The Kansas City Ballet, one of the diamonds in Kansas City’s crown, turns 60 this year. Last season, the Kansas City Ballet reached more than 90,000 people through outreach, dance education and training, and performances combined. Last June, the company hosted the annual national DanceUSA Conference, which gathered over 500 industry professionals from across the country to Kansas City.

In the spring of 1996, “Outside” magazine sent writer Jon Krakauer to Mount Everest chasing a story: the commercialization of Everest. Since 1985, tourists with little or no climbing experience had been able to reach the summit thanks to company tours designed to allow any reasonably fit person to make the trek. In the years that followed, as many as 40 people per day reached the summit as a part of a paying group.

Close your eyes and imagine a musical virtuoso. Who are you seeing? Mozart, with his powdered wigs? Liszt, with his aquiline nose? The Beatles, with their mop haircuts? Prince, with his velvet jackets? Toscanini? Bach? Elvis? Pavarotti? Sting? You probably didn’t see a middle-aged man in a pullover sweater named Robert Pherigo. But if you ask a musician in Kansas City to name a virtuoso, Robert’s name usually tops the list.