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

The second half of February offers an opportunity to hear one of the most delightful comic operas in the repertoire, Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, at the Lyric Opera featuring two young singers in the lead roles. If piano music is your forte, you can enjoy two young superstars: Rafał Blechacz with the Friends of Chamber Music, and Behzod Abduraimov at Park University. Vocal music fans can enjoy Musica Sacra’s concert of Haydn and Buxtehude, Octarium in a concert of listener favorites, UMKC’s Conservatory Singers in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, as well as the Heartland Men’s Chorus and the Kansas City Women’s Chorus in Fauré's Requiem.

Bach Aria Soloists takes something of a departure from its usual wheelhouse with a concert of Argentine tangos, and followers of contemporary music can enjoy both newEar and the Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance (KCEMA). The Harriman-Jewell Series presents the Cape Town Orchestra in a concert featuring the Korngold Violin Concerto, a twentieth­­­­–century classic. Finally, one of the world’s favorite vocal groups, the Vienna Boys Choir, will present an eclectic but undoubtedly popular program at Yardley Hall.

The Friends of Chamber Music
Rafał Blechacz, pianist
Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-561-9999 or order online at www.chambermusic.org. 

Twenty-five-year-old Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz plays the music of Chopin, Debussy, and Szymanowski in this Master Pianists Series recital under the sponsorship of the Friends of Chamber Music. Blechacz, one of today’s rising stars, took First Prize at the prestigious 2005 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Since then he has performed at the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, with the Berliner Philharmonie, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt/Main, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, among others. He is an annual guest at the Salzburg Festival and several other music festivals in Europe.

He has recorded three classical best–selling albums with Deutsche Gramophon, one of the few young artists sponsored by that label. This recital is his Kansas City debut.

Westport Center for the Arts Brown Bag Concert
Elaine Fox, mezzo–soprano
Friday, February 18 at 12:00 noon
Westport Presbyterian Church
210 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO
Free admission; donations welcome.

Elaine Fox, a mezzo–soprano who has appeared with the Lyric Opera, Quality Hill Playhouse and other ensembles in town, gives a free concert at noon today under the sponsorship of the Westport Center for the Arts.  Grab a lunch, head for the Westport Presbyterian Church, and enjoy an outstanding local artist.  Coffee and cookies provided.

Musica Sacra
Haydn’s Salve Regina
Friday, February 18 at 7 p.m.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
52^nd St and Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call the Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222 or visit online at www.rockhurst.edu/musicasacra.

For its February concert, Timothy McDonald’s fine choir, Musica Sacra, performs Franz Joseph Haydn’s Salve Regina in G Minor, the latter of two settings of the Marian antiphon. “Completed in 1771," McDonald says, "the lyrical work sets the prayerful text both impressively and expressively.”

The concert also includes Alles was ihr tut by Dietrich Buxtehude, a composer who had a direct and profound influence on Johann Sebastian Bach. Buxtehude was a world-famous organist whom Bach greatly admired and often imitated in his own compositions.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City
The Daughter of the Regiment
Saturday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-471-7344 or visit online at www.kcopera.org.

Donizetti’s sparkling comedy La Fille du Regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) is the third production of the Lyric Opera’s final season in the Lyric Theatre. Long regarded as one of the finest of all comic operas, The Daughter of the Regiment is known for its excruciatingly difficult tenor role, particularly the famous aria “Ah! mes amis,” which requires the singer to throw off nine high C's. Equally challenging, however, is the soprano role, which requires not only spectacular coloratura technique, but also an impressive display of acting skills. The soprano must portray a tomboy soldierette in a variety of circumstances, including a hilarious scene in which she is dressed in frilly society finery and is desperately looking for a way out.

The Lyric Opera has recruited two outstanding singers for the lead roles. Young soprano Nili Riemer, who dazzled Kansas City audiences as Mabel in the 2009 production of The Pirates of Penzance, will sing the title role. As Tonio, the young lovesick soldier, the Lyric features Victor Ryan Robertson, an up and coming bel canto specialist whom, we are told, has no trouble with the nine high C’s.

Also in the cast are University of Kansas faculty members John Stephens, a Lyric stalwart, as the sergeant Sulpice, and the inimitable mezzo–soprano Joyce Castle, beloved to opera fans worldwide for her delightful acting as well as impressive singing, in the comic role of the Duchess of Birkenfeld. Adding to this embarrassment of riches is superb Kansas City actor Robert Gibby Brand in the nonsinging role of Hortensius.

Octarium
Listener’s Choice
Saturday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Elizabeth’s Church
75^th St and Main St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets visit http://www.octarium.org/schedule.html

Director Krista Lang Blackwood has allowed her audiences to “program” this performance by Octarium, the eighty-voice-strong a cappella singing group that has given such elegant performances in Kansas City the past few years.

