Authors
theSTEADY Contributor
Early in her 20's, Amy Kelly decided that the only way to truly "live the dream" would be combining her two loves: music and writing. After a few years of scrounging the classifieds, fate finally smiled upon her. Amy has spent the past few years as a senior writer for Ultimate-Guitar.com, a site driven by its vast database of guitar tablature and music-related features. Having interviewed such notable rock figures as Judas Priest's Rob Halford, solo artist KT Tunstall, and Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell, Amy is now eager to chat with the amazing musicians gigging nightly in the Kansas City area.
When she is not writing, Amy can be seen in various theater productions across town. She is an avid supporter of the local filmmaking community and has been a featured actress in commercials, industrial videos, and short films.
As a regular audience member for an eclectic mix of Kansas City artists, Amy is thrilled to be a contributing writer to theSTEADY. She holds a double major in Journalism and Art History, both of which were received through the University of Kansas.
Theatre Contributor
Andrea Huckaba, actress and writer, is a recent graduate of Kansas State University with degrees in theatre and mathematics. She spent the 2008 season interning at the Great Plains Theatre in Abilene, KS where she had opportunities on and off the stage. A native of Kansas City, Andrea has enjoyed local theatre for most of her life.
Dance and Classical Contributor
Andrea Montgomery is a native of St. Joseph, MO, where she began dancing at the age of four. She continued to dance competitively through high school, focusing primarily on tap dancing. She attended Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, earning a degree in Spanish with minors in Communication and Folklore in May 2009. Dance continued to be a large part of her life throughout her college career. She taught tap classes and choreographed for several years both for students at a local studio and for her college peers through extracurricular programs and university courses.
Andrea has performed and competed with various vocal ensembles, including chamber choirs, small ensembles, and large choirs. Her love of dance and singing also led to several musical theatre performances, including roles in The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, Pippin, and Oklahoma!
Andrea recently moved back to the Kansas City area where she is currently working for the Liberty School District and working on her Masters in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Past City Voices Columnist; Classical and Vocal contibutor
Arnold Epley has been Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at William Jewell College since joining the faculty in 1982. The William Jewell Concert Choir, under his direction, has offered 27 national concert tours and nine concert tours to England and Scotland. His former students provide leadership for professional choirs, colleges and universities, churches and high schools through the United States and beyond.
Now Conductor Laureate of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, his seventeen years as Artistic Director and Conductor brought the 125 voice ensemble to performances of more than 65 choral works in hundreds of performance with the Kansas City Symphony and regional orchestras for seventeen years.
Following a long successful career as a baritone solo artist, he maintains a vocal studio with some of Kansas City's leading singers.
New Classical and Flamenco Contributor
Beau Bledsoe, musician and composer, is a founding member of the well-known Argentine Tango quintet Tango Lorca and the independent record label Tzigane. He has toured throughout the United States, across Europe and in Russia, Mexico and Argentina. His recordings are regularly featured on Radio1 BBC, "Segovia a Yupanki" Radio Nacional Argentina, and "All Songs Considered" on National Public Radio. He is also co-founder of the flamenco music and dance school Manos Rojas and the flamenco dance company Esencias Flamencas.
Bledsoe did undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock and completed the graduate guitar program at the UMKC Conservatory of Music. He has studied independently in southern Spain and in the tango scene of Buenos Aires with masters such as Antonio Andrade, Miguel Rodriguez, Santiago Aguilar, Pedro Cortez and Luis Heredia of La Repompa de Málaga.
Traditional and New Classical music, and Theatre Contributor
Christopher Guerin holds degrees in Music Education, Music Business, and Music Theory & Composition, the latter from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) College of Music where he co-founded the college's Composers' Guild, and, in 1985, won the Artin Arslanian Composition Award. During college, he also obtained some musical theatre experience as a member of pit orchestras for Threepenny Opera and My Fair Lady. Since 1989, Christopher has been in the very non-artistic corporate sector, where his creative energies have been put to more mundane endeavors
Christopher credits his musical motivations to his late father, who was concertmaster of the Springfield (MA) Community (pre-cursor to the city's current Symphony) Orchestra and performed popular music on radio in the 1930s. Christopher began his classical training in 1972 at age 10, began teaching at 16 (continuing to take private students throughout college), and traveled extensively with a youth orchestra - including to New Zealand in 1980. After college, and until 1989, Christopher focused on the business end of music as a successful sales manager for one of New England's largest music chains.
