KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
UMKC Opera Scenes Programs
Wednesday, April 21 through Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Grant Recital Hall
5227 Holmes, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit www.conservatory.umkc.edu

Last week, the Dance Department at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance put on its spring dance recital, and this weekend it is the turn of the Opera Department to strut its stuff.  In four different programs this weekend, students will present scenes from a variety of different operas, ranging from Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict to Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, all sung with piano accompaniment.  It's a great opportunity to hear a variety of different opera selections by talented students, and at a great price!



Owen/Cox Dance Group
The Lewis and Carroll Expedition
Friday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.
H&R Block City Stage Theatre at Union Station
30 West Pershing Road, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-460-2020 or online at www.unionstation.org

Dance fans have a special treat in store this weekend as Brad Cox and Jennifer Owen of the Owen/Cox Dance Group put their talents together for yet another ingenious show.  Imagine what were to happen if historic figures from Lewis and Clark's pathbreaking earthly 19^th century expedition to explore the western frontier were to meet up with...characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland? 

Hard to conceive?  Well, apparently not for this pair.  "Witness a flamboyant collision of history and literature," they say, "pregnant with meandering and both burnished and blemished nonsense, as the dancers and musicians of the Owen/Cox Dance Group give wide berth to the conventional narratives on a frabjous expedition with Meriwether Lewis Carroll."

Hold your breath, take the valium, grab your chair, and let Owen and Cox take you on a wild ride.  We know from experience that it will be unpredictable but exhilarating.




The Friends of Chamber Music
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Friday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org

 Baroque violin specialist Giuliano Carmignola and director Andrea Marcon bring the Venice Baroque Orchestra back to Kansas City in a Friends of Chamber Music presentation Friday evening. On tap are concerti by Antonio Vivaldi (who else?), Francesco Geminiani, Giuseppe Tartini, and Tomaso Albinoni. 

Baroque music has been all the rage the past couple of decades, but few ensembles have the sensitive and historically nuanced approach of the Venice Baroque orchestra.  A reviewer in the Boston Musical Intelligencer recently wrote that "I always find it refreshing to hear a period ensemble that avoids the harshly percussive approach to Baroque music that seems to be in vogue. Instead, the twelve players [of the Venice Baroque Orchestra] indulged in a rich, resonant sound while still evoking the flavor of the times. Their approach to the music itself was equally impressive: they energized the quick-paced movements with bold dynamic contrasts and warmed the slow-paced movements with emotive accenting and delicate improvisations from the lute and harpsichord, all punctuated by deliciously exaggerated dramatic pauses."


As to violinist Carmignola, Classical Candor recently wrote, in reviewing a compact disc recording, that "performing on a 1732 Stradivarius, Mr. Carmignola displays all the technical skill and fluency necessary and does so with precision and élan."



Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Don Giovanni
Saturday, April 24, at 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 30 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central, Downtown Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 816-471-7344 or online at www.kcopera.org

Read the KCMetropolis preview here.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Signature Series
Season Finale: Robert Olson with UMKC Conservatory Orchestra and Chorus
Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

For its traditional Finale concert, the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Signature Series and conductor Robert Olson bring the full Conservatory orchestra to the stage for the world premiere of a composition by James Mobberly, professor of composition at the Conservatory.  The work was commissioned by Sara and Landon Rowland as a tribute to Todd Bolender, the late founding director of the Kansas City Ballet.

In the mid 1990s, Mobberly worked with Bolender in creating a work called Arena. According to Mobberly, "Bolender's great musical loves included Stravinsky, Gershwin, Bernstein and Copland."  Mobberly took all of these influences into account in his new composition, called Grand jeté.

The concert will also include a composition by contemporary composer Michael Daugherty called Red Cape Tango, and the Symphony No. 1 by Finnish master Jean Sibelius.




The Performing Arts Series at JCCC
Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble
Saturday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-469-4445 or online at www.jcc.edu/TheSeries

The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble is a high-energy contemporary dance ensemble created in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in order to offer children in Harlem the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts. The organization quickly moved beyond its school roots and became a professional ensemble which today tours several continents as the only primarily African-American ballet company in the world.

Each performance selects dances from the company's repertoire which includes Return, New Bach, Hallmark, Billy Wilson's Concerto in F and Fragments.  For the especially extroverted, the company even sometimes invites audience members to participate onstage.



Kansas City Women's Chorus
Belles of Broadway
Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.
Rose Theatre at Rockhurst High School
9301 State Line Road, Kansas City, MO
For tickets visit www.kcwomenschorus.org

Joseph Nadeau, in addition to directing the Heartland Men's Chorus, also directs the Kansas City Women's Chorus, an organization which gives its final concert of the season this weekend, called "Belles of Broadway."  Selections will be from musicals such as Camelot, West Side Story and South Pacific.



Fountain City Brass Band
Classical Brass
Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Bell Cultural Events Center at Mabee Performing Arts Hall
Mid-America Nazarene University
2030 E. College Way, Olathe, KS
For tickets call 913-971-3636 or online at bellboxoffice@mnu.edu.

The Fountain City Brass Band plays its final concert of the season this weekend with classical selections arranged for brass band.




Kansas City Symphony
Symphony at Sea
Sunday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 (no tickets available online for this performance).

Associate conductor Steven Jarvi of the Kansas City Symphony leads the forces in an afternoon family pops concert this Sunday at Yardley Hall.  The concert is advertised as "an oceanic journey around the musical globe" which will include selections from various popular classics relating to the sea, including the movie score by Eric Korngold from The Sea Hawk, music from Rossini's William Tell, the theme music from The Red Poppy, the musical score from Pirates of the Caribbean and others. 

The concert will include video components as well, including videos from some of the movies.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Choirs: Choral Music of the Jewish Tradition
Sunday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, KS
Free admission, but charitable donations to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure are requested.
For more information visit www.conservatory.umkc.edu

This evening the UMKC Conservatory choirs present their eighth annual choral concert to benefit Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  Accompanying the Conservatory choirs will be Jan Kraybill, organist, Wesley Kelly, harpist, Laura Lee Crandall, percussionist, and Jacob McCallson, a boy soprano.

The concert will include Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, "Lift up mine eyes" from Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, Five Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre, and several other selections.

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.