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

 Summerfest I
Wildflowers
Saturday, July 11 at 7:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry  Kansas City, MiO

Sunday, July 12 at 5:00 p.m.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
1307 Holmes  Kansas City, MO

With most of Kansas City's classical music organizations taking the summer off, the path is always clear for the refreshing sounds of Summerfest, the city's summertime classical music treat.

Summerfest musicians are drawn from the Kansas City Symphony and other local organizations, but also include instrumentalists who come from far and wide to Kansas City just to take place in these unique concerts.  This listener has found Summerfest concerts to be an interesting blend of traditional and newer compositions, and the quality of the small ensemble performances, using a variety of different instrumental combinations, is always first rate.

This year's Summerfest concerts start off with a pair of concerts, one done in the group's traditional venue at St. Mary's Episcopal Church downtown in the shadow of government office buildings, and the other at White Recital Hall on the UMKC campus. 

 The eponymous composition on the program is a trio by Jenni Brandon, a contemporary California composer. Also on the concert is Tempête de sable (Storm of Sand) for clarinet, violin, and viola, by young composer Alexandra du Bois.  The more traditional compositions which are on tap include Handel's Gloria for soprano, strings and harpsichord, and Vivaldi's All'ombra di sospetto.

The Wildflowers trio was commissioned in 2004 by the College of Fine Arts of the University of Texas at Austin to honor the life and work of the former First Lady from Texas, Lady Bird Johnson, who was a promoter of environmental causes and protector of natural beauty.

Alexandra du Bois, still in her early 20's, has already seen her music performed throughout United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Canada, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Armenia, and the United Kingdom, in venues such as the Théàtre de la Ville in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Barbican Hall in London, as well as radio programs in six countries including BBC Radio 3 and NPR's Morning Edition.  This is her Kansas City debut, so you will have a first-class opportunity to find out what the excitement is all about. 

For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.summerfestkc.org/

Summerfest II
The Secret Flower
Saturday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO

Sunday, July 19 at 5:00 p.m.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
1307 Holmes
Kansas City, MO

For the second of Summerfest's four concerts this summer, the group has selected two contemporary works and one classic. The classic is Beethoven's Septet for Strings, Woodwind and Horn, which dates from his youthful days in Vienna and is full of sprightly energy. It was an immediate hit and remained popular throughout his career; so popular, in fact, that the composer came to dislike it. But you won't, and the Summerfest ensemble will probably have lots of fun with this tuneful piece.

The namesake composition on the program is David Morgan's The Secret of the Golden Flower, written last year. Morgan, the bassist of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra for the last 15 years, has won acclaim as a composer and arranger of both jazz and classical music. This composition, according to Music Web reviewer Rob Barnett, "moves without effort between Vaughan Williams and an Oriental sway: fast, punchy and meditative."

Also featured will be Incantation and Allegro for oboe, bassoon, and piano by Nancy Galbraith. Galbraith is a professor of composition at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and has composed music for symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, small ensembles and vocalists. Her Incantation and Allegro begins with a slow and lyrical movement, then turns rapid and rhythmic for the second. Records International called it "hauntingly lovely."

For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.summerfestconcertsinc.com.  

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Chamber Music Festival: Welcome Faculty Concert
Sunday, July 19 at 2:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
 
The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance is sponsoring a student chamber music festival from July 18 through 28, and a variety of events are open to the public. The most interesting concerts are two by the faculty, including this "Welcome Faculty Concert" being given near the beginning of the festival. Chamber Music Festival faculty members Benny Kim, Chia-fei Lin, David Kovac, and Larry Figg perform in the festival's opening concert to welcome the faculty of the festival.

 Free admission.

Quadrivium
Concert of Contemporary Works
Wednesday, July 22 at 7:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO

The UMKC's Conservatory of Music and Dance hosts a summer workshop for young composition students.  As noted above, Quadrivium is the ensemble in residence for the composition workshop. On July 22, Quadrivium will present a program of new music for flute, clarinet, cello, and piano.

Free admission.

Summerfest III
Chrysanthemums
Saturday, July 25 at 7:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO

Sunday, July 26 at 5:00 p.m.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
1307 Holmes, Kansas City, MO

The centerpiece of the third Summerfest concert this year is Edward Elgar's Quintet, op. 84, for piano and strings. Elgar is the quintessential Romantic English composer, and shared with Arthur Sullivan the burden of carrying England's reputation in late 19^th century music circles. His many compositions range from the sweet and lyrical to the brassy and bombastic (such as in his famous Pomp and Circumstance marches).  This piece dates from his final decades where he "retired" to a charming cottage in the Sussex countryside. The natural surroundings seemed to bring out his chamber music side, and as a result he produced this three-movement work, full of peace and serenity, which seems to come from a more rarified realm than many of his earlier compositions.

Ths concert takes its name not from the Elgar piece, but from a different composition, a string quartet by the opera composer Giacomo Puccini. Puccini wrote few works that were not for the stage, but this early piece of chamber music was one of them. He wrote it at the age of 32 in a single night, he later said, as a response to the death of the Duke of Savoy. Opera fans will note that some of the music from this quartet was later lifted by the composer and used in his subsequent opera Manon Lescaut, his first truly international "hit." This concert will offer you an unusual opportunity to hear a talented composer out of his fach, and doing quite well, indeed.

Third on this program is Endre Szervánszky's Wind Quintet No. 1.  The composer was a major figure in Hungarian music in the mid-20^th century, and this is one of a number of chamber works he composed which take their inspiration from the folk music of his native country. Szervánszky's music ranges from the lyrical to the atonal, this piece dating from the early part of his career, in 1953.

For tickets call 816-235-6222, or online at www.summerfestconcertsinc.com.  

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Chamber Music Festival: Closing Faculty Concert
Sunday, July 26 at 5:00 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO 

As the UMKC Conservatory's festival of chamber music draws to a close, the faculty of the festival will give a free concert.  The program has not been determined as of this publication, and may be spur of the moment depending upon the whim of the faculty.  But you can't beat the price, and the musicians will be talented.

Free admission.

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.