Danny Beckley, president and CEO of the Kansas City Symphony (Kansas City Symphony)
Danny Beckley, president and CEO of the Kansas City Symphony, shares his vision for a new symphony-owned live music venue near the Plaza Library
When Danny Beckley, the Kansas City Symphony’s president and CEO, considers a piece of ground near the Plaza Library, he reflects on a vision that began as a “what-if” but is now poised to become a potential gamechanger for live music goers.
This is Kansas City, after all, where live performance has been part of the city’s entertainment lifeblood since the 19th century. Vaudeville, burlesque, drag shows, brass bands, jazz orchestras, country singers, early rock’ n ’rollers, nightclubs, backroom record companies, even touring Marx Brothers musicals that later became movies — all of this entered into the fabric of the city’s musical life. And there’s more: symphonic music, grand opera, classical ballet, touring mega-musicals and rock-star arena shows.
But Beckley wants to build something unique to this city: a major venue owned by the Kansas City Symphony but that would not be dedicated to classical music. Instead, it would offer pop, rock, jazz and specialized orchestral performances, including live film scores.
The new venue, designed to fill a gap of concert venues with a seating capacity of 4,000 to 6,000, was announced March 30 after months of rumors. The Symphony anticipates it will “bring significant impact to the Plaza” and “draw 300,000 guests a year.”
The seed was planted more than 20 years ago when Beckley, who was then vice president and general manager of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, ran an outdoor summer music series to help fund the symphony’s regular season.
The series, he said, produced revenue but was limited by the short summer season and unpredictable weather.
“The possibility of generating year-round sustaining revenue for an orchestra stayed with me,” Beckley said.
So now the groundwork has been laid for the construction of a 4,600-seat venue at 4901 Main St. Populous, the international sports-and-entertainment design firm that was founded as HOK Sport Venue Event in 1983 by a group of Kansas City architects, will design the venue.
And MEMI, a booking agency owned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will be managing the new performance facility.
Beckley said he believes the venue will satisfy a growing desire among audiences looking for a diverse concert experience.
“When you look at the national trends in live music, this is not going to be replaced by AI,” Beckley said. “The demand for this is growing at a very, very fast clip nationally and so we’re trying to tap into that.”
Beckley emphasized that the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will remain the Symphony’s home, although the orchestra may occasionally perform at the new facility.
“The venue is principally for touring artists,” Beckley said. “The new venue is for amplified music of all genres. The only genre it is not designed for is major orchestral works. MEMI will be presenting most of the performances and most of them will be non-orchestral… The venue is being designed to be very purpose-built for these touring shows.”
Beckley said fundraising will be continual, but he declined to put a price tag on the project. Work on the new performance hall happens at a time when other nonprofit arts organizations are seeking big money for expansions and renovations. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will need an estimated $160 million to $170 million for a planned expansion. And the UMKC Conservatory is expected to spend $35 million for an addition to the Olson Performing Arts Center, followed by an additional $25 million to renovate White Recital Hall and other areas of the building.
“To do something like this we have to rely on philanthropy … and so we have raised money to get us to a point where we can actually achieve this project,” he said. “We will continue fundraising throughout the construction. We don’t have a guaranteed maximum price. We won’t be pencils-down on this project for quite some time.”
But Beckley has confidence in the city’s philanthropic community.
“We’ve raised enough to be confident to do our project,” he said. “Between now and opening, every day we’re going to be in fundraising mode…We have a great team, our staff and volunteers, to hear what the community is saying and I will say it’s overwhelmingly positive. They’re very happy that we’re not leaving the Kauffman Center. It’s just an evolution of what we do at the Kauffman. I would just call your attention to the fact that the Kauffman Center was the first new music facility (in Kansas City) built in almost a century and this will be the second.”
Brian Mirakian, a senior principal with Populous, said the new venue will be much more than a stage and seating. To build a new performance hall from the ground up offers an opportunity to equip the venue with state-of-the-art electronics and flexible seating with dual overriding goals: to maximize the experience for both the artists and the audiences.
“It’s always been intended to serve as a supplementary opportunity for the symphony to expand its programming,” Mirakian said. “The venue will actually be designed in a way to flex between symphony one night and Jack White or Sabrina Carpenter the next. Artists are looking for new ways to connect with audiences through streaming platforms.
But what they really desire is to connect with their fans in a very personal way. So you see a phenomenal amount of innovation from artists. People traveled all over the world to see Taylor Swift (on her “Eras” tour). So this (venue) could be a big driver for audiences from all over the country to see their favorite artists.”
Among other things, the new concert venue will be designed to satisfy the technical challenges of a touring group’s needs, including the streamlining of loading in a tech-heavy show.
“It’s a lot of input from the (potential) users of the building,” Mirakian said. “We’re trying to design a venue that meets the needs of today but also uses a crystal ball to look into the future… The venue is designed for the fans, for the audience. The needs of the artists are critically important but meeting the needs of fans is equally important.”