Over the past 20 years, Christopher's expertise has focused on medicine as a life risk underwriting officer for a large Midwest insurance group. His past duties included responsibility for risk underwriting in Pacific Rim markets where he traveled extensively to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Burma. Time permitting, he has continued to compose intermittently throughout this period. Christopher is married to Paula, a fellow musician he met during college, and together they have "composed" their magnum opera in three very creative children - an architecture student (go K-State!), an aspiring classical pianist, and a budding writer/journalist. He and his wife relocated from Massachusetts to the Kansas City area in 1997.
Classical Contributor
Christopher (Topher) Levin is a composer, pianist, music theorist, and music blogger based in Kansas City, MO. His compositions have been performed at music festivals across the US and in Europe. He has spent two summers in Paris, France studying music at the Ecole Normale de Musique through the EAMA program. His trio for clarinet, piano, and percussion is published in the SCI Journal of Scores.
Topher holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) in music theory and (M.M.) in composition and from James Madison University in Virginia (B.M.) in composition. Primary composition teachers have included John S. Hilliard, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Claude Baker, Narcis Bonet, Michel Merlet, and João Pedro Oliveira. His piano teachers have included Patricia Brady and Karen Kushner. Topher maintains a piano studio of 22 students.
Having recently completed a Master's thesis on the beautiful complexities of Chinary Ung's trio, Spiral I, Topher turned his writing attention to the more informal blogging medium. He has taken to it quite well, sharing posts on strange and wonderful music and art found across the web with a modest but growing number of blog followers. He looks forward to writing for KCM and sharing with its readers the stories of all the amazing musicians performing in Kansas City.
Past City Stage Theatre Columnist, Theatre Contributor
Damian Torres-Botello, freelance journalist and playwright, is the co-founder of Full Circle Theatre Company of Kansas City, a non-profit theatre company that presents matters of social justice through theatrical productions. He is a member of the board of directors for Theatre for Young America and has worked with Theatrical Company, Theatre for Young America, Little Theatre of the Poor, Gorilla Theatre and Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre. Torres-Botello has served as a playwriting teaching artist and as a playwright has been produced in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Kansas City and St. Louis. In addition to these works, he is a founding member of Writing Out Loud, a writer's co-operative developing LGBT writers. Torres-Botello received a bachelor of arts in theatre from the University of Saint Mary and has completed postgraduate work in Theatre history, dramaturgy, and playwriting. He currently is working towards an MBA at Avila University.
Special to KCM
David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.
David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.
This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.
David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.
Theatre Contributor
Diane Thompson is freelance writer, an artist, a small business owner, and a homeschooling mom. She is the President of Innovative Design & Marketing LLC, a business planning and marketing consulting firm. Diane is the founder of the Annual Innovative Short Fiction Contest, which provides a creative outlet and an opportunity for competition and publication to Kansas City metro area youth writers between the ages of 14 and 18. She is a Kansas City native with a passion for local threatre.
Diane has been a contributing writer to www.PresentMagazine.com, maintains several business and art related blogs, and is a new member of the KCMetropolis.org collective of writers. In her spare time, Diane enjoys spending time with her family, writing short stories and haikus, reading, and studying various genre of philosophy. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Minor in Fine Art from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor
A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony. He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony.
Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera). He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.
In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization. He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations. When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.
Past Contibutor: "Fiona's List"
"Fiona's List" is a grassroots email list of performing arts events around the Kansas City metro area. "Fiona" began the list several years ago in response to decreased coverage in traditional print media.
If you would like to receive "Fiona's List," please email fionalou2@gmail.com to add your name.
