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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Opera fans take note: The Lyric Opera finishes its final performances of the season with The Marriage of Figaro, bidding farewell the Lyric Theatre (next year it moves to the new Kauffman Center) as we open the last half of April. Also, the KC Metro Opera produces a rarely-done Gilbert & Sullivan work, The Gondoliers, and the University of Kansas Music Department performs Humperdinck’s timeless Hansel and Gretel.

Meanwhile, fans of the dance will enjoy the Russian National Theatre in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet (Harriman-Jewell Series). The 940 Dance Company of Lawrence performs in what is billed as the company’s final production, Red, while the Owen/Cox Dance Group embarks upon an intriguing collaboration with newEar, Contemporary Collaborations, at the end of the month. Also, the spring dance concerts at both the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance and the Kansas University Department of Dance are on tap.

Two of the greatest choral works of the repertory, Mozart’s Requiem (Musica Sacra) and Poulenc’s Gloria (UMKC Conservatory Orchestra and Choirs) can be heard within days of each other, while the Northland Community Choir tackles another choral classic, the Duruflé Requiem.

The Kansas City Symphony features stories of the creation (appropriate, perhaps, at this religious season of the year) with selections from Haydn’s great oratorio as well as French composer Darius Milhaud’s very different view of the subject, and a contemporary setting by Avner Dorman of visions from Earth’s ancient past. The Youth Symphony offers music of Rossini, Dvořák, Holst and Saint-Saëns.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City
The Marriage of Figaro
Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 17 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets all (816) 471-7344 or online at www.kcopera.org.

The Lyric Opera’s farewell paean to its four-plus decades in the Lyric Theatre proved a great hit in its opening performance on April 9. It continues through three more performances this week.  Set backstage in the opera house itself, it changes the plot (just a little) to turn it into an opera backstage intrigue.  The curtain is up during the intermission, allowing audience members a chance to see how the stage crew works on a scene change.

The voices are among the best the Lyric has featured, with Lyric debutante Katie Van Kooten portraying a moving Countess, and baritones Andrew Gangestad in the title role and Troy Cook as the Count both in fine vocal mettle.  Popular soprano Sari Gruber is Susannah. Lyric Opera debuting artist Brenda Patterson portrays the impetuous young boy Cherubino. Director Mark Streshinsky, who directed the Lyric Opera in Handel’s Julius Caesar in 2008, has done a fine job with the unusual staging.

Next year the Lyric Opera’s world changes with a move into the Kauffman Center, but don’t miss this last production in the Lyric Theatre, a tribute to the company’s many years of operatic performances in the old house.

 940 Dance Company
Red
Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire Street, Lawrence, Kansas
For tickets call (785) 843-2787 or online at www.940dancecompany.org. 

Lawrence’s 940 Dance Company presents Red, “an evening of glorious and sensual dance,” in what is being billed as the final performance of the company which has had a 24-year history.

Featured in the program will be Susan Rieger’s new double duet, entitled Warranty Not Included, set to the David Lang piece Cheating, Lying, Stealing. The dance explores “the minefield of long-term love.” Rieger will also present two works developed earlier this year, Sword of Damocles and Ark-eology, the latter set to the music of John Cage. In addition, the concert will also feature Rieger’s Resilience (2009), inspired by the sculpture of Maria Abakanowicz.

Audiences will also enjoy several pieces by Company members, including Justin Hundley, Bobbi Foudree, Jennifer Flynn, and Eric Tedder.

In addition, the choral ensemble Alash will join the 940 Dance Company on Thursday night only, for Whispering River, choreographed by Rieger. On Saturday night, the musical guests include members of Black House Improvisers’ Collective: Russell Thorpe, Matt Otto and Matt Leifer, who will join the dance company to perform Improv Sliced Four Ways.

Kansas City Metro Opera
The Gondoliers
Friday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Central United Methodist Church
5144 Oak St, Kansas City, MO
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 17 at 4:00 p.m.
Congregation Kol Ami
7501 Belinder Ave., Prairie Village, Kansas
For more information visit http://www.kcmetroopera.com.

Patrick Buckley’s Kansas City Metro Opera has attained a bit of local notoriety for performing, among other things, some of the lesser known Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.  This weekend will give you an opportunity this weekend to hear a rarely performed hit by the ubiquitous English pair, The Gondoliers. The predictably silly story is set in Venice, but the tunes are strictly English. Sit back and enjoy.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Spring Dance Concert
Thursday, April 14, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call the Central Ticket Office, (816) 235-6222, or online at conservatory.umkc.edu.

The spring dance concert by the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance is your opportunity to see some of the fine young dancers being trained by the Conservatory, often in choreography by members of the Conservatory dance faculty. The central piece will be Anthony Tudor’s ballet Dark Elegies, staged by Kansas City Ballet assistant ballet master James Jordan to the music of Mahler.  Conductor Robert Olson will lead the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in the music from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.  Aidan Soder of the UMKC Conservatory voice faculty will sing.

Musica Sacra
Mozart’s Requiem
Saturday, April 16 at 7 p.m.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
52nd Street and Troost Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or visit online at www.rockhurst.edu/musicasacra.

 Rockhurst University music department chair Timothy McDonald turns the attention of his fine Musica Sacra ensemble to one of the great masterworks of the choral repertoire, Mozart’s Requiem Mass, in this concert.  It will be preceded by another Mozart work, the Missa Brevis in F. 

Singing solo parts in the Requiem will be an impressive quartet of singers: soprano Rebecca Lloyd, mezzo–soprano Un-Chong Christopher, tenor Jacob Sentgeorge, and bass Chad Floyd. 

The Requiem Mass was one of the final pieces Mozart wrote, and he famously dictated the final movements of it from his deathbed not to Antonio Salieri, as playwright Peter Schaffer would have us believe, but to his pupil and loyal aide Franz Xaver Sussmayr.

Regardless of the method of composition, the Requiem Mass is one of the most melodious and stirring choral works ever composed.  This listener, for one, always cherishes an opportunity to hear it one more time.  It makes a fitting end to Musica Sacra’s 2010–11 concert season.

William Baker Festival Singers
Modern Masters Concert
Saturday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 West 13th Street, Kansas City, Missouri
Tickets available online at www.festivalsingers.org.

The William Baker Festival Singers presents one of its Kansas City area concerts this weekend.  At press time no information was available about the program for this concert.

Kansas City Guitar Society
Douglas Niedt, guitar
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
40th and Main Streets, Kansas City, Missouri
Tickets available at the door.  For more information visit http://www.kansascityguitarsociety.org/

This fund raising concert for the Kansas City Guitar Society will feature one of the area’s finest classical guitarist, Douglas Niedt, the head of the guitar program at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Johnson County Community College Performing Arts Series
Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer
Saturday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas
For tickets call (913) 469-4445 or online at www.jcc.edu/performing-arts-series

Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer are billed as virtuosos on the banjo, tabla/percussion and bass, respectively, and offer a performance, according to the promotional materials, which will mix “the worlds of classical, bluegrass and Indian music.” They perform original compositions. No programming information is available at press time. 

Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Magnificence, Mendelssohn and Magic
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, Missouri
For more information visit www.kccivic.org

Kansas City’s oldest and finest community orchestra wraps up its 2011–12 season with a performance featuring Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture known as “Fingal’s Cave,” the same composer’s Violin concerto in E minor featuring soloist Yu-Fang Chen, the “Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music” from Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, and a world premiere commissioned by the Civic Orchestra, William Funk’s Trettanrune for String Orchestra.

The violin soloist, Yu-Fang Chen, is a native of Taipei, Taiwan, and is pursuing multiple degrees from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance under the tutelage of Benny Kim and Scott Lee. She has previously appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Kansas City and with other local ensembles.

Composer William Funk is on the faculty of Baker University and is a freelance trumpet player in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas. His compositions have previously been performed by the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, Southeast Missouri State University Wind Symphony and other ensembles.

 Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance
Spring Concert: Unity
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Unity Temple on the Plaza
707 West 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri
Tickets available at the door; for information see www.kcema.net.

The four-year-old Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) presents its spring concert featuring Queen of Heaven for piano and electronics by Scott Blasco, The End of Histories for piano and multimedia by Chris Biggs, Velvet Sink for piano and electronics by Jeff Harriot, Liquid Bars for percussion and electronics by João Pedro Oliveria, and Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is for percussion and electronics by Peter Swendensen.

The concert features pianist Kari Johnson and percussionist Robert Burke. Both are DMA students at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. 

 

 

Jacomo Chorale
American Favorites
Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Nativity of Mary Church
10017 East 36^th Terrace S., Independence, Missouri
For more information visit http://www.jacomochorale.org/

Director Helen Vasconcellos brings her Jacomo Chorale to the stage this weekend for a performance of the music of George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Northland Community Choir
37th Annual Spring Concert: Et Lux Perpetua
Saturday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel, Park University
8700 NW River Park Drive, Parkville, Missouri
For tickets call 816-245-6769 or visit online at www.northlandcommunitiychoir.org.

The Northland Community Choir is a community vocal ensemble which has been around for most of four decades. The group performs its spring concert on the campus of Park University this Saturday evening. The featured number is the famous 1947 Requiem by French composer Maurice Duruflé. The piece will feature soprano Julia Scozzafava, baritone Joshua Lawlor, and organist Terry Foster.

The concert will also feature the choral work of Johannes, Brahms and contemporary South African composer Peter Klatzow, among others.

 Fine Arts Chorale with Kansas City Boys and Girls Choirs
Alliance of Ages
Sunday, April 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church
6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kansas
Free admission, but a free will donation will be taken to benefit the Fine Arts Chorale and the Kansas City Boys and Girls choirs.
For more information visit http://www.fineartschoralekc.org/ 

Terri Teal brings her Fine Arts Chorale to the Village Presbyterian Church to perform a joint concert with two local youth choirs.  No programming is available at press time, but the concert is said to feature “uplifting and inspirational music perfect for a spring afternoon!”

Youth Symphony of Kansas City
Spring Concert
Sunday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th Street and Central Ave., Kansas City, Missouri
For more information visit http://www.youthsymphonykc.org/

The Youth Symphony of Kansas City has its spring concert this weekend at the Folly Theater. The full orchestra concert at 8:00 p.m. will be preceded by the Symphonette Orchestra at 5:00 p.m. and the Philharmonic Orchestra at 2:00 p.m. 

The full Youth Symphony performance in the evening will feature Rossini’s overture to The Barber of Seville and the challenging Dvořák Symphony No. 8.

 The 5:00 p.m. Symphonette Orchestra concert features arrangements of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, Holst’s Song Without Words, Saint-Saëns’ “Bacchanale” from Samson et Delilah and others.   The 2:00 p.m. String Orchestra concert will include Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, Nikola Ovanin’s Hatikvah, and an arrangement of When Johnny Comes Marching Home as well as other selections.

This is a great opportunity for you to hear many of Kansas City’s finest young musicians as they tackle impressive repertoire and mature into the professional musicians that you may one day be hearing on the city’s (and indeed the country’s) full concert stages.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Graduate Fellowship String Quartet
Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call the Central Ticket Office, (816) 235-6222, or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu.

Christian Fatu and Trisha McGovern, violinists, are joined by Shih-Hsun Pan, violist and cellist Alice Huang to perform works of Haydn, Ravel and Dvořák at this free concert by some of the UMKC Conservatory’s finest string players.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Ensemble
Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu.

The UMKC Conservatory’s Wind Ensemble under the direction of Joe Parisi presents its final concert of the school year with music of Gustav Holst, Vincent Persichetti, Malcolm Arnold and others.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Artist Series
Conservatory Orchestra and Choirs: Poulenc’s Gloria
Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu.

 The UMKC Conservatory’s final Conservatory Artist Series concert of the year will feature the Conservatory Orchestra led by conductor Robert Olson in a program featuring the monumental Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in the first half, and then, in concert with the Conservatory Choir, under the direction of Robert Bode in a performance of Francis Poulenc’s beautiful Gloria in the second half.

Bode, the Conservatory's new Raymond R. Neevel/Missouri professor of choral music and director of choral activities, will conduct the Gloria. He is the recent recipient of Chorus America's prestigious Margaret Hillis Award.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Symphony
Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu.

Steven Davis’ Conservatory Wind Symphony performs its final concert of the academic year Tuesday evening.  As of this writing there is no information available about the programming.

Kansas City Symphony
Stern Conducts Dvořák and Brahms
Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 1, at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11th and Central Streets, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 816-471-0400, or purchase tickets online at www.kcsymphony.org.

“Creation” is the theme of at least two of the selections on this weekend’s Symphony concerts, as the ensemble performs “The Representation of Chaos,” the opening section of Franz Joseph Haydn’s monumental oratorio The Creation, and La création du monde, by the early 20^th-century French composer Darius Milhaud, who has a very different “take” on the same theme.

Also on the program are Dvořák’s romantic Symphony No. 8 and another premiere by Avner Dorman, who seems to be one of music director Michael Stern’s favorite contemporary talents, called Frozen in Time.

Haydn’s Creation grew out of the composer’s long sojourn in London near the end of his career, after he was gratefully relieved of his long duties at the Esterhazy Estate.  While in London he heard the revelatory oratorios of Georg Frideric Handel, including The Messiah, and decided that he should create something like that himself.  The result, The Creation, is an oratorio that ranks up there with Handel’s best, and has long been one of the favorite works of the choral and orchestral repertoire. The selection to be played by the Symphony is just the seven-minute orchestra introduction, and will not include any of the quite beautiful later choral sections of the work.

When Darius Milhaud tackled the same subject matter, he brought his jazz-influenced style along to provide an entirely different viewpoint. His rhythmic, toe-tapping score is played all too infrequently, so Symphony audiences will appreciate the opportunity to hear this unusual score.

The Dvořák Symphony No. 8 is one of the masterworks of the symphonic repertoire and deservedly ranks up there next to his monumental Symphony No. 9 as one of the most popular with audiences.  From the sonorous, cathedral-sounding opening tones to the delightful Adagio, a virtual recreation in sound of the bustling life of a small Czech town from the composer’s beloved Bohemia, it is a delight of romantic tunefulness and rich harmonic accompaniment.

Israeli composer Avner Dorman has had several opportunities to be heard here in recent seasons.  In November the Kansas City Symphony premiered his piano concerto Lost Souls. In this concert the ensemble gives the U.S. premiere of Frozen in Time, a percussion concerto featuring soloist Martin Grubinger. It received its world premiere in 2008 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

The composer says that the piece consists of “imaginary snapshots of the Earth’s geological development from prehistoric times to the present day.” Most scientists agree that over the millennia the earth’s continents have combined, broken apart and shifted, so each movement of the piece, the composer says, “imagines the music of a large prehistoric continent at a certain point in time.” German born percussionist Martin Grubinger received his training at the Salzburg Mozarteum and has since become one of the leading percussion soloists today. In Kansas City he will recreate his world premiere performance of this work.

University of Kansas Department of Dance
Spring Concerts
Thursday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center
University of Kansas Campus, Lawrence, Kansas
For tickets call (785) 864-2787 or online at www.dance.ku.edu.

Brooklyn-based choreographer Dusan Tynek, a native of the Czech Republic, is the guest choreographer for the University of Kansas Department of Dance for its Spring dance program. Tynek has designed the dance sequences for Transparent Walls, which “examines organized chaos, where individuals break free from life’s tumultuous machinery….”  The concerts will also feature the choreography of members of the dance faculty, including Muriel Cohan and Patrick Suzeau, Jered Hilding, Willie Lenoir and Michelle Hefner Hayes.  The featured music includes works of Ras Mandala, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Joseph Eidson, among others.

newEar Contemporary Music Ensemble
Owen/Cox Dance Group
Contemporary Collaborations
Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
City Stage Theatre at Union Station
30 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 460-2020 or online at www.unionstation.org.

