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

Kansas City Ballet
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
Thursday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-931-2232 or online at www.kcballet.org

The Kansas City Ballet opens its last season in the Lyric Theatre with a production featuring three performances.

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is set in a tacky strip joint and tells the story of “a jealous Russian premier danseur who hires a mobster to kill a rival during the premiere of a new ballet,” according to the Ballet.  It features the music of Richard Rodgers and a story by Hershy Kay, and is taken from Rodgers and Hart’s 1936 musical entitled, appropriately enough, On Your Toes.  The choreography is by George Balanchine.

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ transcendent The Lark Ascending forms the musical backdrop for a ballet by Bruce Marks, who describes it as picturing “the eternal fight against gravity.” Mozartiana is, notwithstanding its name, set to the music of Tchaikovsky and the five-movement ballet is considered one of Balanchine’s classics.

Tchaikovsky pas de deux is also set to the music of the Russian master and is “a favorite of ballet audiences the world over.” An eight-minute display of ballet bravura and technique, the piece was originally composed at the last minute for the ballerina Anna Sobeshchanskaya dancing in the world premiere of Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, and because of the late addition it was not included in the printed score.  The music lay unknown for a century until being discovered in the Bolshoi Theatre archives in 1953.  Because of its long absence from Swan Lake, it is often performed, as here, as a separate number in the classic Balanchine choreography.

Those with season tickets to this year’s Ballet performances have priority seating for Ballet subscriptions at the new Kauffman Performing Arts Center.



Westport Presbyterian Church Brown Bag Series
The Goldenberg Duo
Friday, February 13 at 12:10 p.m.
Westport Presbyterian Church
201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO
Free admission

What better way to spend a relaxing lunchtime than luxuriating in the music of Kansas City Symphony violinist Susan Goldenberg and her brother, William, who is a distinguished professor of piano at Northern Illinois University?  None that we can think of.  The duo will perform music of Brahms, Schubert and Bloch while you surreptitiously munch on a lunch of your choice.  Cookies and coffee will be served, and you can’t beat the price.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Orchestra with Steven Jarvi, conductor
Friday, October 15 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

In September the Conservatory Orchestra of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance performed under the baton of Michael Stern, music director of the Kansas City Symphony.  This evening the same orchestra will have a chance to perform under the Kansas City Symphony’s other conductor, Steven Jarvi, the Bruno Walter Associate Conductor of the Symphony.  The program includes Shostakovich's epic Fifth Symphony.



Performing Arts Series at JCCC
The Venice Baroque Orchestra and Robert McDuffie: The Seasons Project
Saturday, October 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center, JCCC
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-469-4445 or online at www.jcc.edu/performing-arts-series

This classical performance, part of the eclectic Carlsen Center Performing Arts Series, should be one of more intriguing concerts of the year.  Violinist Robert McDuffie, the leader of the Venice Baroque Orchestra, will appear in a concert featuring two Four Seasons compositions, the first by contemporary composer Philip Glass (entitled The American Four Seasons) and the second the more traditional Four Seasons by the 18^th-century Venetian master Antonio Vivaldi.

McDuffie says that he has always considered Glass to be “America’s Vivaldi,” so was honored  when the composer wrote his second violin concerto, The American Four Seasons, for McDuffie as soloist. It was first performed just last December in Toronto and is now making a 30-tour American tour, of which this stop is one.  This concert will afford a unique opportunity for audiences to compare the Glass violin concerto back-to-back with the Vivaldi violin concerto.  This being election season, who knows?  They might take a ballot at the end to determine your favorite.



Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Nostrovia! A Celebration of Russian Music
Saturday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, KS
Free admission

Russian cellist Ruslan Biryukov is the guest soloist for the Civic Orchestra in the longtime community performers’ opening concert of the season. He will lead off an all-Russian concert with Shostakovich’s Concerto for Cello No. 1, conducted by Civic Orchestra music director Christopher Kelts.

To round out the program Kelts has selected two other Russian masterpieces as well, Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 and excerpts from Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, the Berceuse and the Finale.

The Stravinsky score is familiar to concert goers and ballet fans alike, of course, and features one of the greatest crescendos in all of music in its final movement.   The Borodin, less frequently played, is from the pen of one of Russia’s most famous composers, who left a remarkable legacy through an oeuvre of relatively few works because, for him, music was just a sideline to his more important career as one of Russia’s leading doctors and public health servants.

