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

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
UMKC Graduate Fellowship Brass Quintet
Wednesday, November 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Central United Methodist Church
5144 Oak Street, Kansas City, MS
Free admission.

As of press time for this issue, no program for this concert had been announced, but brass instruments playing in the reverberant acoustics of Central United Methodist Church should be an impressive auditory experience, no matter what the repertoire.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Fall Dance Concert
Thursday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816- 235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/cto

The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance emphasizes the “Dance” portion of its title this weekend with a fall dance concert featuring the choreography of instructors at the Conservatory and the dancing talents of student dancers.  No specific program is available as of the publication date for this issue.  A free “Informal” fall dance concert will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the same space.



Harriman Jewell Series
Gautier Capuçon, cellist and Gabriela Montero, pianist
Friday, November 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 816-421-5025 or online at www.hjseries.org

Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero has carved out a significant international performing career, and in America has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and at the inauguration of President Obama as part of the quartet which included Series favorites Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. Meanwhile, Gautier Capuçon is a French cellist who has had a stellar international career including winning the Ravel International Academy of Music competition, the Adam International Cello Competition in New Zealand and the André Navarra International Cello Competition in Toulouse, France. He was Young Artist of the Year in Germany in 2004.  Gramophone recently praised Capuçon for “distinctive, characterful, and intense performances.”

These two artists will perform cello and piano sonatas of Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, and Prokofiev. Their collaborative work of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev compositions was released as an album in 2008 titled Rhapsody on Virgin Classics.



Lied Center, University of Kansas
Armitage Gone! Dance
Friday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m.
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS 
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu

Lawrence, Kansas native Karole Armitage is the founder of an internationally renowned dance company, Armitage Gone! Dance.  This Friday she returns to the Lied Center with her contemporary troupe to perform an intriguing program which should be of special interest to physics fans.  The evening-long dance piece is called Three Theories and is derived from the theoretical physics outlined in Brian Greene’s best-selling book The Elegant Universe. The choreography is inspired and informed by Einstein’s theory of relativity, the theory of quantum mechanics and string theory, the latter still unproven but a very fertile ground for current physics research.  The work features “a multifaceted soundscape and kinetic projected imagery.” Should be interesting.  Stephen Hawking would undoubtedly approve.

Read the KCM interview here.



Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Norma
Saturday, November 6 at 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 14 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 816-471-7344, or online at www.kcopera.org

Click here to watch Don Dagenais' live program notes on Norma.




The Friends of Chamber Music
Kopelman String Quartet
Saturday, November 6 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org

The illustrious Russian string quartet returns to Kansas City to perform the work of Borodin, Shostakovich and Brahms.  The Quartet consists of four musicians all trained at the Moscow Conservatory of Music in the 1970s when the emphasis there was very much on traditional Russian string playing.  All of the members went on to have distinguished careers with famous ensembles such as the Borodin and Moscow Quartets and the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, before coming together as the Kopelman Quartet several years ago. The Quartet has played at many major international venues, including the Musikverein in Vienna, and appears regularly at venues such as the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Wigmore Hall, London.

They have released two recordings on Nimbus Records of music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Schubert.  The Kopelman Quartet has given concerts in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Cyprus, the United States, Canada and Russia; festivals in which they have played include the Edinburgh International Festival, the Valladolid Festival, the Zurich Festival and the Ravinia Festival in the United States.

The program for this concert includes Borodin’s String Quartet No. 1 in A, the Two Pieces for String Quartet by Shostakovich, and Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor. Come hear the Russian repertoire played by masters.

Read the KCM preview here.



Musica Vocale
Sacred and Profane
Sunday, November 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Country Club Christian Church
61^st and Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO 
For tickets visit www.musicavocale.org

Arnold Epley's Musica Vocale opens its 2010-11 season with a series of compositions by Schumann, Barber, Britten, Finney and others at Country Club Christian Church.  Andrew Childs and Joshua Lawlor will be the tenor and baritone soloists, respectively, in Benjamin Britten’s Cantate Misericodium. 



William Baker Festival Singers
13^th Master Season Opening Concert
Sunday, November 7 at 3:00 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th Street, Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 913-403-9223 or online at www.festivalsingers.org

The William Baker Festival Singers, a 50-voice semi-professional chorus under the leadership of its eponymous director will perform spiritual selections by Pachelbel, Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams, Tallis, Taverner and Rachmaninoff, among others.



Park University
Homage to Gershwin
Sunday, November 7 at 3:30 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
8700 N.W. River Park Drive, Parkville, MO 
Tickets available at the door. For more information visit www.park.edu/calendar/arts.html

Park University’s almost-free (admission is $5) concert series presents Kansas City Symphony violinist Gregory Sandomirsky and pianist Bram Wijnands in a joint recital featuring the music of Gershwin.  Sandomirsky, long one of the city’s leading violinists, is currently filling in as the concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony because of the current vacancy in that position, and Wijnands, a native of the Netherlands, is one of the city’s leading jazz pianists.  Founder of the Wijnands Trio, he teaches jazz piano at the UMKC Conservatory of Music.

The concert will also include Youth Conservatory for Music young artist performers. 



Ruel Joyce Concert Series
Jeffrey Brown, piano
Monday, November 8 at 12:00 noon
Carlsen Center Recital Hall
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS 
Free admission.  For information visit www.jccc.edu/performing-arts-series

This week’s free concert series at JCC features pianist Jeffrey Brown.  An Eastman School of Music graduate, he has appeared with the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., universities and conservatories in New York, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, on live radio and television broadcasts on classical radio stations and PBS affiliates in New York and Chicago, and with summer music festivals in France, Italy, Germany, and Austria.



