By Paul Horsley

Summers are increasingly busy times for music, theater and dance in Kansas City, but for nearly a quarter-century Summerfest has presented the most substantial summer offerings in classical music, by a long shot. It thrives for two main reasons: (1) top-drawer musicians, many from the Kansas City Symphony, who offer the best in established and new music, and (2) an informal atmosphere in which “getting to know the audience,” quite literally, is part of the experience.

“It’s founded on the philosophy that we want to have a relationship with the audience,” says artistic advisor Mary Grant, a KC Symphony violinist who (together with fellow KCS violinist Nancy Beckmann and others) founded Summerfest in 1991. “It’s in our contracts that musicians show up after concerts. It’s really important: It’s always a chance to talk about the music with the audience. There are people we know from the beginning, who have been coming for decades now.”

That intimacy is so important that the group—which consists of a core of local musicians and others from around the country—has regulated its expansion. “Trying to grow too much, too fast would be a mistake,” says co-artistic director and KCS assistant principal cellist Alexander East,” because we would lose some of that intimacy, that contact.”

This summer’s season, the 24th, features works by some of the hottest living composers around—the American Jennifer Higdon  (pictured at top), the Austrian-born Gernot Wolfgang, the Chinese-American Ping Jin—and features appearances by internationally renowned singers (Gwendolyn Coleman Detwiler and KC’s own Daniel Belcher in Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach). To keep things balanced, this season each of the four programs concludes with a big Germanic masterpiece: a coincidence, says co-artistic director Jane Carl, who is also professor of clarinet at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. “We just wanted each program to end with a substantial work, because we do so many smaller, lighter pieces.”

Among these big works is the closer for the series’ first program (July 12th and 13th), Paul Hindemith’s magnificent Quartet for Clarinet and Piano Trio. It’s a refreshing push for a German-born American who has long been overshadowed by his more brazen contemporaries, and who was often vilified by small-minded avant-gardists as stodgy and “Old World.”

“He’s sadly often overlooked in a lot of ways,” says Jane. His music is dense and quite deep musically, she adds, but quiet geniuses often just get overlooked. (A longtime professor at Yale and mentor for dozens of major Americans, Hindemith is often thought of as an academic first and composer second.) “Hindemith isn’t flashy as a general rule.”

The other Teutonic touchstones are Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor (July 19th and 20th, with pianist Melissa Rose), Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet (July 26th and 27th) and Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 (August 2nd and 3rd, with Dan Velicer). In addition are works by Vivaldi, Poulenc, Piazzolla, Dominick Argento, Robert Paterson, Paul Reade and Tim Jansa (the Three Miniatures for flute, bassoon, and piano, with co-artistic director Shannon Finney and longtime Summerfest bassoonist Joshua Hood).

Coming up with a “theme” for each season is part of the challenge of Summerfest, and much of the fun. “First we try to decide what we really want to play,” Jane says, “and then we look and try to find the commonalities.” This year’s theme is “To Everything There is a Season,” with concert titles from The Book of Ecclesiastes (A Time to Remember, A Time to Love, A Time to Dance, A Time to Plant). “We’ve tried starting with a theme and then trying to fit the music into it,” Alex says. “And that’s never as successful as finding pieces that you really want to do and then starting to see the connections.”

Summerfest’s Saturday concerts are at 7:30 p.m. at UMKC’s White Recital Hall and its Sunday programs are at 3 p.m. at Country Club Christian. Call 816-235-6222 or go to summerfestkc.org.

To reach Paul Horsley, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501).

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