RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 24, 2011, Classical, Jazz
Fall 2011 preview: Piano and organ
Emanuel Ax and Marc-André Hamelin are among the visiting pianists coming to Kansas City this fall. Jazz fans can catch Grammy-winning pianists Herbie Hancock and Peter Nero as well. 2011 marks Liszt's bicentennial and both UMKC and KU will present festivals in his honor. Organ aficionados will surely want to catch performances by David Briggs and Jan Kraybill.
The Kansas City Symphony offers two programs with featured pianists this fall. On September 23rd, the renowned Emanuel Ax joins KCS for a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 4. The program will also feature Stravinsky, Respighi, and a world premiere by Kansas City composer Chen Yi. Park University phenom Behzod Abduraimov will join the Symphony on November 19th for Rachmaninoff’s well-loved Paganini Variations. That program will also include Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges Suite and Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite.
The Harriman-Jewell Series will present pianist Marc-André Hamelin on October 15th for an intriguing program with the Berg and Liszt sonatas and smaller works by Debussy and the peformer himself. The Debussy Preludes on the list are four of the most showy from the second book and sure to excite. Hamelin will also perform five Etudes from his own cycle of Etudes.
As part of the Liszt 200 Series, celebrating the bicentennial of Franz Liszt's birth, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance offers two concerts this fall. On October 9th, UMKC Professor of Piano Jane Solose will present a free concert featuring many favorites, including the Sonata in B minor, the Grande Etude de Paganini No. 6, and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in A minor. On December 4th, UMKC student Matthew Foster will present a lecture-recital entitled “Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, troisième année: A Spiritual Journey.”
KU Asssociate Professor of Piano Steven Spooner will also celebrate the Liszt bicentennial this fall with a program of Liszt and the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s Piano Sonata No. 2, The Last Resistance on September 13th. Fairouz’s piece was commissioned by Reach Out Kansas, Inc. and composed for the 2011 KU Liszt Festival.
Jazz piano fans can look forward to two concerts this fall: legendary musician Herbie Hancock will appear at the Lied Center of Kansas on October 30th. The Grammy Award-winner has been performing and composing at the height of the jazz medium for more than 40 years. Another Grammy Award-winner, Peter Nero, will lead his trio of piano, drums, and bass through selections from the Great American Songbook in a presentation by the Folly Jazz Series on November 5th.
The Dome and Spire Fine Arts Series at the Community of Christ Temple in Independence and the American Guild of Organists present a free solo recital by Organist Emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral David Briggs on September 19th. Other concerts in the Dome and Spire Series will feature local organist Jan Kraybill. Kraybill will join with Spire Chamber Ensemble to commemorate the tenth anniversary of September 11th, with the free program Movements of Peace, performing Duruflé’s beautiful Requiem along with works by Taverner, Clausen, and Mealor, as well as poetry and readings from faith traditions and cultures from around the world. On November 20th, the ensemble and Kraybill will present Pipes and Voices, a concert featuring Kodály’s Missa Brevis.
Top Photo: Behzod Abduraimov (Photo courtesy of Behzod Abduraimov)
Classical Editor and 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.
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