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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

In the two weeks leading up to the much anticipated opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts during the weekend of September 16–18, a few classical music organizations are dipping their toes into the water before taking the full plunge in to their fall seasons.

The Kansas City Symphony is leading the way with its free Labor Day concert at Shawnee Mission Park featuring pops classics under the direction of associate conductor Steven Jarvi. The tenth anniversary of the horrific events of September 11 leads to two memorial concerts, one on September 10 by newEar and the second on the following night at the Community Christian Church featuring René Clausen’s choral work Memorial. The Lied Center of the University of Kansas features a concert by one of KU’s talented faculty members, Steven Spooner, kicking off the year-long celebrations of the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt. Watch this column throughout the year for other organizations participating in similar observances.

Kansas City Symphony
Pops in the Park
Monday, September 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Shawnee Mission Park
7900 Renner Road, Mission, KS
Admission is free. For more information visit www.kcsymphony.org.

The Kansas City Symphony traditionally opens its season with a free Labor Day pops concert at Shawnee Mission Park, and this year is no exception. The orchestra’s ebullient associate conductor Steven Jarvi will conduct the performance. The program is designed to please popular tastes; rumor has it that the movie scores of Pirates of the Caribbean and the ubiquitous Star Wars will be featured.

The concert is free, although be prepared for low-key Symphony-related beggars. Arrive early to get a good seat, and bring along a folding chair and blanket, if you like. If you don’t wish to listen to your stomach grumble while those around you dine on delectable treats, bring along a picnic supper. I’m going to check to see if the watermelon plants from the seeds I spat out last year have sprouted. But if food preparation isn’t your thing, they do sell vittles on the grounds. The gates open at 4:30 p.m., so if you wait until just before the concert to show up, all the best spots will be taken. Don’t forget the lawn chairs, sunscreen, and sunglasses. The latter are useful particularly if you arrive early.

newEar
Vortex Memoriam
Saturday, September 10 at 8:00 p.m.
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call the Central Ticket Office, (816) 235-6222, or visit www.newear.org

newEar opens its fall season with a tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The concert features works by James Mobberley of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance and Ingram Marshall, both composed in the aftermath of the attacks.

Along the same vein, Le Liang's Memories of Xiaoxiang is a haunting reminder of the loss of a loved one during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and the pain inflicted by the individual's loss of a “voice.” The second half of the concert will feature French composer Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum, consisting of “thirty-plus minutes of exquisite color, texture, light and beauty.”

City in Motion Dance Theater
Dance in the Park
Saturday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Roanoke Park
3699 E Roanoke Dr., Kansas City, MO
For more information visit http://www.cityinmotion.org/#!__presenter-of-dance

Several of the city’s dance organizations, including the Owen/Cox Dance Group and City in Motion Dance Theater, are performing at the annual Roanoke Park “Dance in the Park” event on September 10. Details are unavailable at press time, but it sounds like a great family event. Bring a picnic!

Westport Center for the Arts
Community Christian Church
Medical Arts Symphony
9/11 Memorial Concert
Sunday, September 11 at 7:00 p.m.
Community Christian Church
4601 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Free admission, but obtain tickets online at www.9-11MemorialKC.org.

The Westport Center for the Arts, the Community Christian Church and the Medical Arts Symphony are joining together for this unique collaborative concert on the unfortunate tenth anniversary of one of our country’s most tragic days. The concert will feature René Clausen’s Memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks “and all victims of senseless violence.”

Lied Center of Kansas
Steven Spooner, concert pianist
Tuesday, September 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center, University of Kansas
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
Free admission. For more information visit http://www.ku.edu/music

University of Kansas faculty member Steven Spooner will perform a program celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of perhaps the greatest of all piano virtuosos, Franz Liszt. As part of the free concert, he will perform the world premiere of composer Mohammed Fairouz’s, which was written for the 2011 KU Liszt Festival, A Liszt Odyssey.

Spooner has given recitals at venues such as the Salle Cortot in Paris, Holland’s Vredenburg Centre, and Budapest’s Great Hall of the Liszt Academy. He recently made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in a tour sponsored by the Hungarian Government. This season he will perform in Rome (Academia Santa Cecilia), New York (Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall), Washington D.C. (National Gallery of Art), Jakarta, Singapore (Esplanade Recital Hall), Budapest, Italy and throughout Asia.

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.