Libby Hanssen

Libby Hanssen

Originally from Indiana, Libby Hanssen covers the performing arts in Kansas City. She’s written for KCUR, “KC Studio,” “The Kansas City Star,” “The Pitch” and “KCMetropolis.” Libby maintains the culture blog “Proust Eats A Sandwich” and writes poetry and children’s books. Along with degrees in trombone performance, she was a Fellow for the NEA Arts Journalism Institute at Columbia University.

Arts News: Central Library Exhibit Collects Wishes

The whole idea started with a rock. “THIS ROCK GRANTS WISHES,” written on the side, a tangible, weighty object infused with mythical promise. “I picked it up because it felt really significant when I saw it, like it was mine. It was right before 2017, the year of thoughts and prayers,” said artist Ryan Wilks. […]

Pianist Ran Dank Returns for the Kansas City Symphony’s Season Finale

Wrapping up its A Century of Bernstein celebration, the Kansas City Symphony’s season finale is an ambitious double bill: Leonard Bernstein’s “The Age of Anxiety” and Hector Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique.” “The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2 for piano and orchestra) (After W. H. Auden),” to give the work its full title, is based on Auden’s 1948 Pulitzer Prize-winning book-length poem, “The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue.”

Concert to Come: Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival

Concert to Come: Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival

The Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival, now in its second year, brings together some of the region’s premier new music practitioners for a post-genre celebration during May’s First Fridays. The festival runs from 5 to 9 p.m. in the third-floor event space of the Bauer, the rehabbed warehouse warrened with artists’ studios and gallery spaces, a central hub for an evening of gallery stalking and art gazing.

Bach Aria Soloists Will Present Popular ‘Night of Tango’ at the Folly Theater

Bach Aria Soloists Will Present Popular ‘Night of Tango’ at the Folly Theater

Kansas Citians have a decades-long love affair with tango. The sultry strains and propulsive rhythms — pulled from the clubs of Buenos Aires into the concert halls by world-famous bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla — have long entranced Midwestern audiences, and they’ll have a chance to experience that thrall again when Bach Aria Soloists presents their ever popular “Night of Tango.”

Celebration in Dance

Celebration in Dance

Kansas City Ballet completed 2017 in high style. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts invited the company to Washington, D.C., to perform Devon Carney’s “The Nutcracker” over Thanksgiving weekend. “This is a particularly satisfying fantasy,” wrote Sarah L. Kaufman for “The Washington Post,” which “positively oozes charm.” High praise from a Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic.