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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Late April marks the winding down of 2010–11 season for many groups, couple that with the Easter weekend and offerings are few and far between.  But there are some gems still remaining in these last weeks of April.  Those include the University of Kansas Music Department performs Humperdinck’s timeless Hansel and Gretel; Russian National Theatre in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet (Harriman-Jewell Series); and 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 theKansas University Department of Dance are on tap.

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. The talented singers and instrumentalists of UMKC will end the Conservatory Artist Series with Poulenc’s Gloria and Tchaikovsky.

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 theGloria. 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, includingThe 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 balletRomeo 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.