Among the audience’s selections are works by Bruckner, Rachmaninoff, de Lasso, Vaughan Williams and Piazzolla.  Also represented are contemporary composers Eric Whitacre, Stephen Paulus and Daniel Gawthrop, among others. Octarium’s concerts are always a delight.

newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Vocalissimus
Saturday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call the Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222 or visit online at www.tickets.cto.umkc.edu.

This concert takes its title from the major work on the program, Sebastian Currier's massive chamber ensemble song cycle, Vocalissimus. The work also features soprano soloist, Sarah Tannehill.

Currier, educated at Columbia and Juilliard, has had his contemporary chamber works performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Grand Tetons Music Festival, and by the National Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and the San Francisco Orchestra, among others. A violin concerto was debuted by the New York Philharmonic and soloist Anne-Sophie von Mutter last season. His awards include the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2007.

Also on the program are pieces Sofia Gubaidalina, Leon Kirchner and Sara Graef, along with a solo work by Tomas Svoboda.

Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Remembering Mahler
Saturday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS
Free Admission. For more information visit http://www.kccivic.org

The community–based Civic Orchestra, under the direction of Christopher Kelts, tackles difficult orchestral territory in this concert, programming Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer for soprano and orchestra with guest soloist Jessica Goldring. Also on the program are Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pastoral,” and Quiet City by Aaron Copland.

Goldring is a graduate of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance (KcEMA)
Back to the Source Code
Saturday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.
La Esquina
1000 W 25th St, Kansas City, MO
Tickets at the doors.  For more information visit http://www.kcema.net/

 You should know about this electroacoustic concert featuring the performance and works of bassist Jeremy Baguyos, a Kansas City native now residing in Omaha. He will perform works for bass and digital audio, including pieces by McGregor Boyle, Andrew May, and Kirsten Volness, alongside works by Kansas City–based composers Jason Bolte and Andrew Seager Cole.

Lawrence Chamber Orchestra
Baroque by Candlelight
Saturday, February 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church
1011 Vermont St, Lawrence, KS
For tickets, call 785-691-7824 or visit http://www.lawrencechamberorchestra.org/

The Lawrence Chamber Orchestra is back after a hiatus, and performs an interesting concert of baroque selections. Included are Handel’s Overture to Theodora, Bach's Concerto for oboe d'amore with soloist Margaret Marco, Telemann’s Overture to La Putaine and the Symphony in B-flat of William Boyce.

Ruel Joyce Concert Series
Brookside String Quartet
Monday, February 22 at 12:00 noon
Carlsen Center Recital Hall
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
Free admission.  For information see the Carlsen Center web site, www.jccc.edu/performing-arts-series.

The free noontime Ruel Joyce Concert Series continues at Yardley Hall this Monday with a performance by the Brookside String Quartet consisting of four Kansas City Symphony musicians, Alex Shum, Francesca Manheim, Kent Brauninger and Leslie Mengel.

 
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Singers
Tuesday, February 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church
6641 Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS
Free admission. For more information visit http://conservatory.umkc.edu

Robert Bode brings his impressive Conservatory Singers group to the Village Presbyterian Church for a performance of the music of Bach, Part, Pizzetti, and Paulus, combining both baroque and contemporary styles in a wide range of selections. The most challenging piece on the program is Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed—no doubt—in excerpts as the entire piece would take the afternoon to perform.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Symphony
Wednesday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-235-6222 or visit online at www.umkc.edu/conservatory.

Conductors Steven D. Davis and graduate student Hayes Bunch are joined by faculty guest artist Tim Timmons, alto saxophone, in a program featuring the Concerto for Alto Saxophone by Ingolf Dahl, a West Coast composer and former teacher at the University of Southern California who died in 1970.  The program also features the work of Bach, Fillmore, Martin and Francaix.

John Henry Fillmore was a composer of marches and waltzes in the early twentieth century. His work, The Klaxon, dates from 1929.  Stamos James Martin is a UMKC composition student whose work, The Nefarious Ways of Odu, will receive its premiere. The Jean Francaix piece is a collection of dances from the ballet Les malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s Misfortunes) (1970) based upon a popular French children’s book character.

Harriman–Jewell Series
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
Friday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-415-5025 or visit online at www.hjseries.org.

An important part of the new cultural profile of Africa rests upon the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra of South Africa, an ensemble which has been gaining increasing notice in recent years. The orchestra will perform for the Series as part of its first American tour under the direction of guest conductor Martin Panteleev.

Touching upon the music of England, America and Russia, the concert’s program will include Walton’s Johannesburg Festival Overture, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. In addition, Russian–born violin soloist Philippe Quint will join the Orchestra for Korngold’s Concerto in D Major.  The Korngold Violin Concerto, belatedly recognized as a masterpiece of the violin literature, has been performed more and more frequently in the last decade, and if you haven’t had an opportunity to hear it, this should offer a splendid chance.

