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

The opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is generating a lot of energy and excitement in the Kansas City arts world. City business leaders feel it, too, with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce incorporating plans for arts support and development into its “Big Ideas” initiative. One idea presented is to bring the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance into the Crossroads/downtown area, making it a physical presence on the fine arts scene.

But many states are slashing support for the arts. Some may, like Kansas, do away with state funds altogether. The Federal government is also cutting arts spending, reducing the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. The economy hasn’t picked up with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm—how does all this affect American engagement with the arts?

How can the arts be viable in the community, seen as commodities, as commerce vital to the economic structure, well worth their price? Why is classical music seen as a luxury, not a necessity?

Many people have pondered these questions and come up with myriad answers, with no outright solutions. Among those attempted solutions being made is at 158 Bleecker Street, New York, New York at (le) Poisson Rouge, a bar that opened in 2008 just south of the New York University campus.

(le) Poisson Rouge is a music venue and “multimedia art cabaret,” according to its website. The night club serves not only alcohol and small plates, but a diverse cross section of American contemporary art and culture, with a mission to bring classical music (amongst other genres) into the main stream.

The founders of LPR, Justin Kantor and David Handler, along with music director Ronen Givony, are creating a new model for classical music presenting. They are the recent recipients of the Victor Herbert Award at the 12th Annual ASCAP Concert Music Awards and were brought to Kansas City by UMKC Conservatory’s Dean Peter Witte to participate in a series of discussions about their venue, the musical product, and the process with this heretofore unheard of venture.

Unlike many classical music ventures, this one is for-profit, a distinct rarity in the arts world.

Kantor and Handler began their idea while in school at the Manhattan School of Music—they wanted to offer another option, a different experience of classical music beyond the traditional concert hall. They decided to steer clear of the traditional funding sources of donations and grants. According to Handler, “People are going to have a reckoning [with the current model]…that structure has a limited lifespan.”

So they took a different route. The start-up was funded entirely by private investors. “The arts need not always be with its hand out—it’s a product worthy of payment.” It took them three years to open, with two of those years spent looking for the right space, the multitude of red tape involved with getting the liquor license, and getting the space (with an adjacent art gallery) renovated to their specifications.

But the founders dreamt big. The first show in the art gallery was by Chuck Close, whose work Al (Gore) was seen in Kansas City last spring in the "America: Now and Here" exhibit. Close also has pieces in the permanent collections of both the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Beyond the art though was music by Philip Glass; both are long time members of the downtown scene who struggled in their younger days. Glass, after the successful run of his opera Einstein on the Beach at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, returned to driving taxis to repay his debts.

It appears to be working. LPR hosts over 600 shows annually, running acts seven days a week on the main stage, as well as events in the art gallery. It host series, such as Givony’s “Wordless Music” or “Baby got Bach,” for families, and have a growing membership program. The investors haven’t made back their money yet, but the venture is in the black. LPR attract all kinds of audiences thanks to diverse programming, which has included the Kronos Quartet, Norah Jones, Hilary Hahn, They Might Be Giants, Steve Reich, John Zorn and Brad Mehldau. Seemingly, because they deliberately pair dissimilar acts back to back, audiences are growing.

It was a “problem of packaging, not content, that drove away younger audiences.”

The venue operates more like a rock or jazz club by booking two or three months in advance as opposed to two or three years and the artists get a cut of the door as opposed to a set fee regardless of the audience size. These are foreign concepts to many classically-trained musicians. With $10-25 tickets, the audience attracted to each the act matters.

Of course, LPR has many different needs than the average bar. The art gallery requires monitors to insure the art is not damaged, there are lighting and sound technicians, music and art directors, along with bar and serving staff. But part of their success is due to their versatility, not only in their programming but in the curated art gallery, the menu, and the very space itself, which can be altered from full-service dining to standing-room-only.

So the question is: could something like this work in Kansas City? With the Kauffman Center helping create a new national image for Kansas City—could there be room for a project smaller in scale but just as great in magnitude?

Kansas City already supports a professional symphony, opera and ballet companies, numerous theaters and multiple art and history museums. The Crossroads hosts successful galleries and the popular music scene between here and Lawrence, KS is vibrant. New music is celebrated at UMKC and around the city, with the Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Association, newEar and the Electronic Music Midwest Festival.

A quick perusal of the Pitch Weekly’s music line-up, however, lists practically every genre but classical. When did classical music become divorced from everyday life? Is the divide reparable?

Already we see performances of new and experimental music in art galleries and bars around the city. The Brick, RecordBar, R Bar and La Esquina, amongst others, regularly offer non-rock band fare. Birdie’s Bee Stage has carefully-curated performances for an intimate audience. Westport Coffee House has hosted the UMKC Composers’ Guild’s “Co(mp)llaboration” series in the past, as well as performances of jazz and electronic music.

As the founders of LPR joke, “alcohol is our patron,” and their slogan is direct: “Serving art and alcohol.” The bar is the business; the music is lucky to cover its own expenses. But they are “as mission driven as a for-profit can be.”

What advice did they have for the Conservatory students? Cultivate the relationships you’re making now. Question what it means to be an artist and find a unique path that is unexplored. Educate yourself across genres and history. And don’t wait until the funding kicks in to start being creative. 

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.