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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

In this article we will preview some of the terrific musical events that are coming up for your enjoyment over the first part of the seaon. Among the many outstanding events upcoming for the Fall season are a few that deserve asterisks on this audience member’s calendar: the Takacs String Quartet at the Carlsen Center at JCCC on September 10; opera diva Renee Fleming performing with the Harriman Jewell Series on October 9; elegant Czech pianist Ivan Moravec performing with The Friends of Chamber Music a week later; "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," a parody of Broadway theatrics, Russian ballet and the mob, with the Kansas City Ballet on October 14-17; the Venice Baroque Orchestra in an interesting juxtaposition of Vivaldi’s classic "The Four Seasons" matched with Philip Glass’ modern "The American Four Seasons" on October 16; the Kansas City Symphony Chorus in Giuseppe Verdi’s wonderful and rarely performed "Four Sacred Pieces" in KC Symphony concerts of October 22-24; Kansas native Karen Armitage’s group "Armitage Gone!" Dance performing at the University of Kansas’ Lied Center in Lawrence on November 5; the Lyric Opera’s first-ever production of a work by bel canto master Vincenzo Bellini, "Norma," opening November 6; newEar’s concert of contemporary music classics of Corigliano, Higdon, Kirchner and others on November 13; and famed pianist Leon Fleischer at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance on December 2.

The Friends of Chamber Music
Mainly at the Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org

Celebrating their 35th Anniversary in 2010-11, founder Cynthia Siebert has an outstanding season planned for Kansas City.  The elegant Czech pianist Ivan Moravec takes the Folly Theater stage on October 16, which this listener regards as the highlight of the fall portion of The Friends’ season. And probably a very close second will be Pinchas Zukerman and Yefim Bronfman in a duo violin/piano recital on November 19.

The Friends' season kicks off with the lyrical Russian pianist, Vladimir Feltsman on October 1, followed by the venerable, yet dynamic Kopelman String Quartet on November 6.

Harriman Jewell Series
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-415-5025 or online at www.harriman-jewell.org

The recent death of Richard Harriman, the founder of the remarkable Harriman Jewell Series of recitals, has left a deep sadness among those of us in the classical music community, but should not dissuade us from enjoying the outstanding season which he and his successor, Clark Morris, have planned for 2010-11.

Vocal music fans will enjoy today’s leading opera diva, Renee Fleming, in a recital on October 9 and the famed English group the King’s Singers in a holiday concert on December 11.  Dance enthusiasts will enjoy the remarkably energetic Trey McIntyre Project (you may have seen them at the Carlsen Center last year) on September 18 and the more traditional Houston Ballet on October 30. Gautier Capuçon, cellist, and Gabriela Montero, pianist, appear in a duo recital on November 5.

In addition, the Harriman-Jewell program is offering two free community concerts, of violinist Chloe Hanslip on October 15 and pianist Alessio Bax on November 20.

Kansas City Ballet
Lyric Theatre
10^th and Central, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-931-2232 or online at www.kcballet.org.

Kansas City’s premiere dance company inaugurates its season the weekend of October 14-17 with a program featuring Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, a parody of Broadway theatrics, Russian ballet and the mob, set to the music of Richard Rodgers. Also on the program are Bruce Marks’ The Lark Ascending, set to the transcendent music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and two Balanchine works, Mozartiana and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, both of them (notwithstanding the name of the first) set to music by Tchaikovsky.

Also, of course, the Kansas City Ballet will bring back the evergreen holiday favorite, The Nutcracker (more Tchaikovsky!) from December 11-24, this time performed at the Music Hall.

Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Old Mission Church
Shawnee Mission Parkway and Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS
& Unity Temple on the Plaza
707 West 47^th Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-235-6222 or online at www.kcchamberorchestra.org

The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra opens its season with a “Baroque by Candlelight” concert on October 2 and will also present a concert of the music of Schumann and Chopin on November 30. No other information is available about these Kansas City Chamber Orchestra concerts at press time for this article.



Kansas City Symphony
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
and some Sunday performances at
Yardley Hall at the Carlsen Center, JCCC
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets and information call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

The Kansas City Symphony kicks off the 2010-2011 year with its usual pops concert at Shawnee Mission Park on September 4, but really gets its classical music season going on the weekend of October 8-10 with guest violinist Hilary Hahn playing the beautiful Sibelius Violin Concerto. That weekend the Symphony also performs music of Ravel and Stravinsky (Suite from The Firebird, one of this columnist's favorites) along with a new composition by Jonathan Leshnoff.

Another soloist featured with the Symphony this fall is pianist James Tocco in the Barber Piano Concerto (November 19-20).

The Symphony Chorus appears with the orchestra during the weekend of October 22-24 in a rare performance of the great opera master Verdi’s last compositions, the Four Sacred Pieces. That concert will also feature the overture to Verdi’s opera I Vespri Siciliani, another rarely done piece, Busoni’s Suite from Turandot and Respighi’s beautiful Roman Festival.  That concert looks like one of the best of the season.

The November 19-20 concerts will include the Italian Serenade by Wolf and Berlioz’ Harold in Italy. For those performances, guest conductor Robert Minczuk will take the baton.