Harriman Jewell Series
Emanuel Ax, pianist
Monday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 816-421-5025 or online at www.hjseries.org

This special recital, added to the Harriman Jewell Series after the Series’ season was announced, is a memorial concert in memory of Richard Harriman, the late, great director of this music series which has gained national fame for Kansas City and William Jewell College.

Pianist Emanuel Ax has appeared with the Harriman Jewell Series no fewer than ten times, most recently in 2008 with friend and fellow pianist Yefim Bronfman. A star of the world’s concert stages for the past 35 years, Ax will offer some of his personal favorites in a program consisting entirely of Schubert and Chopin.  And who knows what the encores will bring?

This program is a benefit performance for the Series. And a reminder for those who have season tickets for the Series: this concert is not on any season ticket package since it was added as a late entry.  You'll need to purchase separate tickets for this one.



Kansas City Symphony
Salon Series at Webster House
Thursday, November 11 at 6:15 p.m.
Webster House Restaurant
1644 Wyandotte, Kansas City, MO 
For tickets visit kcsymphony.org/ConcertCalendar/event_details.jsp?cid=EICCSGAAB2HSCASGBWFSQBSRA6

Players from the Kansas City Symphony will perform a free concert at the Webster House Restaurant just south of the site for the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  Enjoy the view of the construction and the pleasure of Symphony violinist Anne Marie Brown, violist Jessica Nance and cellist Alexander East. They will be playing the Schubert String Trio fragment and the Dohnanyi Serenade in C for String Trio. 

And if you care to order dinner, we understand that the restaurant will be open for dining that evening.



Kacico Dance
Transition: Sixth Annual Fall Repertory Concert
Friday, November 12, 7:30 p.m.
The Gem Theater
1601 East 18th St., Kansas City, MO 
For tickets call 816-474-6262 or online at http://kacicodance.org/

Kacico Dance always puts on some of the more interesting contemporary dance performances to be seen in Kansas City.  This Friday the company will present its annual fall repertory concert, produced by co-artistic directors Maggie Osgood Nicholls, Holly Harmison, Allison McKinzie, and Lindsay Spilker Tate.  Also on the program is Michelle Diane Brown's Forward Progress (2008).



newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Pulitzer Autumn Reflections
Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m.
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.tickets.cto.umkc.edu/

newEar performs the second concert of its 18^th season of contemporary music in Kansas City, with a program featuring works by recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize in music.  The concert is curated by long-time newEar pianist Robert Pherigo, and will include chamber and solo pieces by composers John Corigliano, Steven Stucky, Jennifer Higdon, Paul Moravec and Leon Kirchner. As is often the case with newEar concerts, many of these pieces will be Kansas City premières.



The Friends of Chamber Music
What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow
Friday, November 13 at 11:00 a.m.
The Pavilion at John Knox Village
Lee’s Summit, MO
Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 p.m.
and
Country Club Congregational Church
West 65^th Street, Kansas City, MO 
Free admission. For more information visit www.chambermusic.org

The effervescent Rob Kapilow will continue his longstanding lecture and demonstration series with The Friends of Chamber Music with a presentation including the Miro String Quartet, as he focuses on the Debussy String Quartet in G Minor.  Kapilow is always most entertaining and informative. 



Lied Center, University of Kansas
Interpreti Veneziani
Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS 
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu

Interpreti Veneziani is a chamber group of Venice, Italy, as its name would applies, and it performs classic chamber pieces, include those of the Venetian master Antonio Vivaldi, on period instruments.  The ensemble often performs at San Vidal Church, the same venue where master composer Vivaldi regularly played. 

The group has been praised for its appearances in the Melbourne Festival, in the Bayreuth Festival and concerts at Stockholm's Royal Palace, participation in the World Vision telemarathon at the Kirov Theatre, and Japanese appearances at the Osaka Symphony Hall, Tokyo Suntory Hall and Kjoi Hall. Interpreti Veneziani has toured in Australia and throughout the Americas, in the Bahamas, Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala and Colombia in addition to the United States.

The group has recorded 16 compact discs with Rivo Alto, and recent produced its first compact disc with the music publishers Musikstrasse featuring the music of Giuseppe Tartini.



Bell Cultural Events Center
Nathan Granner and Ben Gulley, tenors
Saturday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Mid-America Nazarene University
2030 E. College Way, Olathe, KS 
For tickets visit www.mnu.edu/ticket-information.html

Nathan Granner and Ben Gulley, two outstanding local tenors trained at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, have become quite a performing duo recently, joining for concerts featuring favorites of opera and musical theater which are sure to be crowd pleasers.  This evening they bring their talents to the Bell Cultural Events Center in Olathe, and the crowd is sure to leave whistling the tunes and savoring the warm personalities of these two delightful performers.



Te Deum
Te Deum Fall Concert
Sunday, November 14 at 3:00 p.m.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
416 West 12^th Street, Kansas City, MO 
Free admission. For more information visit http://te-deum.org/

The choral and orchestral group Te Deum, directed by Matthew Christopher Shepard, will present two French masterworks this afternoon, the justly famous Requiem of Faure, one of the most beautiful sacred compositions ever penned, and the Missa L'Homme Arme Sexti Toni by the great Renaissance composer Josquin des Pres.  The driving rhythmic complexities and modal harmonies of Josquin's Renaissance mass will be a treat to the ear.  Amazingly, these pieces can be heard without charge!

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.