Past Classical and Vocal Contributor
Gayle G. Hathorne earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Horn Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Diploma in orchestral performance and chamber music from the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, where she performed in concerts, recordings and television productions with many notable conductors, including Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Claudio Abbado. A native of Concordia, Kansas, Gayle began piano and violin lessons with her grandparents, Jesse and Mildred Huscher, and continued studies at the U.M.K.C. Conservatory with Marjorie Ounsworth, piano, and Frank Franano, horn. She performed with Van Cliburn at Interlochen National Music Camp, with Alexander Schneider, Yehudi Menuhin and Sherrill Milnes at Wolf Trap, and with Gwyneth Jones, Horst Stein and James Levine at the Bayreuth Festival. In Berlin, Gayle played in numerous concerts and radio recordings and broadcasts with the RIAS Youth Orchestra, and as an extra with the Deutsche Opera and the Symphony Orchestra of Berlin. She held the position of 3rd/1st Solo Horn in the City Orchestra of Solingen, W. Germany, from 1980 until 1988.
Since her return in 2006, inspired by the vibrant Kansas City music scene, Gayle has channeled her love of music into attending concerts and singing. A voice student of Joyce Steeby, she has sung alto with the AGO Schola Cantorum for Bachathons under the direction of Dale Shetler, and with the William Baker Festival Singers. Gayle sings with the newly formed Kansas City Community Choir directed by Dale Shetler, and she is a member of the Trinity Choir at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral, directed by Canon Musician John Schaefer.
Music Theatre Contributor
Born in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1949, George Harter began in radio in 1976 at KCUR-FM the NPR affiliate at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, working first as a late night Jazz host and then as News Producer.
He majored in Theater and completed studies at the University of Kansas. George joined the announcing staff at KXTR, the commercial classical station in Kansas City, in 1980 and created "A Night on the Town" a program celebrating the music of Broadway and film scores.
In 1997, George founded Musical Theater Heritage a non-profit production company, in order to develop "A Night on the Town" for national syndication on the WFMT Fine Arts Network.
Today Musical Theater Heritage produces and distributes "A Night on the Town", to radio markets nationally, sponsored by the Algonquin Hotel in New York and has received special licensing to offer the program, on demand, on the Musical Theater Heritage website.
George has written and produced over three hundred one-hour radio programs on the history of the American Musical; several revues such as "Bernstein's Broadway" , "Jacque Brel, The Life & Music of a Legend" and "A Night on the Town Live". In collaboration with the Kansas City Symphony he wrote and hosted a Richard Rodgers Centennial Celebration concert.
Early Music and Vocal Contributor
Jay Carter is active as a countertenor soloist throughout North America splitting his time equally between both period and modern ensembles. As a graduate of Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music he held the position of the Louise E. McClain Scholar studying Voice and Early Music also studied Voice and Church Music as an undergraduate at William Jewell College. He is a frequent guest lecturer for academic instiutions and presenting organizations on Renaissance and Baroque vocal music as well as countertenor technique and repertoire.
This season he will appear in concerts with Music Sacra of New York, The English Concert, The Kingsbury Ensemble, The St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, The Louisville Bach Society, The City Choir of Washington, and the Choral Arts Ensemble in works by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Tavener, Purcell, and Caldara. He is a featured soloist on recordings of Bach's Magnificat in D, Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, and Mendelssohns Magnificat in D all of which will be commercially released in early 2009. In addition to concert appearances Carter serves as Artist-In-Residence at William Jewell College and lives in Liberty with his wife, Melissa and two children.
Special to KCM
John Heuertz, O.P. is a professed Lay Dominican and hotel shuttle driver in Kansas City.
Past City Pipes Columnist
Canon John L. Schaefer is Grace and Holy Trinity Catheral's Director of Music since 1976 and directs several choirs, including ensembles for adults, children and handbells.
