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Backstage And Beyond

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE: Dancer forms company with the broadest of missions

Tristian Griffin’s success grows partly from his openness to the wide world of arts. The Kansas City-based dancer-choreographer, who established his own company in 2019 (Tristian Griffin Dance Company), didn’t even begin his performance career with dance. He and his brother explored modeling as youngsters, until someone suggested to them that they should develop other […]

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FREE TO ROAM: Actor thrives onstage and behind the scenes

Many elements came together to make Teisha Bankston into the theater artist she is today. The frequent star of productions at the Unicorn Theatre and Kansas City Actors Theatre recalls an important early improvisation class with Valerie Mackey at Theatre for Young America, where she made friends with like-minded youngsters and began overcoming her natural […]

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WHEREFORE ART THOU? Lyric Opera presents renowned tenor with KC roots in role debut

Ben Bliss is no stranger to superlatives. During his rapid rise to the top of the opera world he has been called “one of the leading Mozart tenors on the scene today,” “close to the ideal,” “a revelation,” and at Lyric Opera of Chicago, “perhaps the finest Mozart tenor that has graced the Lyric stage […]

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Best of Spring: 35 events in music, theater, and dance you will not want to miss

JANUARY 23: Harriman-Jewell Series; Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason; The eldest of the seven celebrated musical siblings performs Prokofiev’s Third Concerto, and conductor Vasily Petrenko leads London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s hyper-charged Second Symphony; Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Contact: 816-415-5025 or hjseries.org. 25: International Center for Music at Park University; Rosamunde Trio; The renowned […]

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MAHLER AND BEYOND: Stern and DiDonato contemplate the composer’s far-reaching vision

The music of Mahler has formed an important part of Michael Stern’s repertoire throughout his nearly two decades as music director of the Kansas City Symphony. For mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the Prairie Village native who soared to the top of the opera world 25 years ago and has remained there ever since, Mahler is a fairly […]

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GREAT MOMENTS: Highlights of Kansas City’s arts year 2023

Kansas City brought so much exceptional work to local stages this year that narrowing this list to 10 became a Solomon-like exercise. It’s hardly a comprehensive survey (and it’s in chronological order): No mortal could attend every presentation of classical music, theater, and dance here (more than 500 annually, by my estimate). But I saw […]

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TEAM PLAYERS: Artists find that everyone gains from collaborations

Collaboration in the arts is not a choice: These days, it’s practically a necessity. In recent decades, Kansas City’s arts groups have noticeably moved toward a collaborative model, to the point where on any given night you are likely to partake of a performance of music, theater, or dance that involves multiple non-profit arts groups […]

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BUT THE FIRE IS SO DELIGHTFUL: Chamber Orchestra underscores the joy of the Baroque

If it’s December, you can be pretty sure that our concert-life is turning very Baroque. That is to say, there will be a bevvy of choral, orchestral, and chamber performances featuring music of the Baroque era (ca. 1600 to ca. 1750). This is perhaps to some extent because we associate the holidays with masterworks such […]

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KEYBOARD COUPLE: Musical teamwork enhances wedded bliss

Musicians love chamber music because it offers a chance to perform with friends in a warmly collegial, relatively low-stress environment. The most intimate chamber music of all is that for two pianists, especially when they perform together at the same keyboard. Some of the repertoire for piano duet is scored for two pianos, it is […]

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EARTH TONES: New generations of American Indian composers are steeped in classical and Native cultures

When Raven Chacon won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022, the announcement surprised many American music-lovers, few of whom realized how strong the tradition of concert music by Native Americans had grown during the past two generations.  This year Raven was also awarded the MacArthur Award, given (as the MacArthur Foundation wrote) for “creating […]

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WYANDOTTE WAYS: Public Theatre co-founder brings family roots to bear in his work

Nathan Bowman doesn’t always advertise his Native American heritage when presenting himself to the public, but he is nonetheless proud of the deep roots that his family has always known are there. The co-founder and producing artistic director of Kansas City Public Theatre was raised knowing that, at the very least, he was descended on […]

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FRESH START: Spinning Tree launches third season of newly framed company

There was a time, during the restless months of 2020, when many performing arts groups wondered whether they would survive. In the decade since its founding in 2010, Spinning Tree Theatre had by then already earned a reputation as one of the region’s most adventurous companies. Each year it produced three or four “intimate productions, […]

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TEACHING EMPATHY: Lyric Opera asks: Why add one-hit wonders when you can innovate? 

More than 400 new operas have been produced on the world’s mainstages during the 21st century so far. That’s great, right? The bad news is that a surprisingly large share of those will never be revived, not even once. (For context, since opera’s beginnings around 1600, tens of thousands of operas have reached the stage, […]

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TRAILBLAZERS: A scrapbook of Kansas City performing artists whose impact is being felt throughout the region and beyond

 Vanessa Severo  The actor, writer, choreographer, and director is the daughter of Brazilian immigrants. She has appeared on all the major stages in Kansas City and on quite a few others around the country. In 2019, she presented the world premiere of her one-woman show, Frida: A Self Portrait at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and […]

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VOCES DIVERSAS: Arts groups lay groundwork for stronger Hispanic voices 

Latin Americans have played a major role in the growth of greater Kansas City for at least two centuries, probably beginning with the founding of Independence, Missouri, in 1821. Yet even as the Hispanic population today has grown to some 10 percent of the region’s 2.1 million inhabitants, Kansas City’s Latinos still find themselves struggling […]

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TRAILBLAZING: Local ensemble explores how Latino music was formed from a confluence of voices

Nearly all of Beau Bledsoe’s musical adventures have grown out of a lifelong love of the classical guitar, also known as the “Spanish” guitar. So it made sense that Ensemble Ibérica, the group that the Arkansas native established in 2013, should be dedicated to performing “music from Spain and Portugal and other areas of the […]

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NOW’S THE TIME: UMKC Conservatory is ready to spring forward

After more than two decades and four deans, it was beginning to look as if the UMKC Conservatory’s dream of a new facility would remain just that: a dream. Until now, that is. “This fall, Dean Courtney Crappell will reveal exciting plans for several phases of renovations and expansion of the Conservatory to meet future […]

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NO SECOND GUESSING: Classical pioneer brings solo Bach to Kansas City

One woman, standing alone onstage. No pianist, no music-stand: Just Hilary Hahn and her violin, creating miracles. That is what Harriman-Jewell Series audiences are likely to experience this October 13th, when one of the most gifted violinists of our time performs works from J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. It’s difficult to think of […]

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Best Of Fall 2023

Oh the weather outside is frightful(ly hot). But it won’t be for long, so take a close look at this fall’s diverse and provocative mix of music, dance, and theater: with representation from six of the world’s seven continents! (We’re still working on Antarctica…)  SEPTEMBER  6-24: Unicorn Theatre; Native Gardens; The Mexican-born Karen Zacarías, one […]

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BUILDING FORWARD: Ballet School continues ongoing success story with new studios

Kansas City Ballet always seems to be building something. For decades, it engaged in refitting existing buildings to meet its day-to-day needs: from the Westport Allen Center to the National Cash Register building to a former warehouse at 16th and Broadway. In August 2011, it established an elegant home in the Todd Bolender Center for […]

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CONQUERING CONCORD: Broadway musical confirms wide appeal of Alcott classic 

The impact of a book can often be gauged by the number and variety of adaptations it spawns. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was published more than 150 years ago, but it continues to feel like an archetypal portrait of at least one kind of American family. The Civil War-era tale of the struggling March […]

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