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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Harriman-Jewell Series
Discovery Concert: Freddy Kempf, pianist
Friday, January 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
300 W 12th St, Kansas City, MO
Free concert, but tickets are required. For tickets, call 816-415-5025 or visit online at www.hjseries.org, where you can print the tickets at home. 

The Harriman-Jewell Series is offering a recital with English pianist Freddy Kempf, who came to fame in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, in a free Discovery Concert. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him “the hero of the competition.” His international career was rapidly established and his popularity with Russian audiences has since been reflected in numerous sold-out concerts and television broadcasts.

Many international engagements followed, and Kempf has since performed recitals throughout the world, from Shanghai to Paris. The Discovery program includes works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Schumann.

Kansas City Symphony 
Yo-Yo Ma Performs Dvořák
Friday, January 20 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 21 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 22 at 2:00 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. 

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is one of the best-known figures in classical music worldwide, and his appearances in Kansas City are always among the most popular of any artist. His concert with the Kansas City Symphony is one of the highlights of the Symphony’s first year at Helzberg Hall. If you don’t have your ticket yet, you are looking at a waiting list and probably a fair amount of prayer.

For this concert Ma and Symphony music director Michael Stern have chosen the Dvořák Cello Concerto, one of the most beautiful and compelling concerti in the repertoire. Composed at the height of the Czech master’s powers, it was written during his stay in America in the 1890s. The concerto is one of the most taxing works in the rep, with the third movement in particular requiring extraordinary virtuosity. Also on the program are Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture and Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Dome and Spire Concert Series
Symphony of Voices
Sunday, January 22 at 2:00 p.m.
Community of Christ Temple
201 S River Blvd, Independence, MO
For tickets, call 816-333-1000, x2324, or visit online at www.cofchrist.org/dome_spire 

Cantus and Kansas City Metro Men’s Chorus present this concert in the Community of Christ Temple to benefit the Community Services League. The Kansas City Metro Men’s Chorus, founded in 2001, is joined by Cantus, which has been acclaimed as the “premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States” (Fanfare), with “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” (The Washington Post). All proceeds from this event will go to Community Services League to assist the agency in providing emergency services to those in need.

Friends of Chamber Music and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Bach Festival 2012: The Complete Brandenburg Concertos
Tuesday, January 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
300 W 12th St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-960-1324 or visit online at www.kcchamberorchestra.org or http://www.chambermusic.org.

The kickoff event of the 2012 Bach Festival under the sponsorship of the Friends of Chamber Music and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra is this concert presenting all six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s wonderful Brandenburg Concertos. Bruce Sorrell will lead his forces in what is sure to be a tour-de-force performance. The group did this once before, six or seven years ago at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and this writer remembers being enthralled at the opportunity, and realization, of hearing all six of these concerti in a single evening. The incredible variety of Bach’s instrumental and melodic resources is truly amazing, and this experience will offer you a window into the enormous talent of the Baroque master.

For information about the other upcoming events in the Bach Festival, check the Friends of Chamber Music web site,www.chambermusic.org.

Harriman-Jewell Series
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra with Jeffrey Tate and violinist Guy Braunstein
Wednesday, January 25 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.

Founded in 1957, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra has come to be known as one of the finest Continental European orchestras. In 2008, it attracted the excellent English conductor Jeffrey Tate to the podium. Together, they will perform German, English, and Czech music on this concert, including Brahms’ Violin Concerto featuring guest violinist Guy Braunstein, the overture to The Wasps by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7.

 Equally at home on the orchestra podium or in the opera house pit, Tate has conducted the symphony orchestras of London, Berlin, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, and many others. His operatic successes include performances with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bastille Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Violinist Guy Braunstein, a native of Israel, studied with Glenn Dictrow and Pinchas Zuckerman. He has collaborated with Isaac Stern, Andras Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Maorizio Pollini, Yefim Bronfman, and Daniel Barenboim. In 2000, he was appointed first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and later under Simon Rattle.

Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Saturday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center, JCCC Campus
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
For tickets, call 913-469-445 or visit online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Talented pianist Simone Dinnerstein returns to Kansas City for a performance under the auspices of the Johnson County Community College Performing Arts Series. She has previously appeared here with the Friends of Chamber Music.

Dinnerstein’s route to fame was a modern one – she raised funds on her own to record Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2007. The CD garnered international praise, ranked No. 1 on the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales, and was named to many "Best of 2007" lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker. Her follow-up album, The Berlin Concert, also gained the No. 1 spot on the Chart. She is now a recording artist with Sony Classical and is a recitalist throughout the world, performing in Cologne, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Rome, and Lisbon among others. She has appeared as soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic among others.

For her Yardley Hall recital, Dinnerstein will perform the works of Bach, Schumann, and Chopin.

Harriman-Jewell Series 
Parsons Dance
Wednesday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Muriel Kauffman Theatre, 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. 

Question: Which modern dance company has appeared with the Harriman-Jewell Series ten times and still has its audiences clamoring for more? Answer: Parsons Dance Company, founded by Kansas City native David Parsons. The eleventh such appearance will contain something entirely new: a composition created in memory of the late Richard Harriman, the creator of this outstanding series.

Parsons Dance includes ten full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 70 works choreographed by Parsons. The Company’s last appearance here, a 2009 evening-length collaborative performance in Kansas City with singers of the East Village Opera Company, was enthusiastically reviewed in these pages.

The works included on this program are The Envelope, Slow Dance, Swing Shift, Portinari, Caught, and Nascimento. If you are a fan of dance, this one is not to be missed.

The Friends of Chamber Music
Les Violons du Roy with Maurice Steger, recorder
Friday, January 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
300 W 12th St Kansas City, MO
For tickets, call 816-561-9999 or visit online at www.chambermusic.org.

Les Violons du Roy, based in Québec City, Québec, was formed in 1984 by music director Bernard Labadie and specializes in chamber works of the Baroque and Classical periods. Although the ensemble of 15 musicians plays on modern instruments, Les Violons du Roy uses copies of period bows. The Juno Award-winning group is well known throughout Canada thanks to the numerous concerts and recordings broadcast by Société Radio-Canada and CBC, and its regular presence at music festivals. In the United States, the group regularly performs in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and is heard frequently on National Public Radio. 
For this performance, conductor Bernard Labadie brings along the leading recorder virtuoso in the world today, Maurice Steger, for recorder suites by Telemann, Sammartini, and Geminani. In addition, the group performs Handel’s Concerto grosso in B-flat major (the Hornpipe) and the Concerto grosso No. 12 in D minor by Geminani, after Corelli.

The London Telegraph wrote of a Maurice Steger performance of a Corelli piece, “Anyone who thinks the recorder is fit only for school assemblies would have been forced to think again by Steger’s amazing virtuosity, which somehow soared over the instruments limitations. The rapid passagework in Corelli’s F major Concerto emerges as a barely audible bird-like twittering, but Steger made it so crystal-clear that it pushed through the orchestral sound without difficulty.”

Lied Center of Kansas
Chiara String Quartet
Sunday, January 29 at 2:00 p.m.
Lied Center, KU Campus
1600 Stewart Dr, Lawrence, KS
For tickets, call 785-864-3436 or visit online at www.music.ku.edu. 

Now celebrating its 12th year, the Chiara String Quartet serves as Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. The group’s honors include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition, First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America.

The Chiara Quartet has performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., and Harris Hall at the Aspen Music Festival. The ensemble also devotes a portion of its performance season to concerts in non-classical venues including (le) Poisson Rouge and Galapagos Art Space in New York, The Tractor Tavern in Seattle, Avant Garden in Houston, and the Hideout in Chicago, among many others.

The group specializes in both classical and modern repertoire, and the program for this Lied Center concert is indicative of such breadth. It includes Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor and Brahms’ String Quartet in B-flat major, but also Gabriela Lena Frank’sMilagros. 

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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.