Soloist Biryukov, a Russian native trained in California, has held teaching positions at the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Institute of Music in Moscow and the Music Academy in Lovran, Croatia.  He has performed throughout the world, including countries in the former USSR, in Europe and in the United States. He is also known as a chamber musician and has performed with the violinist Midori at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles and with cellist Kirill Rodin and members of the Ysaye Quartet.



Lee’s Summit Symphony
Fall Classic
Saturday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Bernard C. Campbell Performing Arts Center
Lee's Summit High School
400 S.E. Blue Parkway, Lee’s Summit, MO
Tickets available at HyVee East and West in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, or online at http://www.lssymphony.org/tickets.html

The Lee’s Summit Symphony takes on an ambitious program of traditional classics in this concert, including the Symphony No. 41 by Mozart ("Jupiter"), the Rosamunde Overture by Schubert, “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations by Elgar, the Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 by Grieg and the Dance Macabre by Saint-Saëns. All should be crowd pleasers.  Russell Berlin, Jr. is now in his seventh season as the conductor.



The Friends of Chamber Music
Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Saturday, October 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org

The elegant Czech pianist Ivan Moravec was to have given a much-anticipated Friends of Chamber Music recital on October 16, but he regretfully had to cancel his North American tour this fall for reasons of health. It is the test of a fine presenting organization to come up with a suitable replacement, and in this The Friends of Chamber Music has long excelled. Performing at the Folly Theater that night will be Gilles Vonsattel, a Swiss-born American pianist. Vonsattel is one of the stars of the rising generation of young pianists.  He received a 2008 Avery Fisher Career Grant award and most recently performed with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, replacing Peter Serkin with very little notice, to which he received wild critical acclaim. 

Observant audience members may notice that Vonsattel is no stranger to Kansas City.  He appeared on The Friends of Chamber Music’s What Makes It Great? series last season with composer/commentator/author Rob Kapilow.

Vonsattel will perform a recital of all French and Swiss music, and even the Swiss piece has a French twist.  On the program are Poulenc’s  Le Soiress de Nazelles, Debussy’s iridescent Images, Ravel’s Sonatine in F-Sharp Minor, Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit (one of this writer’s personal favorites), and Hommage à Ravel by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.



Kansas City Chorale
Rene Clausen’s New Mass for Double Chorus
Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m.
Redemptorist Church
3333 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
and
Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Asbury Methodist Church
5400 West 75^th Street at Nall, Prairie Village, KS
For tickets call 816-235-2704 or online at www.kcchorale.org

The Kansas City Chorale commissioned a new mass from renowned choral composer Rene Clausen, which will enjoy its world premiere at these concerts.

Clausen is conductor of the Concordia Choir of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, is  the artistic director of the award-winning Concordia Christmas Concerts, frequently featured on PBS broadcasts, and is also a well known choral conductor, appearing often in New York and elsewhere around the country. In recent years he has turned more and more to composition, employing an eclectic style in works for the stage, solo voice, film and video, as well as choral and orchestral compositions and arrangements. 

If you like the Mass for Double Chorus and don’t have a chance to attend both Chorale performances, never fear.  With the assistance of an NEA grant, the chorus is being recorded and will be available on the Chandos label sometime next year.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Choirs: Komen for the Cure Benefit Concert
Sunday, October 17 at 3:30 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church
67^th and Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS
Free admission and donations accepted at the door.

Each year the Conservatory of Music and Dance choirs join together for a benefit concert for Komen Race for the Cure.  It offers not only an outstanding musical experience but an opportunity to make a donation to help this worthy cause.  Charles Robinson will conduct the choirs, along with a couple of guest choirs, in works of Haydn, Durufle and Vaughan Williams, along with some lesser known composers such as Childs, Lott, Faltmeyer, Morley and Ticheli.



Northland Symphony Orchestra
2010 Fall Concert
Sunday, October 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Park Hill South High School
4500 N.W. River Park Drive, Riverside, MO
Tickets available at the door or online at www.northlandsymphony.org

The Northland Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2010-2011 season this weekend with a concert featuring guest violinist David Repking in the challenging Beethoven Violin Concerto. Also on the concert program are Nicolai’s Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor, Elgar’s Salut d’amour, and the Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 3 by American composer Henry Cowell.




Bach Aria Soloists
Annual Lerner Hauskonzert
Sunday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m.
Private home
Mission Hills, Kansas
For tickets call 816-820-1473 or online at www.bachariasoloists.com

If you have never attended one of the Bach Aria Soloists’ performances in a private home, you should try it for a special treat.  An up-close and personal experience with the fine musicians of Elizabeth Suh Lane’s ensemble is followed by food and drink, making for an entertaining and social evening as well as a fine musical one.

