“Soul Mates” paired traditional English sacred repertoire with modern pieces influenced by them. Friday night’s concert featured brilliant, illuminated singing and invigorating style contrasts, performed in the appropriately grand setting and lively acoustics of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.
In 1994, the Spanish Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos set the music world on its head when it released a CD of Gregorian chant. “Chant” sold 3 million copies in the United States and 6 million worldwide. Over the last 20 years, interest in Gregorian chant has not abated.
There was an air of excitement at Helzberg Hall Friday night for the Kansas City Symphony’s season-ending concert of music by Mozart and Strauss. From the outset, Michael Stern and the orchestra highlighted the music’s elegance, with subtle and well-conceived phrasing and nuanced gestures.
The Owen/Cox Dance Group, with pianist Kairy Koshoeva, concluded their season with the world premiere of a delightfully inventive evening-length ballet set to J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” performed in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s White Hall.
Playing the piano at age 5 certainly wasn't Vadym Kholodenko's idea, but after his mother took him to a music school, he quickly grew to love it while growing up in Kiev, Ukraine.
This is the fifth year that Simon Carrington, founding member of the King’s Singers and beloved voice teacher, leaves his summer home in France and comes to Kansas City to spend a week with his namesake Simon Carrington Chamber Singers.
The Kansas City Symphony brought an unconventional twist to Friday evening’s concert in Helzberg Hall. Opening with Carl Ruggles’ “Angels,” the orchestra set the tone for a program of music that when written heralded new practices and still defies expectations today.
In 1915, long before Technicolor and CinemaScope, Richard Strauss composed a symphony depicting a mountain-climbing expedition in the Alps that is the musical equivalent of IMAX. The Kansas City Symphony will conclude its season with three sold-out performances of the majestic Alpine Symphony next weekend in Helzberg Hall.
At the beginning of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Kansas City Chorale presented a viewpoint of meditative introspection and gentle release. This multiple Grammy Award-winning ensemble ended its 31st season on Friday evening with a concert in Helzberg Hall.
Violinist Gil Shaham has joined the growing list of classical performers who tour the world and, in the buffering winds of the ever-changing music industry, preside over their own recording labels. Next weekend, he’ll be at Helzberg Hall to play Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto of 1935 with the Kansas City Symphony.
The Kansas City Symphony’s annual outdoor event is “one of the most fun and most meaningful events we present in our season,” says music director Michael Stern. And this year brings a poignant moment in an appearance by wounded vets who’ve been given new lives in music.
After guiding the transformation of the Kansas City Symphony for 18 years, Shirley Helzberg is stepping down as chairwoman of the orchestra’s board. William M. Lyons, a former president and CEO of American Century Investments, will replace her.
Parts of Friday’s performance of the Kansas City Symphony, led by conductor and pianist Asher Fisch, were plagued by a variety of issues with balance, blend and synchronization. Despite the flaws, the orchestra was able to capture the music's inherent beauty.
Most of the concerts in the 2011-2012 University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory’s Conservatory Artist Series will be at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. “We’re thrilled to be a part of this historic moment,” Peter Witte, conservatory dean, said.
