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

For complete listings through 2010, click here to visit the KC Events calendar

Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Rigoletto
Wednesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 28 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.

The last three performances of the Lyric Opera's Rigoletto await you this week, featuring one of the strongest operatic casts ever to appear on local stages.  Nationally known baritone Richard Paul Fink stars as the hunchbacked jester whose valiant but misguided efforts to protect his innocent daughter lead to tragedy.  Soprano Mary Dunleavy portrays the lovesick Gilda, with tenor David Pomeroy starring as the swaggering Duke of Mantua.

Rarely have such vivid characters appeared on the opera stage, and the tunes of Verdi's great opera are so familiar that sometimes we tend to think of the piece as almost trite.  Somehow, though, live performances always bring out the tragedy and drama of this piece, and for a riveting evening in the theater a fine performance of Rigoletto cannot be beat.

The Lyric Opera will soon be showcased in the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, and it's gratifying to see the company hitting a high level of performance quality as that day approaches.  It's a company that will richly deserve the fine performing space it is about to receive.

Read the KCMetropolis.org review here.

Spencer Museum of Art
The Goldenberg Duo
Wednesday, March 24, 12:00 noon
University of Kansas at Lawrence Campus
1301 Mississippi Street, Lawrence, KS
Free admission. For more information visit www.spencerart.ku.edu

Susan Goldenberg is a longtime violinist with the Kansas City Symphony and her brother William is a Distinguished Professor of Piano at Northern Illinois University.  Occasionally the two of them are able to get together for performances under the name of the Goldenberg Duo, something they have done for about three decades.

If you are in the vicinity of Lawrence this afternoon, this free noontime concert at the Spencer Museum of Art will include several classical works (yet to be announced) by this remarkable pair.  This listener has always found the sister/brother duo to be outstanding performers, and their concerts are always enjoyable.



Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players
Sibelius, Grieg & the Music of the North
Friday, March 26, at 8:00 p.m.
Bell Cultural Center, Mid America Nazarene University
2030 E. College Way, Olathe, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

Steven Jarvi, the energetic young associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, brings the Symphony's chamber players to Olathe this weekend for music of Scandinavian masters.  Featured on the program are the Andante Festivo of Finland's Jean Sibelius, Two Swedish Folk Songs by Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen, Little Suite in A Minor by Denmark's Carl Nielsen, and the Holberg Suite, one of the most gorgeous compositions of Norwegian master Edvard Grieg.

Jarvi's programming is always most intriguing, and the last performance by this group was nearly sold out, so you might think about getting your tickets early for this performance.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Ein deutsches Requiem with Joseph Flummerfelt
Friday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit www.conservatory.umkc.edu


The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance welcomes famed choral conductor Joseph Flummerfelt to the campus this week, and his appearances culminate on Friday night with a performance of Johannes Brahms' choral masterpiece, Ein deutsches Requiem, at White Recital Hall.  Opportunities are too rare to hear this magnificent work.  Flummerfelt will lead the Conservatory Choirs and Orchestra along with UMKC faculty soloists Rebecca Sherburn, soprano and Raymond Feener, baritone.

Flummerfelt has conducted choirs in many of the world's concert halls for nearly four decades.  He is founder and musical director of the New York Choral Artists and is an artistic director of Spoleto Festival USA.  For over three decades he was conductor of the famous Westminster Choir, which he has led in 45 recordings including Britten's War Requiem and the Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem and Schicksalslied with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic; Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and a Grammy Award-winning Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Leonard Bernstein.  He has also recorded opera and oratorio, collaborating with American composer Samuel Barber on the latter's Anthony and Cleopatra. In 2004 his New York Choral Artists recording of John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls was awarded three Grammys.

This should be a special opportunity to hear a classic work under the baton of an outstanding conductor.  And you can't beat the price.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Signature Series
Imani Winds
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

Imani Winds, a woodwind quintet, is a path breaking contemporary group founded in 1997.  In addition to exploring the traditional wind quintet repertoire, the group creates and performs new works bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions 

At the moment, the Imani Winds is working on a five-year plan to commission and perform 10 new works for woodwind quintet by both established and emerging composers, including jazz, Middle Eastern, Latin and other musical idioms in addition to "classical."

Saturday night the unusual group will perform in the UMKC Conservatory's flagship Signature Series.



Park University Concert Series
Music Extravaganza
Friday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
8700 N.W. River Park Drive
Park University, Parkville, MO
Tickets available at the door. For more information visit http://news.park.edu/pub/news_001569.shtml

For only $5, you can enjoy some of Kansas City's finest resident musicians in performance at Park University in Parkville.  Kanako Ito, the Kansas City Symphony's concert mistress, is joined by violinist Ben Sayevich, violist Chung-Hoon Peter Chun, cellist Martin Storey and pianist Lolita Lisovskaya in a program which will include Gabriele Faure's Quartet No. 2 in G Minor and Tchaikovsky's String Sextet, "Souvenir de Florence."