Two of Kansas City’s most unorthodox but successful performing arts groups are teaming up for what will surely be a most intriguing evening. The Owen/Cox Dance Group has become one of this writer’s favorite Kansas City dance ensembles for its unusual and often witty choreography, clever use of local dance talent, and intriguing live music, usually composed by one of the group’s founders, Brad Cox.

Meanwhile, the newEar Contemporary Music Ensemble features recent and often challenging compositions by local as well as international composers experimenting in altogether new forms of composition with unusual instrumentation and often challenging sounds.

Together, these two groups plan an evening featuring “works by the never-dull Jacob TV (Garden of Love for sax and boom box) and Hyekyung Lee (Shadowing for alto sax and clarinet) … as well as Louis Andriessen’s stultifyingly amazing Worker’s Union.”

We can hardly wait. 

University of Kansas School of Music
Hansel und Gretel
Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Continuing on May 1, 3, 5 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. (May 8 performance at 2:30 p.m.)
Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall
University of Kansas Campus, Lawrence, Kansas
For tickets call (785) 864-3982 or online at www.music.ku.edu.

 Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel is, despite the fairy tale origins, not just for kids.  The story itself, like many of the Grimm Brothers fairy tales is, well, rather grim, as was the custom in early 19^th century Germany where such “children’s” tales often dealt with real life horrors such as trickery, child abandonment, death of parents, being lost, and being the victim of criminals.  The music, moreover, is hardly childlike; Humperdinck was a disciple of Richard Wagner’s, and followed his master’s inclination towards complex musical language and intricate harmonic fabric.

It is also one of the most tuneful, spirited, and altogether delightful operas ever composed.  So it is especially appropriate for student performances, and here done by young talents from the University of Kansas School of Music.  Check out the conducting of David Neely, a fine orchestra master who works during the summertime directing professional singers at the Des Moines Metro Opera, and also the choreography of Jerel Hilding during the dance sequences.

Harriman-Jewell Series
Russian National Ballet Theatre
Romeo and Juliet
Saturday, April 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th and Central, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 415-5025, or online at www.hjseries.org.

The Russian National Ballet Theatre, a prominent touring dance ensemble, brings its version of Tchaikovsky’s ever popular ballet Romeo and Juliet to the Folly Theater for its fourth appearance on the Harriman Jewell Series.  The fifty-member ensemble is led by Elena Radchenko, its longtime artistic director and a former principal dancer with Russia’s famed Bolshoi Ballet.

The evening also includes Mikhail Fokine’s Chopiniana, featuring, of course, variations on the music of Frederic Chopin.

Topeka Symphony
The Three B’s
Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
White Hall
Washburn University Campus, Topeka, Kansas
For tickets call (785) 232-2032 or online at www.topekasymphony.org.

Topeka Symphony conductor John Strickler brings the music of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms to the White Hall stage this weekend. The featured Bach composition is Suite From the Anna Magdalena Notebook, the Brahms work is Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Beethoven work is the ambitious Symphony No. 8. 

The soloist in the Brahms piano concerto is Julius Kim, a Korean native who became the youngest student at the Vienna University of Music and the Performing Arts. After winning a series of piano competitions in Asia and in Europe, he began a concert career which has taken him to Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Canada, as well as various points in Asia and in the United States.  He has recorded two discs of Chopin music.

Fountain City Brass Band
Symphonic Brass
Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Bell Cultural Center
MidAmerica Nazarene University
2030 E. College Way, Olathe, Kansas
For tickets call (913) 971-3636 or online at www.fcbb.net

The Fountain City Brass Band headquartered at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe is one of the most decorated local music ensembles, having won a variety of awards in various brass competitions including the North American Brass Band Championship for the last five years running.

This weekend the group will perform a concert featuring symphonic favorites as arranged for brass band, with guest trumpet soloist Joe Burgstaller, a former member of the famed Canadian Brass and Meridian Arts Ensemble and currently an instructor at the Peabody Institute. The concert is a tune-up for the group’s tour of England, France, Belgium and Holland beginning late next month.  

By Don Dagenais

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.