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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The Kansas City Symphony’s four concerts of the fall are all must-see events for one reason or another. Opening its season at the Kauffman on September 23rd with the delightfully apt Stravinsky Fireworks, the program also features the world premiere of Chen Yi’s Fountains of KC. It is Respighi’s Pines of Rome that is the stand-out however. If you’ve never heard this Respighi masterpiece of orchestration and bravado with a real pipe organ churning away during “Pines of the Appian Way,” I assure you that you are in for a bone-shaking, pulse-raising musical experience. In late October, the Kansas City Symphony Chorus joins the Orchestra for Brahms’ German Requiem. For those with a more modern and Eastern European slant, late November’s two-weekend pair of concerts features works by Bartók, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, and Shostakovich. The first, over the weekend of Nov. 18–20 is my personal favorite. Twenty-one-year-old Uzbek and current Park University phenom, Behzod Abduraimov solos on Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the concert will close with Hindemith’s thorny and fun Symphonic Metamorphosis. Pairing these selections with the two Eastern European “orange” works — Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Suite from The Love for Three Oranges — will undoubtedly result in one of the most ambitious, sonically rich, and technically demanding concerts of the fall.

Down I-70, the Topeka Symphony Orchestra welcomes Czech violinist Ivan Zenaty on October 1, for a program cleverly titled “Czech Mates” pairing Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 will be played on the October 29th concert along with Christopher Theofanidis’ Rainbow Body, an infinitely tuneful channeling of a Hildegard von Bingen chant, and Britten’s stark Sinfonia da Requiem.

As the Kansas City Civic Orchestra enters it 53rd season, Christopher Kelts’ fine community orchestra presents two fall concerts: “An American Tradition” on October 16th and “2011: A Classical Odyssey” on November 18th. Gershwin’s rare Lullaby slides perfectly into a program featuring his popular American in Paris (time to bust out the claxon horns!), Copland’s Billy the Kid, and Barber’s resplendent Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Korean soprano, Haekyung An. “2011: A Classical Odyssey,” as the name implies is an exploration of the music used in sci-fi. Expect some Strauss and John Williams.

Tony Brandolino’s Liberty Symphony Orchestra also tackles John Williams’ scores on October 22nd. The tentative program includes popular cues from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter. Film scores aren’t for you? Well the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, led by Travis Jürgens, offers more traditional fare earlier in the month on October 2nd with a concert of Brahms, Beethoven, and Haydn.

The Johnson County Community College Performing Arts Series brings the Munich Symphony Orchestra with vocal ensemble Gloriae Dei Cantores and conductor Philippe Entremont to Yardley Hall on November 6th. Mozart’s final work, his Requiem, joins Schoenberg’s earliest important work, Verklärte Nacht, on the program. If all you know of Schoenberg is his atonal, serial works, give Verklärte Nacht a chance. It is a boundary-pushing late Romantic work and is absolutely ravishing. It will change your perspective.

Harriman-Jewell Series brings the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to Kansas City for the fourth time. For this tour, the famed ensemble is joined by the Eroica Trio to perform Beethoven's fantastic Triple Concerto. Franz Schmidt’s between-World-Wars Symphony No. 4 is also on the November 9th program.

The Overland Park Orchestra seems to be focusing on family-friendly musical engagements with a performance of Beethoven’s Wig on October 8th and 9th, and a Halloween concert on October 30th.

Student musicians at the KU School of Music Symphony Orchestra accompany Bella Hristova on Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor on September 27th. A Halloween concert, complete with a costume contest, is scheduled for October 28th. Their counterparts in the UMKC Conservatory Orchestra perform on September 23th and October 21st; the repertoire has yet to be announced. The UMKC Chamber Orchestra performs on November 30th.

The Lee’s Summit Symphony’s “Fall Classic” is scheduled for October 15th at Lee's Summit High School Performing Arts Center. The programming has yet to be announced. On October 9th and 23rd, the Youth Symphonies of Kansas City take the stage at UMKC’s White Recital Hall and Ruskin High School Auditorium, respectively.

Many of the other local orchestras including the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Northland Symphony, Heritage Philharmonic, and Medical Arts Symphony have yet to publicly announce their seasons.

Top Photo: Kansas City Symphony

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; 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 and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com