Dance Contributor
Jone Stone, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence and Yale, has used her diverse background in dance, anthropology, urban studies, and literature to build a career as both dancer and scholar. Since 1967 she has been creating an unusual repertory of narrative, historic, and environmental dances, beginning with dances of protest, moving on to portraits of people in politics and the arts, followed by works about nature and community on the prairie, and now dances about aging gracefully like rivers and trees. She toured as a solo dancer and directed the environmental dance troupe, 4-5-6 Speed-Up, in the United States and Europe before turning her attention to the reconstruction of Renaissance and Baroque dances for concerts, workshops, and educational video. In 2006 she retired from the University of Kansas after twenty years of teaching choreography and dance history and making works for the University Dance Company. She continues to create and perform new dances and has recently taught choreography workshops in Tajikistan and performed in India and China, but her focus is turning more and more to writing.
While thinking of herself primarily as a dancer, writing has usually gone along with Stone's dance activity. From the mid-60s to the mid-70s she wrote articles on dance and politics for alternative newspapers in her hometown of New Haven. She has been a publicist for her own work as a soloist, for 4-5-6 Speed-Up, and for the Kansas University Dance Company. Her dances have often involved research and writing, for example, a dance about a traveling dance pavilion in Kansas in the 1890s led to a pamphlet on the history of dance in Kansas, which is now part of the Kansas History Museum collection, and her characterization of Populist journalist and organizer Annie Diggs led to an entry in the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (2004). She has written reviews of books on dance for American Studies and the American Journal of Archaeology. Drawn by the essay form, she is working on turning lectures she has given on gestures in art and dance, a dance walk down Mass Street, and dance's relation to work into essays for publication. Her essay on the dance in Not Without Laughter was published in a recent volume of Langston Hughes criticism, and her current project is writing about dance and nature for an upcoming ecocriticism conference in Turkey.
Traditional and New Classical Contributor
Kristin Shafel, a native of Madison, WI, moved to Kansas City in 2001 to attend the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, where she earned both her M.M. and B.M. in composition, with additional focus in double bass performance and arts administration.
Her compositions have been performed at national and regional new music festivals and conferences in Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, Oklahoma, New York, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, and Oregon. She is a member of ASCAP, SCI, NACUSA, IAWM, and Vox Novus.
Kristin has been a bassist in the Kansas City Civic Orchestra since 2007 (for which she also serves as Bass Section Principal and Concert Annotator) and recently joined the Northland Symphony Orchestra and Heritage Philharmonic. In 2009 Kristin received a 1-year internship with the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City and started regularly volunteering for Charlotte Street Foundation.
During her time at UMKC, Kristin was a student leader in organizations such as Musica Nova, Composers' Guild, and the Conservatory Student Association, and was also a regular bassist the Conservatory's orchestras, bands, and Musica Nova. Her composition instructors were James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long and Chen Yi, and her bass instructor was Sue Stubbs.
Dance Contributor
Laura Vernaci is a Kansas City native who has always been passionate about the arts, particularly dance. She began dance lessons at the young age of five and hasn't stopped since. She trained at the Kansas City Ballet where she became a serious dancer and learned about a professional company.
She attended Butler University in Indianapolis, IN where she majored in dance. She transferred to Truman State University in Kirksville, MO in 2006 and received a degree in Journalism in May 2008. Laura spent the 2008-2009 in Duluth, MN dancing professionally for the Minnesota Ballet. She performed in productions such as, "The Nutcracker," "Cinderella" and "Coppelia" as well as world premier ballets created on the company.
She recently moved back to Kansas City and is excited to combine her experience in writing with her passion for dance. In addition to performing and writing, Laura also enjoys teaching dance and choreographing.
Classical Contributor
Lee Goodman took piano lessons for ten years as a youth despite pleas from all listeners for him to cease. He continued his musical journey through many courses in music appreciation, composition and analysis as an undergraduate. He was undergraduate program director for classical, Broadway and jazz music at Tulane’s radio station, WTUL, and later did opera programs for KBIA in Columbia, Missouri while a law student.
Once back in Kansas City, he became a member of the Lyric Opera Guild Board of Directors and greatly expanded their trips programs by organizing and leading dozens of trips in the US and Europe. He has lectured extensively for the Lyric Opera Guild on opera and musical theater topics. He has also jointly led trips for the Friends of Chamber Music, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. He has also held season tickets to the KC Philharmonic, Lyric Opera, Friends of Chamber Music and William Jewell Fine Arts Series throughout the last 30 years. He continues to travel to New York several times each year for opera, Broadway and the contemporary art scene.
