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Cypress String Quartet
October 10, 2009
The season opens October 10, 2009 with the Cypress String Quartet. This San Francisco-based quartet has brought audiences to their feet for more than a decade with virtuoso performances at major concert venues around the world. Widely celebrated for their dedication to the genre and for the exuberance and power of their performances, quartet members combine technical precision with imaginative programming to create truly unforgettable concert experiences. Singled out by Chamber Music Magazine as “a Generation X ensemble to watch,” the quartet outreaches in new ways to ignite interest in chamber music. The quartet was named “Exemplary Arts Educators” by the California Arts Council and has reached 100,000 students nationwide, including Native Americans in rural New Mexico and inner-city students in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago. In September 2004 the quartet was selected by the faculty of the Juilliard School for the “McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach” in recognition of their national leadership in music education.
The quartet will be in residence at the Conservatory, working with the Youth Symphony of Kansas City and in public master classes. This concert is underwritten by the James and Vera Olson Fund for the Arts.
Stefon Harris and Blackout
January 30, 2010
Vibraphonist-composer Stefon Harris is heralded as “one of the most important young artists in jazz” by The Los Angeles Times. Harris’ passionate artistry, energetic stage presence, and astonishing virtuosity have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene. Widely recognized and lauded by his peers and jazz critics alike, Harris is committed to exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. Stefon is a recipient of the prestigious Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center and has earned multiple Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Album. He has performed at many of the world’s most distinguished concert halls, including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, Detroit’s Orchestra Hall, and The Sydney Opera House. Blackout, Stefon’s new project featuring a hybrid of acoustic music and progressive sounds, debuted its CD Evolution in April 2004 and also embarked on a national tour. Praised for “pursuing jazz on its own terms” by the Washington Post; the band has performed to sold-out crowds at The Kennedy Center and North Sea Jazz Festival.
An active educator, Mr. Harris conducts over 100 clinics and lectures annually at schools and universities throughout the country and will be working with the Kansas City public schools and in public master classes while in residence at the Conservatory.
Vinson Cole
February 27, 2010
Vinson Cole, tenor graces the White Recital Hall stage February 27, 2010. As UMKC’s Kauffman Artist in Residence, Mr. Cole, who works with Conservatory students, is internationally recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation. His career has taken him to all of the major opera houses across the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris Bastille, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie, Brussels, Berlin State Opera, Munich State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Opera Australia, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and many more. Equally celebrated for his concert appearances, Mr. Cole has been a frequent guest of the most prestigious orchestras worldwide and has collaborated with the greatest conductors of this era including Christoph Eschenbach, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Gerard Schwarz, as well as Sir Georg Solti and Giuseppe Sinopoli. Mr. Cole had an especially close working relationship with the late Herbert von Karajan, who brought the artist to the Salzburg Festival to sing the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier—the first of many performances there together. Their collaboration included Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem, and Bruckner’s Te Deum; many were issued on Deutsche Grammaphon recordings. George Darden will accompany Cole on the piano.
Imani Winds
March 27, 2010
Since 1997, this Grammy-nominated ensemble has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions. The group is working on its Legacy Commissioning Project, an ambitious five-year endeavor commissioning, premiering and touring ten new works for woodwind quintet written by composers who bring experience in classical music, jazz, Middle Eastern, Latin, and harder to define sounds.
Imani has performed at Atlanta’s National Black Arts Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Chicago Symphony Musicians Residency Program, the Ravinia Festival, the Kennedy Center, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, among others. At the 2001 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Imani Winds was selected as the first-ever Educational Residency Ensemble, in recognition of members’ tremendous musical abilities and innovative programming.
Imani will be in residence at the Conservatory, and will be part of an outreach initiative to expand arts enrichment programming in the Kansas City Middle School for the Arts and Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts (Kansas City); Ruskin High School and Smith-Hale Middle School (Hickman Mills), and two elementary schools in each district. Both districts are served by the Conservatory’s Musical Bridges and Composers in the Schools projects. Imani will also give public master classes at the Conservatory. Imani Winds is underwritten by the Shumaker Family Foundation.
Finale Concert
April 24, 2010
Signature Series culminates with the Finale, which includes the 100-piece orchestra led by esteemed Mahler specialist Robert Olson. The orchestra will debut a work by Guggenheim Fellow, Rome Prize Winner, and Curator’s Professor of Music James Mobberley, commissioned by Sara and Landon Rowland at the Conservatory’s 2008 Crescendo gala. At the Rowlands’ request the piece will be a tribute to Todd Bolender, the founding director of the Kansas City Ballet. Mobberley worked with Bolender in the mid 1990s on Arena, a ballet for the Kansas City Ballet. According to Mobberley, “Bolender’s great musical loves included Stravinsky, Gershwin, Bernstein and Copland, all of whose influences appeared in Arena and may in fact appear in my new composition."
New subscription packages go on sale July 6. Current Signature Series subscribers will be given priority seating through June 30. The Signature Gold package includes five concerts for $79. A bonus concert allows Signature Gold subscribers to choose one extra performance from any of the Conservatory non-Signature concert offerings. Additional subscriber benefits include guaranteed seat location, flexible ticket exchange privileges, and priority for single ticket purchases. All performances will start at 7:30 p.m. in White Recital Hall, James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry St. All students are entitled to half price season tickets with valid student I.D. Programs and artists are subject to change.
For information, call the Central Ticket Office at (816) 235-6222. People with speech or hearing impairments may call Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).
