 hours a month, and Anne probably does the same.
Anne: There’s always a moment when I’m changing seats from the basement, and I’m like, “Shit, I don’t want to do this anymore! You are overworked!”
Dave: There was this moment when Anne lost it, saying, “I’m so sick of house concerts!” And then everything is cool. We just sailed right away.
Anne: It’s really fun. I mean, moving the chairs up and down is tiring. But if we do it, and we see how much people love the music, and we love the music, it’s totally worth it.
It is very informal. We don’t want to compete with cinemas. But this is another way for people to find their livelihood and increase the work for musicians, which is always important.
How do you choose which artists to feature?
Dave: I look at the music of everyone who contacts us. There are 10,000 clones of Bob Dylan out there. Many of them are not very interesting. We’ll have these moments when it’s new, and I’ll take Anne to listen. When we both have a ‘click’ moment, we say, “Yes, let’s do it.”
With all the work that goes into putting on a house concert – cleaning, selling tickets – we really have to love a performer to bring them here. This is a great retirement hobby for me.
Anne: And only one job for me!
What kind of music do you like?
Dave: We’ve done a few jazz shows, but it’s mostly Americana, or folk music. It’s acoustic music. Artists have sound systems they ride. We can’t do big rock and roll shows in this kind of environment. People play guitar, keyboard, mandolin, banjo, harmonica.
Anne: We can accommodate three performers in our layout, which is tight. We had people taping speakers to the walls because there was nowhere else to put them.
I heard that you forbid the couple from your house. Really?
Anne: This couple sits here on the patio or on the couch in the living room, and they meet. Eventually we just took them off our list.
Dave: That was the only time we banned someone. They just work together and have fun.
Anne: Otherwise, everything is very nice and beautiful. All our audience and our musicians are great people.
Dave: It’s not a wild crowd. People come in and have wine, beer or soda that we sell, and eat cookies and popcorn that we provide. The musicians stay afterwards and talk to the crowd. Guests leave here at 9:30.
It’s very nice. We will continue this as long as it is healthy. We built this community of people. And the positive blows we get are huge on a personal level from our performers and our guests who come. Worth it all.