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

Kansas City Ballet
The Nutcracker
Friday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 17 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 18 at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 21 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 22 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Friday, December 23 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 24 at 1:00 p.m.
Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
1601 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-931-2232 or visit online at www.kcballet.org. 

As everybody who has not been living on the far side of the moon lately is aware, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is the one of the most popular ballet ever written and has been a holiday favorite in Kansas City for many years.  The Kansas City Ballet presents one of the most spectacular productions of the ballet in the Midwest. This year you have a chance to see it as you have never seen it before, redesigned for the magnificent new Muriel Kauffman Theatre in the Kauffman Center.  There are lots of performances, but tickets always go fast and many will be sold out.  Youngsters old and new will appreciate the charm and grace of Tchaikovsky’s ageless score and the choreography of the Ballet’s artistic director, William Whitener, in this exciting new space.

Quality Hill Playhouse
Christmas in Song
Quality Hill Playhouse
Performances through December 24
Quality Hill Playhouse
303 W 10th St Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-421-1700 or visit online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com. 

Kent Barnhart and his troupe at Quality Hill Playhouse produce excellent performances of Broadway and light fare. The theater’s annual Christmas show features vocalists Molly Hammer, Lateesha McDonald Jackson and Lindsey McKee, along with Barnhart himself at the piano. This reviewer enjoyed the performance earlier in the month, and highly recommends it for the light at heart. Prior reservations are a must, as many performances are sold out.

Musical Theater Heritage
A Spectacular Christmas in Concert
Through Sunday, December 18
Off Center Theater, Crown Center
2405 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-842-9999 or visti online at www.musicaltheaterheritage.com. 

Like Quality Hill Playhouse, George Harter’s Musical Theater Heritage group ordinarily presents Broadway and lighter songs. This season Harter is producing a holiday program featuring Lauren Braton, Jeremy Watson, Richard Gibson and other talented local singers and actors.

Overland Park Civic Band
Christmas Concert
Thursday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Bell Cultural Events Center
MidAmerica Nazarene University
2030 E College Way, Olathe, KS 
Free admission. For more information, visit http://opcivicband.org/ 

The Overland Park Civic Band presents its annual holiday concert this evening.  As of press time there was no information available about the programming for this concert.

Kansas City Symphony
Christmas Festival
Friday, December 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 17 at 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 18 at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
1601 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-471-0400 or visit online at www.kcsymphony.org. 

The Kansas City Symphony’s annual holiday pops concert, “Christmas Festival,” is on the Helzberg Hall stage this weekend for its first appearance in the Kauffman Center.  The program is usually a mixture of classical favorites, popular tunes, dance and comedy.  This year’s presentation features vocalists Laquita Mitchell and Olivia Sabates as well as Rezound, the Kansas City Symphony Brass and the Allegro Community Children’s Choir.  The spirited and always game associate conductor of the Symphony, Steven Jarvi, conducts. 

If the kids or grandkids haven’t had a chance to see the inside of Helzberg Hall yet, this would be a great opportunity.  However, prior ticket purchases are a must; many performances are sold out.

Owen/Cox Dance Group 
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
Friday and Saturday, December 16 and 17 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 18 at 2:00 p.m.
H&R Block City Stage, Union Station
30 W Pershing Rd, Kansas City, MO
Tickets available online at www.unionstation.org. For more information visit http://owencoxdance.org/

Is it possible to do a satirical take-off on Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker while at the same time showing reverence for the story? Be your own judge at the Owen/Cox Dance Group’s unconventional look at the Nutcracker story and tradition. The zany Owen/Cox production offers a stark and highly entertaining contrast to the “straight” performance of the Nutcracker being offered by the Kansas City Ballet. 

Co-founders Jennifer Owen, dancer, and Brad Cox, composer, present an offbeat take-off of the Tchaikovsky masterpiece (based the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann). Performances the past two years have delighted a growing audience.

The Owen/Cox Dance Group has carved out a well-deserved reputation for itself in recent years for being one of Kansas City’s most innovative and entertaining dance companies, presenting excellent performances in both classical and modern traditions. Jennifer Owen’s charming and often uproarious choreography is set to clever Tchaikovsky take-off music supplied by fifteen musicians of the People’s Liberation Big Band, horn sculptor Mark Southerland, artist Peregrine Honig, and students from the Paseo Academy of the Performing Arts. Hold onto your seats.

Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College 
Burning River Brass Ensemble
Our Kind of Christmas
Friday, December 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
For tickets, call 913-469-445 or visit online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.

The Burning River Brass Ensemble, a 15-year-old ensemble of brass players who tour the world giving concerts of eclectic music, comes to Kansas City for a holiday concert which will include new arrangements of Christmas favorites.  According to a review in The Washington Times, the group’s “easy, punchy delivery, which seems unforced and effortless, could only have turned out that way with a significant amount of practice and great attention to detail. . . this Christmas Concert was about as good as it gets.”

William Baker Festival Singers
Fourteenth Annual Candlelight, Carols and Cathedral Concert
Friday, December 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 18 at 2:00 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W 13th St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 913-403-9223 or visit online at www.festivalsingers.org. 

The William Baker Festival Singers present two performances of their annual holiday concert with music of Holst, Whitacre, Howells, Verdi and others, along with a number of holiday favorites. At some point audience participation is encouraged, so warm up your voice before you come.

Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Sounds of the Season
Saturday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS
Free admission. For more information visit http://kccivic.org

Christopher Kelts brings the Kansas City Civic Orchestra to its annual holiday concert in the friendly confines of Atonement Lutheran Church. Designed to get you in a toe-tapping mood for the holiday, the program includes "White Christmas," "Winter Wonderland," Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival, Festive Sounds of Hanukkah, Overture to The Messiah and many others. And you can’t beat the price.

Heritage Philharmonic
Holiday Pops Spectacular
Saturday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Blue Springs High School Performing Arts Center
2000 NW Ashton Dr, Blue Springs, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://www.heritagephilharmonic.org/

The Heritage Philharmonic’s annual holiday concert will include performances by the Cordill-Mason Elementary's Cougar Choir under the direction of Robin Stockdell.

Kantorei of Kansas City
Kantorei Christmas: Sweet Was the Song
Saturday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church
16808 S Holmes Rd (Loch Lloyd), Belton, MO
Sunday, December 18 at 3:00 p.m.
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church
3106 Flora Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, visit online at www.kantoreikc.org. 

Kantorei of Kansas City, one of the city’s newest vocal ensembles, made an excellent debut earlier this year. This weekend it will present two holiday concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  The concert will feature the six anthems of Felix Mendelssohn, published under the title Sechs Spruche, and Christmas carols of Tim Porter. The Mendelssohn works track through different events of the year, and begin with Christmas, the day on which Mendelssohn completed the composition in 1843.

Youth Symphony of Kansas City
Winter Concerts
Sunday, December 18 at 2:00 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel, Park University
8700 NW River Park Dr, Parkville, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://www.youthsymphonykc.org/

The various components of the Youth Symphony will give three holiday concerts this afternoon in Parkville.  In addition to holiday fare, the concerts will feature the music of Holst, Sibelius, Brahms and Dvorak.

Harriman-Jewell Series
DePue Brothers Band
Holiday Concert
Monday, December 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
1601 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-415-5025 or visit online at www.hjseries.org.

Another not-quite-classical Christmas performance is that of the DePue Brothers Band, which presents a holiday concert under the sponsorship of the Harriman-Jewell Series this evening. The group, which has been featured on PBS, performs works that “encompass a vivid blend of bluegrass, classical, and rock genres,” according to the publicity. 

Alex DePue is proficient in bluegrass, rock, classical, and jazz/blues and is a regular finalist in the Grandmasters Fiddling Championship (Nashville) and in the National Oldtime Fiddling Championship (Weizar, Idaho). His brother Jason is in the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra and attended the Curtis Institute of Music.

Wallace DePue has a doctorate in music performance and served as assistant principal of the Austin Lyric Opera Company for six years. He is presently assistant concertmaster of the Philly Pops. Zachary DePue is formerly a first violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute. He is now concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member of the classically trained garage band/trio Time For Three.

Together, the four brothers will perform works of Fats Domino, Leroy Anderson, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Aaron Copland, among many others. Also included are several compositions of their own.

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.