For its first “Hauskonzert” of the year, the Bach Aria Soloists will perform duets of Monteverdi, Handel, Delibes and Mozart with a “dream team” of Kansas City sopranos, Rebecca Lloyd and Sarah Tannehill. The concert will also include Bach sonatas for violin and clavier featuring Elizabeth Suh Lane on the violin and harpsichordist Elisa Bickers. As an added treat, Douglas Niedt, the outstanding acoustical guitarist from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, will also perform.



Musica Sacra
Charpentier and Monteverdi
Sunday, October 17 at 7 p.m.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
52^nd and Troost, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or visit online at www.rockhurst.edu/musicasacra

Director Timothy McDonald brings his Musica Sacra ensemble into its 20^th anniversary season, believe it or not, by featuring music of two towering Baroque composers, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1673-1704). Monteverdi was the music master of the Vatican during one of its most productive musical periods, and his gorgeous contrapuntal compositions are joys to the ears, particularly if you can imagine yourself in the reverberant chambers of the Vatican with voices on all sides bouncing off the plaster and marble walls surrounding you. Charpentier was also a major church composer whose works a hundred years later built upon Monteverdi to create a complex and many-layered musical fabric.

Musica Sacra will sing the Mass for Four Voices a capella by Monteverdi, a difficult piece to pull off for an unaccompanied choir. For the Charpentier work, McDonald has chosen In honorem Sancti Xaverij canticum, written to honor St. Francis Xavier, one of the earliest Jesuits.

How appropriate, then, that the concert will take place at St. Francis Xavier church.



Ruel Joyce Concert Series
Ji Hye Jung, percussion
Monday, October 18 at 12:00 noon
Carlsen Center Recital Hall
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
Free admission.  For more information visit www.jccc.edu/performing-arts-series

The free noontime Ruel Joyce Concert Series continues at Yardley Hall this Monday with a performance by percussionist Ji Hye Jung.



Bell Cultural Events Center
Greg Buchanan, harpist
Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Mid-America Nazarene University
2030 E. College Way, Olathe, KS
Tickets available at the door or online at www.mnu.edu/ticket-information.html

Christian ministries harpist Greg Buchanan plans on the Bell Cultural Events Center series in a recital program yet to be announced.  According to publicity material, “his superb musicianship combined with an enthusiastic attitude toward the Christian life has made him one of the most sought-after Christian performers in America for the past 25 years.” His performance career consists entirely of church and Christian college recitals, according to his web site.



William Jewell College
The Goldenberg Duo
Wednesday, October 20 at 5:30 p.m.
Forbis Recital Hall in Pillsbury Music Bldg at William Jewell College
500 College Hill, Liberty, MO
Free admission

William Jewell College presents a free recital featuring the music of Kansas City Symphony violinist Susan Goldenberg and her brother, William, who is a distinguished professor of piano at Northern Illinois University. They will be performing the music of Brahms, Schubert, Bloch, Miyagi and Bartok.



Kansas City Symphony
Roman Festivals: Respighi and Verdi
Friday October 22 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, October 23 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 24 at 2 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central, Downtown, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

The Kansas City Symphony Chorus joins the Kansas City Symphony this weekend for performances of Verdi, Busoni and Respighi.

For one of its Verdi selections, the Symphony performs the well-known orchestral overture to his somewhat less-well-known opera  I Vespri Siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers), based upon a true event of Italian history which became an important touchstone for the Italian revolutionaries of Verdi’s day.  The music not only has political overtones, but is also a luscious instrumental composition in its own right, and is perhaps the most famous opera overture Verdi ever composed.

The other Verdi pieces on the program are his beautiful final Four Sacred Pieces, composed when the master was in his 80’s, and representing his very last published compositions.  Verdi had ended his opera compositional career with his final masterpiece Falstaff, yet there was still some compositional spirit in him, as these four short but transcendently beautiful works demonstrate.  Rarely heard, they are miniature jewels and alone make this concert well worth the price of admission.

The Italian-German composer Ferruccio Busoni, perhaps best known for his challenging Piano Concerto, also composed an opera based upon Turandot, the same theme that Puccini took for his better-known final opera.  Busoni excerpted some music from the opera as the Turandot Suite, which the Symphony will be performing.