Lied Center at KU
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
For tickets or season information call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu

Among the offerings by the Lied Center at the University of Kansas this fall are several performances of interest to classical music fans.  On October 3, the Lied Center brings to the stage Adam Gyorgy, an exceptional 28-year-old classical pianist who won the first prize, grand prize and special prize at the first International Chopin piano Competition in Budapest. Then, on November 13 the Lied Center features Interpretiti Veneziani, an Italian chamber music group which plays the music of Vivaldi and other Italian baroque masters.

Dance fans will have an unusual experience on November 5, with Kansas native Karen Armitage’s group Armitage Gone! Dance. The troupe will perform Three Theories—a new, evening-long dance piece derived from theoretical physics (quantum mechanics, relativity and string theory are the three theories, if you must know). 



Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-471-7344 or online at www.kcopera.org

The Lyric's season opens on September 25 with Bizet’s classic Carmen, always one of the most popular operas with audiences around the world.  In this case, familiarity does not breed contempt, as this classic always seems to have something challenging and fascinating to offer with every performance.  Bizet’s timeless melodies will be sung by Sandra Piques Eddy as Carmen, a role she has sung with the Metropolitan Opera.  Newcomer tenor Dinyar Vania, of the New York City and Dallas operas, portrays her lover Don Jose.  Alyson Cambridge, a favorite with Kansas City audiences, will be Micaela.

The production I am most eagerly awaiting, however, is Bellini’s Norma, opening on November 6.  With these performances the Lyric Opera will patch a longtime hole in its repertory, as the company has never previously performed Norma - or indeed any opera by Bellini.  Fans of bel canto won’t want to miss soprano Brenda Harris in the title role.  This opera features several of the greatest tunes of early 19^th century Italian opera, in a gripping story that has held the stage for nearly 200 years. Laura Vlasak Nolen will sing Norma’s rival Adalgisa, while tenor Rafael Dàvila, who brilliantly sang Cavaradossi for the Lyric Opera a year ago, takes on Pollione.

NewEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-235-6222 or online at www.tickets.cto.umkc.edu/

NewEar opens its fall season on September 11 with music of Bonnie Kisch, Edwards Jacobs, Yuan Peiying, Roderik de Man and Toru Takemitsu. The Takemitsu piece, Between Tides for piano trio, is one of the classics of contemporary music and is the centerpiece of the concert.

On November 13, NewEar will present works by John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Jennifer Higdon, Steven Stucky, and Leon Kirchner, all significant modern composers whose works were selected by group member Robert Pherigo.  Several of the numbers will be heard in Kansas City for the first time, so this concert should be a real treat.


The Performing Arts Series at JCCC
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets and season information call 913-469-4445 or online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries

The Carlsen Center sponsors a variety of different performing arts events throughout the year, but is featuring two notable classical music performances this fall.

On September 10, the Performing Arts Series is featuring the Takacs String Quartet, one of the world’s finest chamber music ensembles (the quartet has appeared here several times with the Friends of Chamber Music) in the music of Haydn, Shostakovich and Schubert. On October 16, the Series is featuring Robert McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra in an interesting juxtaposition of Vivaldi’s classic The Four Seasons matched with Philip Glass’ modern The American Four Seasons. Sounds like a delightful evening.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Artist Series
White Recital Hall at UMKC Campus
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

The Conservatory of Music’s Conservatory Artist Series, formerly known as the Signature Series, brings several performances to the White Recital Hall at UMKC this fall, including a Conservatory Orchestra concert on September 16 with guest conductor Michael Stern (conductor of the Kansas City Symphony). The program will include James Mobberley's Grand jete, commissioned by Sarah and Landon Rowland at the 2008 Crescendo! gala in honor of Todd Bolender, late artistic director of the Kansas City Ballet.

On October 24, the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and Harlem Quartet will perform a joint program celebrating diversity in classical music, and on December 2 famed pianist Leon Fleischer will return to the Conservatory with a solo recital.



Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company
White Recital Hall, UMKC
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and season information call 816-235-6222 or online at www.wylliams-henry.org/

Mary Pat Henry’s Wylliams/Henry Dance Company opens the city’s dance performances this fall with The Cypress Avenue Concert on September 24 and 25. Narrated by Bill Shapiro, the longtime host of KCUR-FM’s Cypress Avenue rock music program, the evening will feature choreography set to classic rock numbers chosen by Shapiro.

Other Notable Music Groups
There are many other good performances coming up with other music and dance ensembles that aren’t listed above.  This columnist recommends that you watch for The Alvin Ailey Dance Company’s Ailey II performances on September 10 and 11; a rare production of Mozart’s early opera Idomeneo by the Kansas City Civic Opera on October 15 and 17; Musica Sacra’s concert of choral classics by Charpentier and Monteverdi on October 17; the Kansas City Chorale’s premiere of a new Mass by Rene Clausen on October 17 and 19; the lovely eight-voiced a capella ensemble Octarium performing a concert called American Idyll on October 29 and 31 (featuring the music of America, its natives, its geography, and its traditions); Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra on November 20; and the Owen Cox Dance Company’s inspired take-off entitled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King as a holiday treat from December 11-19. And much more...

So…fasten your seats belts and enjoy the ride through the best of classical music and dance in Kansas City…coming your way beginning in September!

Cover photo: Armitage Gone! Dance at the Lied Center.

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.