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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Renee Fleming as Thais

 The St. Joseph Community Chorus
featuring the Fountain City Brass Band
Christmas At The Cathedral
Monday, December 15 at 7:30pm
Cathedral of St. Joseph
519 North 10th Street, St. Joseph, MO

The St. Joseph Community Chorus has been providing high level choral music for their community for 28 years. This is bound to be a festive concert, as the award-winning Fountain City Brass Band joins them for a concert of Christmas classics.

Free Admission. For more information visit www.stjosephcommunitychorus.org

The Kansas City Chorale presents
Holiday Concert
Tuesday, December 16, 7:30 p.m.
Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church
9300 Nall Avenue, Overland Park, KS

Charles Bruffy and the Kansas City Chorale.  What more can we say?  The local group of 24 singers has made an international reputation over the past dozen years, and it is richly deserved.  The Chorale's numerous recordings (eight to date, with another to be released soon) have won praise from critics and listeners alike, and the most recent one, of Grechaninov's Passion Week, won a Grammy award last year.  The more recent recording of Rheinberger sacred choral music is even better, some listeners feel.  More importantly, the group has enchanted the ears of Kansas Citians for more than 25 years now, and its concerts can always be counted upon to produce waves of delightful vocal sound.

In this season's holiday concert, the Chorale features Ottorino Respighi's rarely-performed Laud to the Nativity, accompanied by musicians from the Kansas City Symphony. Of course, the concert will also include a traditional offering of seasonal favorites of tuneful good cheer, including music from Gabrieli, Palestrina, Sweelinck and William Byrd.

The Chorale will also sing four new arrangements of classic Christmas carols by composer Michael McGlynn.

No vocal lover's holiday season would be complete without this concert!  And a Chorale CD recording makes the perfect gift for your musically-inclined friends, particularly those from out of town who need to learn about the best that Kansas City vocal music has to offer.  Something tells me the CD's may be available at the intermission of the concert.

For tickets call 816-235-6200 or online at www.kcchorale.com

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD
Thaïs
by J. Massenet
Featuring Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson
Saturday, December 20 at 11 a.m.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD returns to theatres nationwide for its third season this fall. The Met will transmit a total of eleven live and ten encore events this season from September to May. Don't miss the excitement of experiencing the Met on the big screen. If you've never taken one of these performances, I highly encourage you to attend. This broadcast is of Massenet's Thaïs. The radiant Renée Fleming plays the Egyptian courtesan in search of spiritual sustenance, and Thomas Hampson is the monk Athanaél who falls from grace. Massenet's sensual score is presented in a new production by John Cox with Jesús Lopez-Cobos conducting. Several movie theaters in town are showing this event. At approximately $20 per ticket, seeing the Met has never been so economical and convenient.

For ticket information visit www.fathomevents.com

Westport Center For The Arts
Abendmusik Holiday Concert
featuring music composed by Dietrich Buxtehude
Westport Presbyterian Church
201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO

With choir directed by Marian Thomas and Jedd Schneider and instrumentalists from the KC Symphony, this is an opportunity to experience Christmas music with a baroque flavor. Featuring Buxtehude's Wachet Auf and In Dulci Jubilo cantata, trio sonatas, and chorales with audience participation, this event is a must for chamber music fans.

Tickets available at the door or visit www.westportcenterforthearts.org

By R. Douglas Helvering

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)