Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House, the ultimate in intimate where concert venues are concerned, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The place is constantly busy with performances by local, national and international musicians. Programming mainstays include a Cabaret Series, a Classical Series, “Wine Women and Song,” an annual Parisian Soiree, the Magic Carpet Series for children, a noon Lunch Box program once a month, the Jazz at the Edge Series and plenty of others.

The stately, two-story frame structure, built in 1865 and located in the Kerrytown historic district across from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, features an L-shaped concert space downstairs. A rare, German-made Steinway Model “C” piano - KCH’s pride and joy - is positioned at the crook of the L serves as the room’s focal point. The house’s original staircase still leads up to the second floor, with concert and other rental income supplemented by leasing the four former bedrooms upstairs to local musicians for studio space.

The nonprofit Kerrytown Concert House is run by a board of directors and two full-time employees - Executive Director Rachel Lauber and Operations Manager Aubrey Lopatin. We sat down with Lauber, who was new to the job earlier this year, inheriting the baton from founder and director Deanna Relyea.

First off, what is Deanna doing? Spending time with her grandchildren, singing and she’s still programming (KCH’s annual avant garde jazz event) Edgefest. She remains involved absolutely.

People know Kerrytown as an intimate concert venue, but it’s more than that. What else goes on?

A huge number of things. It’s a 110-seat venue, we are very tiny and intimate. We also have teachers that have studios upstairs, so they have students coming in for lessons - there’s always music happening in the house. KCH has become almost a 24-7 music venue. We have late-night jam sessions with students from the U-M who come down and play jazz around 10 p.m. until about 1. And we have weddings, memorial services, we support a lot of non-profit meetings here for the arts. We have studio recitals … some Saturdays we have 4-5 events.

What is the secret to your success? We reach out to every genre. There’s such a diversity in town in terms of listeners, and we want as many people as possible to experience music - even spoken word and smaller theater pieces - in a small space. One of the advantages is if you sit in the third row at Kerrytown, you’re under the horn player’s bell, or you’re right next to the violinist’s hand or sitting within feet of the vocalist. I think that’s an experience that’s very rare. And we’re fortunate we have such an amazing community we can program diverse genres of music and people will come.

One of the treats for a performer is the intimacy? The intimacy and that they have access to their public, which happens everywhere, but here they just step off the stage and they are embraced by everybody that’s been listening to them. The crowd understands (their work) and is also compassionate to them as performers and appreciates them and embraces the work they put in.

What’s your biggest challenge? It’s so many different things - fundraising, definitely. It’s also being creative in these economic times, to stretch and make things work when you don’t have the budget to program everything you want. ... I lie awake at night worrying about the budget, and I also want to respect the artists as well. Sometimes that’s the most difficult part - you want to be fair to them. Some of them are just making gas money at this point.

How are you doing money-wise? Like any arts organization, all of our funding is down, individual donations by 30 percent, corporate by 45 percent. We’re funded mostly through private donations, by our members, some grants and also rental of the hall for meetings and such. We’re bare bones. Concerts don’t bring much revenue, we consider ourselves fortunate to break even, which is typical of most organizations. So we’re very dependent on community support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut down on phone lines, we’re using less print (ads), more on line, using e-mail rather than sending a lot of letters a month because the postage went up, and we’re working with minimal staff.

Didn’t you recently get a $25,000 grant? We’ve very fortunate to have gotten a recovery grant, which is a huge responsibility for us. It’s salary allocated, to support staffing. It’s been a challenge financially here the past eight months. That will help us reorganize a bit, hire back our part-time person we had to let go earlier this year, and become even more efficient as an organization so we can insure the health of this artistic landmark. This is really a 4-5 person job, we’ve been working with a staff of two. And there are volunteers who help as well. Jim Fuester maintains the plants and garden - it’s a labor of love for him. And Rosemary Bergin has been a volunteer for 22 years.

I sometimes talk about Kerrytown as a patchwork quilt. You have this funding aspect, that’s a pretty large patch … you have people with their different expertise, like Q Limited, which is redesigning our Web site, and the volunteers and the artists - it’s just a compendium of energy.

What’s your favorite part of the job? When I hear an amazing artist or a young artist just exploring repertoire for the first time - there’s a real deep feeling that this is what it should be about.

How are you marking your 25th? There’s a dinner Sept. 25. The whole week will be a celebration of artists that have been here before and artists of the future. Marcus and Joan Belgrave are coming and playing the weekend before that, then we have a lot of different things planned. We’re having the Parisian Soiree, Jazz at the Edge, some cabaret. It’s just going to be a packed week, that’s for sure.

ABOUT RACHEL LAUBER Age: 40 Claim to fame: Executive-artistic director at Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House. Earlier this year she replaced Deanna Relyea, founder and longtime director. Background: Lauber and her husband, classical guitarist Matthew Ardizzone, arrived in Ann Arbor eight years ago, when she entered the doctoral program in conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance. She has worked as a conductor of the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra and Livingston Symphony Activities: She is active in the community with the Neutral Zone teen center and as a guest clinician with the Ann Arbor Public Schools. She has also been involved in a variety of projects with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the University Musical Society. About KCH: Deanna Relyea, along with Jill Felber, founded Kerrytown Concert House, located in a renovated 1865 home, in 1984. Known for presenting chamber music, jazz, cabaret and more in an intimate setting, KCH also houses recital and rehearsal space and recording facilities.

Photo by Roger LeLievre: Rachel Lauber outside Kerrytown Concert House.

Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.