Artists have always delighted in playing notes that are not in the scale, or painting outside the lines, or staging plays is odd places. After a few weeks of hand-wringing, Kansas City’s performing-arts leaders dug in and created a fall season the likes of which we have never seen. Audiences will have access to a […]

Choirs always seem to bring joy into a room. And if the singers are feeling it, chances are it will spread to the listeners. “You dispel any myths or any idiosyncrasies about the other person,” said Ah’Lee Robinson, speaking of the communal experience of choral performance, where personal differences drop away. “I just want my […]

When oboist Kristina Fulton spends hundreds of hours carving Mediterranean cane into paper-thin strips of reed, she has a single purpose in mind: to produce the most gorgeous sound possible. “I’ve always loved listening to opera singers, or even amazing jazz greats, Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone,” said the San Diego native, who has held […]

Strategy, creativity, and a playbook drawn from years of observation: The success of a wedding band is more akin to Andy Reid’s playbook than you might think. A band throws out songs the way Andy tries crazy plays early in a game, just to gauge responses, adjusting the game-plan as he goes. A band ensures […]

Life doesn’t always imitate art, but it usually imitates Shakespeare. When Hillary Clemens and Matt Schwader first met in 2010 in Wisconsin, performing Rosalind and Orlando in the American Players Theatre’s As You Like It, they could hardly have known it would be the first of many such collaborations. “We got along really well, and […]

When Diane Helfers Petrella was charged with running the UMKC Conservatory, first as interim dean and then, in 2018, as full-time dean, she was so busy juggling the half-dozen crises facing the school that she barely noticed what was, for the public at least, the most newsworthy aspect of the appointment: She was the first […]

When you’re selling a somewhat offbeat product, sometimes the biggest challenge is explaining to people what it is and why they need it. When it comes to marketing, publicity, and fundraising for Park University’s International Center for Music, one obstacle to spreading awareness about it locally has been its uniqueness: There’s nothing quite like it, […]

The continued health of the arts in Kansas City has long been uppermost in our collective consciousness, and for months COVID-19 has kept us all preoccupied. Meanwhile, what is perhaps the most significant decision of the decade for our cultural future is already underway. Yet it has almost escaped notice. During the past 20 years […]

Ask anyone from Paris, London, or New York what they know of Kansas City music and they’re likely to mention jazz. But those of us who live here know that our contributions cover a range of genres, from pop to Country, Broadway to choral music, classical to hip-hop. “Kansas City has, throughout its history, has […]