Lee is also Kansas City’s most popular bridge teacher having brought hundreds of people into the lifelong addiction/frustration that is bridge.
Taking solace in the maxim, “Those that cannot do, critique”, he has inflicted his musical opinions up to now upon anyone within earshot but now looks forward to sharing his opinions to a wider audience
Traditional and New Classical Contributor
Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.
In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).
Traditional and New Classical Contributor
Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon, and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen, and Katherine Strand.
While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band, and the New Jazz Order.
She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, currently maintaining two blogs: one about life and one about travel. Most of her free time is spent with her dog and husband and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.
Classical, Vocal and Theatre Contributor; Managing Editor Arts News
Megan Browne Helm hails from St. Louis, MO where she grew up singing, dancing and acting. As a teenager, she was awarded a scholarship to the Carnegie Mellon University pre-college program where she studied voice with Glynn Page, dance with Myron Nadel and theater with Rick Davis.
She pursued a voice major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music studying with Duane Mahy and her sabbatical replacement Carole Webber. She was a frequent soloist with the Oberlin Collegium Musicum. In addition, she hosted a contemporary classical music show on WOBC and recorded recitals for the audio department.
At the University of Kansas she earned degrees in History and Music Education. In 1988-89, she was the Baby Jay mascot. Her passion for modern and contemporary art music culminated in her involvement with the now defunct Kansas Composers Project at KU. She also sang and soloed with the Collegium Musicum and Oread Consorts at KU under the direction of Simon Carrington.
As an alto, Ms. Browne Helm has performed in and around Kansas City for over 20 years. She joined the Kansas City a cappella ensemble, Octarium for their 2005-6 season and currently sings with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus under the direction of Charles Bruffy.
Ms. Browne Helm began her freelance career while staying home when her children were babies. Her past works can be found at Presentmagazine.com, KC Parent Magazine, Shawnee Magazine, and the Lawrence Journal World and on her new blog Raw Organum. She is also working on a young adult novel and music related picture books for children. At KCMetropolis, Megan is the managing editor for the Arts News section as well as reviewing music, theater and occasionally dance.
In 2009 she was honored to be chosen as a NEA Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism's program for Classical Music and Opera in New York City.
Ms. Browne Helm's day job is as a professional music educator in the Turner School District, KCK where she shares her love for the art form every day with the very youngest students in the district. She also shares her expertise with other teachers and has been a presenter at the Crucial Early Years conference at the University of Missouri St. Louis.
When she isn't teaching, writing, singing or functioning as an assistant cub master or PTO secretary, Ms Browne Helm resides in Lawrence, KS with her husband, three sons, three dogs, a cat and any number of fish.
Photos and Dance Contributor
Self-described photographer, lecturer, journalist, dancer, Web monkey, and all-round Multi-Media guy, Mike Strong is well-known in the Kansas City dance communities for his striking dance photography and videography, and for his online publication on the Kansas City dance scene, KCDance.com.
Since 1997, Mike Strong has been photographing and reporting on dance, as well as taking dance himself. Although Social Dance and Tap remain his favorite forms of dance, Mike Strong loves and follows all forms of dance, and hopes to educate the public on the importance of dance and the arts and their significance in the eveyday lives of ordinary people, not just the artists themselves.
Indie Film Contributor
Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.
In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.
Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.
Classical and New Classical Contributor
Nicholas S. Omiccioli is currently a doctoral student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he is a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow. He currently studies composition with James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Paul Rudy, and Zhou Long. His previous teacher was Brian Bevelander at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio. His music has been performed by the Wellesley Composers' Conference, DuoSolo, the Kansas City Chorale, Contemporaneous, the Society for New Music, members of Brave New Works, and various new music festivals around the country including Regional and National College Music Society Conferences and numerous SCI Conferences at the National, National Student, and Regional levels.
