RSS 2.0 FeedOctober 26, 2011, City Classics
Music and Dance through October
October concludes with performances by the UMKC Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble. Choral fans will be treated to the Kansas City Symphony's performances of Brahms' "German Requiem," the combined choirs of UMKC present their fall concert as does the Metropolitan Chorale. Famed violinist Midori will appear courtesy of the Harriman-Jewell Series. If you're on dance withdrawal from the end of "Tom Sawyer"'s run, Owen/Cox Dance Group and Park University have partnered for a collaborative evening of music and movement.
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble Concert
Wednesday, October 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Blue Valley Southwest High School
17600 Quivira Road, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at http://conservatory.umkc.edu
This presentation is a combined concert of the UMKC Conservatory Wind Symphony directed by Steven D. Davis and the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble directed by Joseph Parisi. The two groups will perform works by Chen Yi, William Bolcom, Mozart, Steve Mackey, and others but the crown jewel is Schmitt's Dionysaique.
Harriman-Jewell Series
Midori
Thursday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-415-5025, or visit online at www.hjseries.org.
The extraordinary Japanese violinist Midori is now completing the third decade of a remarkable international career. Fresh off performances in Denmark, she is spending October on recital tour of the United States with pianist Özgür Aydin. Their program consists of works by Mozart, Shostakovich, Schumann, and Schubert.
A recent review of a Midori performance in the Lexington Herald Leader said that “every aspect of her well-seasoned performance gave the impression of having been worked out in minute detail and then delivered with organic immediacy…. Midori seemed even more to find every conceivable expressive effect…. The audience received the concerto enthusiastically, calling Midori back to the stage several times….”
Kansas City Symphony
Brahms’ German Requiem
Friday, October 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 29 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 30 at 2:00 p.m.
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
1601 Broadway, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org.
The Brahms Deutsches Requiem [German Requiem] has long been considered one of the choral masterpieces of the Romantic era. The Kansas City Symphony chorus receives its official debut in Helzberg Hall this weekend as it sings this magnificent work with the Kansas City Symphony. Soprano Layla Clair and baritone Christopher Feigum are featured.
Also on the Symphony program are Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang [Elegaic Song] and an offering by the iconoclastic French composer Olivier Messiaen, Les offrandes oubliées.
Owen/Cox Dance Group
International Center for Music
Collaborative Concert
Saturday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 30 at 3:00 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
Park University Campus
8700 N. W. River Park Drive, Parkville, MO
Tickets available online at www.owencoxdance.org.
Owen/Cox Dance Group, one of Kansas City’s most innovative small dance companies, collaborates with the remarkably talented musicians of Stanislav Ioudenitch’s International Center for Music at Park University for this concert. The performance will include new dance works to the music of Igor Stravinsky, Johann Sebastian Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich and more.
Topeka Symphony Orchestra
The Fifth!
Saturday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
Washburn University Campus, Topeka, KS
For tickets call 785-232-2032 or visit http://www.topekasymphony.org
Ludwig von Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 5 is the featured work on this ambitious program of the Topeka Symphony, led by Stephen Strickler. Also on the concert will be the Sinfonia da requiem by Benjamin Britten, and Rainbow Body by Christopher Theofanidis.
Theofandis is the composer of Heart of a Soldier, an opera being premiered by the San Francisco Opera this year, and is becoming one of America’s most popular composers. His Rainbow Body dates from the year 2000, and according to the composer was inspired by the music of medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen and “the Tibetan Buddhist idea of Rainbow Body, which is that when an enlightened being dies physically, his or her body is absorbed directly back into the universe as energy, as light.”
Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City
Of Peasants and Princes
Saturday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Stone Church Community of Christ
1012 West Lexington, Independence, MO
Free admission. For more information visit http://mcckc.edu/blueriver/humanities/music/
The Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City, directed by Rebecca Johnson, includes students from the Metropolitan Community Colleges in Kansas City.
The promotional information for this concert states: “Journey with the Chorale as we explore the exquisite ‘princely’ music of the Renaissance as well as the more, well, ‘earthly’ music of that era. From England to Italy, Spain to Paris, the music will transport you to another time, another culture.”
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Combined Choirs
Sunday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Old Mission United Methodist Church
5519 State Park Road, Prairie Village, KS
Free admission. For more information visit http://conservatory.umkc.edu
The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance features in this concert the Conservatory Concert Choir, directed by Charles Robinson, and Canticum Novum, directed by Jacob Narverud. Programming features the work of visiting composer John David Earnest.
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.
All material contained in KCMetropolis.org is the property of or licensed for use by KCMetropolis.org. Any use, duplication, or reproduction of any or all content of this publication is prohibited except with the express written permission of KCMetropolis.org or the original copyright holders.