Bach Aria Soloists
Night of Tango
Friday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m.
All Souls Universalist Church
4501 Walnut St, Kansas City, MO
Saturday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS
For tickets, call 888-695-0888 or visit online at www.bachariasolooists.com.

Elizabeth Suh-Lane takes her traditional Bach Aria Soloists group on a bit of adventure this weekend, bringing bandoneón master Hector del Curto and tango pianist Gustavo Casenave to Kansas City and Lawrence for performances of traditional Argentine tangos.

They will be joined by Bach Aria Soloists founder and violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane and local guitar virtuoso Beau Bledsoe in performing Astor Piazzolla’s classic quintet music and Latin American arrangements of Bach.

It should be an interesting changing of pace for the Bach Aria Soloists group.

International Center for Music at Park University
International Center for Music Chamber Orchestra and featuring Behzod Abduraimov
Saturday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
Park University
8700 NW River Park Dr, Parkville, MO
Tickets available at the door. For more information visit http://www.park.edu/icm/

The brilliant young pianist Behzod Abduraimov will be a featured soloist with the Kansas City Symphony next season at Helzberg Hall in the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, but here is your chance to catch him at a much cheaper price. A student of Van Cliburn award-winning pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch, he should offer quite a show.

Johnson County Community College Performing Arts Series
The Vienna Boys Choir
Saturday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
For tickets, call 913-469-4445 or visit online at www.jccc.edu.

 Emperor Maximilian I established the Vienna Boys Choir in the 15^th Century to perform sacred works in the Imperial Chapel at Vienna. Nowadays the Emperor isn’t around to sponsor the organization, but the choir’s music has spread well beyond the imperial court in Vienna to become one of the most popular music ensembles in the world.

The range of music may be eclectic. “The Vienna Boys Choir’s diverse crowd–pleasing repertoire,” says the press material, “encompasses Austrian folk songs and waltzes, classical masterpieces, beloved pop songs, and medieval chants.” They have been known to perform contemporary music as well, including the songs of Celine Dion—not typically featured on your standard classical music concert.

Come prepared to enjoy!

Heartland Men’s Chorus and Kansas City Women’s Chorus
Fauré Requiem
Sunday, February 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Redemptorist Catholic Church
3333 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO
Free admission.  Donations will be accepted to support the church’s organ fund.  For more information visit http://www.hmckc.org and http://www.kcwomenschorus.org/

The Heartland Men’s Chorus has been performing more and more in the popular music vein than in the classic music tradition the past few years, but in this performance the singers will join with the Kansas City Women’s Chorus to bend their considerable talents to one of greatest choral works ever composed, the massive Requiem of French master Gabriel Fauré.

Long considered one of the greatest of the requiems, the Fauré work is difficult and performed all too infrequently, so this concert offers an excellent opportunity for fans of Fauré’s gorgeous music to revel in one of his greatest compositions.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Faculty Recital with Jane Carl, clarinet, and Patricia Higdon, piano
Sunday, February 27 at 5:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
James C. Olson Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://conservatory.umkc.edu

We are the lucky beneficiaries of having a fine conservatory of music in town. One of the pleasures it affords is the opportunity to attend free recitals by outstanding faculty members. This program features not one but two of the UMKC Conservatory’s faculty members in a program yet to be announced.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Faculty Recital with Robert Weirich, piano, Robert Waters, violin, and Carter Enyeart, cello
Sunday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
James C. Olson Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://conservatory.umkc.edu

Two of the UMKC Conservatory’s faculty members, joined by Robert Waters, will treat the audience to piano trios by two traditional composers, Beethoven and Brahms, and two less familiar ones: American composer Robert Muczynski, who died just last year, and Norwegian maestro Johan Halvorsen (1864–1935).

Northland Symphony Orchestra
Sarah Tannehill and Nicole Murray, sopranos
Sunday, February 27 at 3 p.m.
Staley High School
2800 NE Shoal Creek Pkwy, Kansas City, MO
Free admission.  For more information visit http://www.northlandsymphony.org

The Northland Symphony Orchestra’s spring program features local sopranos Sarah Tannehill, of Kansas City Chorale fame, and Nicole Murray. The repertoire they will sing has not been announced, but the orchestral works on the program will be the great Symphony in D Minor by Franck and the overture to La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny) by Verdi.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
UMKC Conservatory Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble
Sunday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
James C. Olson Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://conservatory.umkc.edu

UMKC tuba professor Thomas Stein directs this performance of low brass instruments, sure to satisfy the hidden bass voice in all of us.

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.