Ottorino Respighi, of course, is known for his spectacular orchestral works The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome, as well as other brilliantly orchestrated orchestral tone poems.  For this concert the Symphony has chosen Roman Festival Overture.

Guest conducting for the Symphony this weekend is Roberto Minczuk, who is the music director of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada and the artistic director and principal conductor of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra as well as the artistic director of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro.



Heritage Philharmonic
Autumn Choral Masterpiece
Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Community of Christ Temple
1001 West Walnut, Independence, MO
Free admission

The Independence-based Heritage Philharmonic, led by conductor James Murray III, performs its fall concert this weekend in collaboration with the Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City under the direction of Rebecca Johnson.  Both directors are associated with the metropolitan community college system.  For this concert they are tackling the ambitious Mozart Requiem, one of the great masterworks of the orchestral/choral oeuvre. In addition, the Chorale will be singing four American folk hymns arranged by Mack Wilberg. 



Park University
Daniel Vies Cello Recital
Sunday, October 24 at 3:00 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
8700 N.W. River Park Drive, Parkville, MO
Tickets available at the door

Born in Prague, Daniel Veis studied for five years at the Moscow Conservatory.   He won first prize at the 1976 Prague Spring Competition and was the silver medalist at the 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since 1979 he has performed regularly as a reliable with orchestras in such venues as Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, Orchard Hall Tokyo, Auditori de Barcelona and Auditorio Nacional de Madrid.  He is a professor of cello and currently vice-dean at the music faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.



Ruel Joyce Concert Series
Raymond Santos, clarinet and Dan Velicer, piano
Monday, October 25 at 12:00 noon
Carlsen Center Recital Hall
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
Free admission.  For more information visit www.jccc.edu/performing-arts-series

This week the Ruel Joyce Concert Series brings its audiences a performance by clarinetist Raymond Santos and a regular performer, pianist Dan Velicer.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Conservatory Music Alliance Series
Sphinx Chamber Orchestra with Harlem Quartet
A co-presentation with The Friends of Chamber Music
Sunday, October 24 at 2:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

The Sphinx Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble comprising top alumni of the national Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players. The group has earned rave reviews for its performances. In this matinee concert hosted by the Conservatory of Music and Dance, it is joined by the Harlem Quartet, an ensemble composed of first-place winners of the same competition. The program includes works by Sibelius, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Turina, Gabriela Lena Frank, Walker, Tillis, and Perkinson.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Symphony
Friday, October 28 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 Conservatory Wind Symphony under the direction of Steven D. Davis always gives interesting programs.  The lineup for this concert has not been announced as of press time.




Park University
Fete: Ioudenitch and Friends Concert
Friday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-584-6825 or online at www.park.edu/fete

This concert is a fundraising event for Park University’s International Center for Music, a superb music program directed by Van Cliburn International Piano Competition winner Stanislav Ioudenitch.  The evening will feature classical and popular music styles performed by local and international talent, including pianists Ioudenitch and Behzod Abduraimov, violinist Ben Sayevich, cellist Daniel Veis, guitarist Beau Bledsoe and bandoneonist Hector Del Curto. All are significant talents, so this should be a most pleasurable evening.




Octarium
American Idyll
Saturday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m.
J.C. Nichols Auditorium at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
100 West 20^th Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets visit www.octarium.org

Octarium, Kansas City’s outstanding eight-voiced a capella singing group, opens its season with a performance of works by American composers, in an unusual setting at the World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial. Director Krista Blackwood promotes the concert as “a choral expression of what it means to be an American,” and hopes that “music can unite our souls even as politics try to divide them.” An appropriate theme, perhaps, for a concert performed just a few days before the midterm elections.

Performing Arts Series at JCCC
Quixotic Fusion: Lux Esalare
Saturday, October 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center at JCCC
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-469-4445 or online at www.jcc.edu/performing-arts-series

Fans of dance and extreme movement will enjoy this performance by the ensemble Quixotic, which brings back its popular Lux Esalare performance from 2009.  Quixotic is hard to describe…it’s a music and dance ensemble, but encompasses more besides, creating a “total sensory experience” for its audience. “Don’t try to limit Quixotic’s creative experiences to a single definition,” the group warns its audiences. “Audiences are immersed in light, dance, ephemeral ribbons wrapped around aerialists, a solo violinist, live rock band and high-fashion costumes.”

Lux Escalare is based upon ancient Greek tales and uses dance, live music, video projections and aerial artistry.

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.