Mr. Omiccioli has received many awards and honors including a commission by the 2010 Wellesley Composers' Conference, winner and judge's choice in the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competitions, 2009 DuoSolo Emerging Composer Award, and the Brian M. Israel Prize to name a few. Just recently, Mr. Omiccioli was nominated for an award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a winner of the ASCAP Foundation's 2010 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. In addition to composition, Mr. Omiccioli studies guitar with Douglas Niedt and teaches at the UMKC Academy of Music and Dance and the Kansas City School of Music.
Dance Contributor
A second generation dancer, teacher, and performer, Nicole English grew up immersed in the dance world. She has been performing since age 5, choreographing since age 12, teaching since age 15, and writing dance reviews since her early teens. She has been writing and doing research on dance for various academic publications in the Kansas City area for the last 20 years, and is listed as adjunct faculty for the Dance Division of the University of Missouri--Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance for Dance Technology, and has published some of her personal stories in a book about ethnic dancers (Belly Laughs). Currently, she teaches at the University of Missouri--Kansas City while pursuing post-graduate work in dance, culture, and society, doing research on using dance as sociological data. She continues to perform in a variety of venues (festivals, weddings, concerts, conventions, restaurants, museums, etc.) and teaches dance with several studios in the KC area (City in Motion, Amore Dance, and others), and works with local non-profit organizations doing research and promoting dance and the arts for children, in education, and for the community at large.
Special to KCM
Pete Dulin is co-Editor and co-publisher of PresentMagazine.com.
Past City Voices Columnist; Classical and Vocal Contributor
R. Douglas Helvering (b. 1977) is a highly active composer of music, specializing in the choral genre. Already an accomplished composer at age 31, he has had his music performed across America and the world. Over the past few years Dr. Helvering's music has been featured at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, at various MENC Conferences, at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, at ACDA regional conventions, and at the historic Carnegie Hall in New York. Dr. Helvering has earned music composition degrees from the University of Kansas, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Nebraska.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Helvering had the honor of arranging new school alma mater for symphonic band, was appointed by teachers and fellow students to "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities", was named to the Golden Key National Honor Society, and for three years served as personal copyist and editor to Dr. Z. Randall Stroope. As a graduate student, Dr. Helvering performed with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, performing under such conductors as Riccardo Muti, Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Joseph Flummerfelt. Academically, he served as graduate assistant in the music theory department, assisting in labs, lectures, and research capacities.
As a composition student, he has studied primarily with Dr. Z. Randall Stroope, Dr. Stefan Young (a student of Nadia Boulanger), Dr. James Barnes, and Dr. W. Kenton Bales. He also has studied with notable choral composers Morten Lauridsen and Stephen Paulus in masterclass settings. He currently works as a music professor at the Kansas City Metropolitan Community College's Penn Valley Campus and at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Helvering is the music director of the Sunflower Brass, a community brass choir based in Kansas City. He is also music director at Countryside Christian Church in Mission, KS, where he directs the Chancel Choir, Bell Choir, and Celebration Singers (youth choir.) Dr. Helvering's music has been widely acclaimed by performers, scholars, and audiences around the world for its artistry and emotional appeal. His music is published by Hal Leonard Music, Colla Voce, Chorister's Guild, Imagine Music, Alliance Music, and RDH Music (his own label).
Doug and his wife, Megan, currently reside in New Jersey.
Dance Contributor
Sandy Eisenberg is a retired dance teacher/choreographer and an active volunteer in the Kansas City performing arts community. She taught ballet and modern dance at Columbia University (N.Y.) for 8 years, and has taught extensively in Kansas City. As a dancer, Sandy performed with Bill T. Jones, Rudy Perez, Kathy Duncan, and other noted choreographers.
She currently teaches movement and water classes at Village Shalom. Her husband David is an attorney, who serves on the boards of The Friends of Chamber Music and Jewish Family Services, and is the former Board President of Youth Symphony of Kansas City. Her son Michael is a theatrical sound designer/engineer who lives and works in New York City.
