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Most people have seen Steven Jarvi lead the orchestra at pops concerts or at the family concerts. However, the more challenging work is with the Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players series, which he initiated. We asked his thoughts about putting the upcoming chamber program together.

David Peironnet: What should we look forward to when the Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players perform An Old World Holiday?

Steven Jarvi : We’ll take a look at how people celebrated Christmas with music from the fifteenth century all the way to the present. A German carol, Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming will open the program. Then, we’ll move to the eighteenth century with Arcangelo Corelli’s Christmas Concerto (Concerto Grosso in G Minor for strings and continuo). Then, on to Handel’s Organ Concerto, Op. 4.  

DP: Who will be the organist?

SJ: Janet Kraybill is the principal musician at the Community of Christ Auditorium and Temple in Independence. She is a tremendous and enthusiastic musician so we look forward to hearing her performance.

DP: Then what?

SJ: We’ll move to the nineteenth century with some of the finest music evocative of Christmas. We’ll perform Franz Liszt’s Angelus which is a lush piece of music, ideally suited to the venue where we’re performing. We will be at Visitation Church, located just south of the Plaza. Sound swirls around you—almost like a warm hug. I enjoy performances there. The sound is fantastic!

DP: What else will be performed on An Old World Holiday?

SJ:  The St. Paul Suite by Gustav Holst, which will remind you of the traditional Christmas melody, "Greensleeves." This is just a fantastic piece. We’ll close with Leroy Anderson’s Suite of Carols. I’m really looking forward to it!

I hope everyone will want to attend.

 ***

The Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players will perform An Old World Holiday on Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13 at 8 PM both nights at the Visitation Church, located at 5141 Main Street. 

Tickets are available from the Kansas City Symphony box office by calling 816/471-0400, by visiting the box office at 17th & Wyandotte, or at the Symphony’s web site www.kcsymphony.org

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.

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