Drive-in theaters are a great place to catch the classics. So tune in, music lovers

The drive-in movie theater is an American icon. Many of us have fond memories of piling into a car on a sultry summer evening to enjoy films like “Godzilla” or “Planet of the Apes.”

Park University’s International Center for Music will use this populist medium in the service of European high art when it presents Stanislav and Friends at the Boulevard Drive-In Theatre on Sept. 17.

Performances of Park’s stellar team of faculty and students, filmed at the Kauffman Center, will be shown on the Boulevard’s big screen. And unlike the days of yore when one listened through big, clunky drive-in speakers, you’ll be able to enjoy high quality sound by tuning into a signal on your car’s radio. Those who arrive early can tailgate like Chiefs fans before the concert begins.

This drive-in concept is one of many methods classical musicians are using during the months of coronavirus, which has wreaked havoc on the arts. The International Center for Music’s faculty and students travel the world throughout the year to give concerts, but they’ve been pretty much grounded by the pandemic.

According to Stanislav Ioudenitch, the Van Cliburn Award-winning pianist who founded the Center and is currently its artistic director, that has not been entirely bad.

“Actually, I’ve been very happy to be with my family,” he said.

For the past several months, Ioudenitch mostly has been hunkered down in Kansas City. In addition to leading Park’s International Center for Music, Ioudenitch also teaches at the Oberlin College and Conservatory. He’s been able to keep up with his teaching duties there, as well, albeit long-distance.

“Thank God, we have technology,” Ioudenitch said. “The internet is becoming faster and faster, so video classes are very possible right now. It’s not ideal, of course, but it is possible.”

The director has also been busy prepping his students and himself for the Boulevard Drive-In concert. His big solo bow will feature a waltz by Chopin and a piano transcription of the Danse Russe (Russian Dance) from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrouchka.”

“It is one of my signature pieces and represents my roots,” Ioudenitch said.

“On a scale of difficulty from one to 10, it’s a 10. This music is not emotional. It’s rhythmic and coloristic, so you have to hear the sounds of the orchestral instruments and you must be able to imitate them. Which is extremely challenging on piano because all the keys are very evenly sounding. You have to do miracles to make them sound different.”

London International Piano Competition winner and loudenitch protege Behzod Abduraimov will perform one of Beethoven’s most popular works, the “Moonlight Sonata.” Abduraimov should bring a fresh approach to this ubiquitous work.

“This is a piece I’ve known since childhood, but I’ve never had a chance to play it in concert,” Abduraimov said. “It’s such a great sonata, I thought it would be a way to pay tribute to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.”

Abduraimov says it wasn’t Beethoven who came up with the enduring name of “Moonlight.”

“It has nothing to do with moonlight or with the moon,” he said. “Beethoven never even thought about giving it this title. The title was given by somebody later after Beethoven passed.

“The paradox is since this name is so catchy, everybody knows it. It was a marketing tool, in a way. Marketing is so important, even back then.”

Music director Ioudenitch will join what he calls the International Center for Music “gene pool” for the concert’s grand finale. He and his wife, Tatiana Ioudenitch — along with faculty member Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich and student and Van Cliburn silver medalist Kenny Broberg — will perform a slam-bang eight-hand piano transcription of John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“It should be a lot of fun,” Ioudenitch said.

Sort of like going to the drive-in. Something Ioudenitch was not lucky enough to experience growing up in Soviet Uzbekistan.

“Not many people in the Soviet Union had cars,” he said. “But there were movie theaters where you could sit outside. You would just walk there not drive in. I remember in my childhood going many times with my parents. But we knew about American drive-ins because we saw them in the movies.”

At dark, approximately 7:50 p.m. Sept. 17. Venue opens at 6 p.m. for tailgating. Boulevard Drive-In Theatre, 1051 Merriam Lane, Kansas City, Kansas. $50 for two people in one vehicle and $100 for three or more people in one vehicle. tinyurl.com/yyryequd.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.