Opera, Vocal and Classical Contributor
Since 2004, Dr. Sarah Tyrrell has been part of the Musicology faculty at the UMKC Conservatory of Music. In 2003, she completed doctoral work at the University of Kansas and also holds degrees in music history and voice performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and Kansas State University. At UMKC, Sarah teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in music history and world music, as well as graduate seminars on American and Latin American musics. Sarah has presented her research locally and nationally (her research specialty is the art music of Brazil) and actively guest lectures about town on Brazilian popular subjects such as samba and bossa nova. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Musical Quarterly, Latin American Research Review, and Latin American Perspectives.
Sarah is also active in the Kansas City choral music scene: she is the Artistic Director of the Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City and also sings soprano with the group. This 60-voice ensemble presents four concerts each year and recently completed a performance tour of Brazil.
Sarah Young is a freelance writer and performer in opera, theatre, choral and musical theatre. She has been seen locally with Wichita Grand Opera, Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Kansas City Civic Opera, Lawrence Community Theatre, Chestnut Fine Arts Center and in other local venues. She studied voice at the University of Kansas, and has been trained in artist programs at Indiana University, Aspen Opera Theatre and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She has a PhD in English and is on the faculty of Benedictine College.
New Classical Contributor, VIDs Department Director
Scott Easterday is a musician and singer/songwriter. He writes reviews and performs interviews for KCMetropolis in New Classical and explores new directions in the performing arts.
Theatre Contributor
Steve Shapiro has been writing about the arts for over twenty-five years. He wrote and broadcast a weekly radio book review on KCUR-FM for ten years, and has contributed to NPR's Morning Edition book segment.
As a contributor to local publications such as KCMetropolis.org, KC Tribune.com, The Kansas City Star, Review, The Pitch, and Helicon 9, he has published essays and criticism on art, books, cinema, theater and the cultural Zeitgeist.
A chapter on the museum architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Steven Holl was published in the anthology, The Sixth Surface: Steven Holl Lights the Nelson-Atkins Museum (2007). On the side, he juggles Dachshunds and is available to moderate book groups.
theSTEADY Managing Editor
Vi Tran began performing as a toddler in the refugee camps of Southeast Asia. His fellow refugees took pity on this young and literally starving artist, giving him what food they could spare.
Kansas City audiences may recognize him as a theatre and commercial actor who has been onstage at Starlight Theatre, Coterie Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and the Theatre Gym or as a staff cabaret singer at the late Bar Natasha.
Vi serves as one of the Coterie Theatre's "Reaching the Write Minds" playwriting-in-the-schools facilitators and has contributed his talents to the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, the Crossroads Theatre Company of N.Y.C., Playhouse on the Square in Memphis TN and the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington D.C.
He coordinates and contributes to "The Steady," a music and culture column at KCMetropolis.org. In his spare time, he writes folk and pop songs. He holds a MA in Theatre Directing and a BA in Theatre and English, both from Kansas State University.
Classical Contributor
William A. Everett is associate professor and coordinator of musicology at the UMKC Conservatory of Music, where he also chairs the Division of Composition, Music Theory, and Musicology. He received the 2003 Muriel Ewing Kauffman Award for Excellence in Teaching, and during the 2008-09 academic year, is serving as a Faculty Fellow at UMKC’s Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET).
His principal areas of research include the American musical theater, national identity in music, and the music of Croatia and Great Britain. He is contributing co-editor, with Paul Laird, of the Cambridge Companion to the Musical (Cambridge University Press, 2002; second edition 2008) and On Bunker’s Hill: Essays in Honor of J. Bunker Clark (Harmonie Park Press, 2007). He is the author of the award-winning Sigmund Romberg (Yale University Press, 2007), Rudolf Friml (University of Illinois Press, 2008), and co-author, with Paul Laird, of the Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical (Scarecrow, 2007). Professor Everett is currently working on two large-scale research projects—the first on British musical theatre in the 1890s and the other on orchestras and orchestral music in Kansas City during the late nineteenth century.
Everett is past president of the Great Plains Chapter of the College Music Society, past treasurer of the Society for American Music, and former reviews editor of College Music Symposium.
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