These musicians from the Park University International Center for Music will be joined by guest artists Brant Bayless on the viola and Brian Manker on the cello.  It should be a fine evening of music making, brought to us by Stanislav Ioudenitch, the director of Park University's International Center for Music. 




Bach Aria Soloists with Bill McGlaughlin
Inspired by Bach
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church
6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS
and
Sunday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Private Home
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.bachariasoloists.com

Fans of the Kansas City Symphony will remember Bill McGlaughlin, who led the local band from 1986 to 1997 and presided over an impressive upgrading of the quality of Symphony performances and programming.  You may also know that he has been the host of the St. Paul Sunday Morning show on national public radio for many years.  You may also know that he is a noted contemporary composer whose works have been performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Chamber Music Festival of the East, Tucson Symphony and other ensembles. Among other things, he has composed a piece in collaboration with Garrison Keillor, Surveying Lake Wobegon, which had its premiere in 2000; wrote Three Pieces for Wind Trio which was premiered at the Kemper Museum in 2002; and wrote Remembering Icarus for the Las Cruces Symphony.

Well, this weekend he is back in town as the guest of Elizabeth Suh Lane and her Bach Aria Soloists for a Saturday evening concert at Village Presbyterian Church and a Sunday evening appearance at a private home as part of the Bach Aria Soloists' Hauskonzert series.

For the Saturday evening concert, McGlaughlin will introduce the stories behind the music of Bach's Sonata No. 1 for Unaccompanied Violin, Bartok' s Solo Sonata for Violin, both performed by Elizabeth Suh Lane; favorite Bach soprano arias with soprano Rebecca Lloyd; an improvisation of a Baroque Chorale with Elisa Bickers; and the gorgeous Little Preludes for violin and guitar with guitarist Beau Bledsoe.

At the Sunday evening performance, McGlaughlin will feature "music of Bach, Bartok and a little jazz," with McGlaughlin offering commentary and engaging in conversation with a small audience.

McGlaughlin has meant much to Kansas City classical music over the years, and it is a delight to have him back in town.

 Read the KCMetropolis preview here.

Heartland Men's Chorus
British Invasion
Saturday, March 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call (816) 931-3338 or online at www.hmckc.org.

Joseph Nadeau brings his Heartland Men's Chorus to the Folly Theater stage for two performances of the group's spring concert, featuring music from Great Britain.  "From The Beatles to The Rolling Stones to Elton John and Queen," the concert publicity says, "we'll take a 'magical mystery tour' of the UK's best musical exports."

Ordinarily the Heartland Men's Chorus features at some classical selections in its concerts, which is why we list it here, but this concert sounds like it will focus on much of the British Isles' more popular music... with some fun and spicy antics included.

William Baker Festival Singers
A Celebration of Mozart
Saturday, March 27 at 3 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th Street, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 913-403-9223 or online at www.festivalsingers.org

Spend a March afternoon celebrating Mozart with the William Baker Festival Singers, O. Wayne Smith, organ, members of the Kansas City Symphony and some local vocal favorites including Sarah Tannehill, soprano, Kristee Haney, mezzosoprano, Charles Martinez, tenor, Joshua Lawlor, bass.




Topeka Symphony Orchestra
No Strings Attached
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
White Concert Hall
Washburn University Campus, Topeka, KS
For tickets call 785-232-2032 or by e-mail tso@topekasymphony.org.
For more information visit www.topekasymphony.org.


Topeka Symphony Orchestra conductor John Strickler leads his forces this weekend in an interesting mix of Baroque, classical, jazz and 20^th century compositions.

He opens with Georg Frideric Handel's justly popular Music for the Royal Fireworks, continues with the ravishingly tuneful Serenade for Winds by Czech master Antonin Dvorak, plays an orchestral version of the popular piano piece The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, then finishes with a suite of music from The Threepenny Opera by 20^th century German expatriate composer Kurt Weill (written before his departure for the United States).  Strickler is a master of interesting and varied programming, and this concert sounds like a treat for the ears.



Kansas City Youth Symphony
50th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, March 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Gem Theater
1616 East 18th Street, Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit www.youthsymphonykc.org

Conductor Stephen D. Davis leads the Kansas City Youth Symphony in a celebration of its 50^th anniversary this weekend at the Gem Theater.  Actually, the Youth Symphony was founded in 1958, so its 50^th anniversary occurred a couple of years ago, but the concert is billed as listed, so perhaps half a century is worth more than one celebration.  Unfortunately this writer was unable to find out any more detail about this program.




Te Deum
 Light in the Darkness
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Visitation Church,
51st and Main Street, Kansas City, MO
and
Sunday, March 28 at 3:00 p.m.
Village Presbyterian Church,
6641 Mission Road, Mission, KS
Free admission. For more information visit www.te-deum.org

Matthew Shepard's group Te Deum, a relatively new vocal chamber ensemble specializing in  sacred music, will  present a program called Anthems of Purcell, Spirituals, and Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna.

For complete listings through 2010, click here to visit the KC Events calendar

To be included in this column, you must have your event listed on the KC Events Calendar. Click here for instructions on how to do that.

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.