Libby Hanssen

August 28, 2019

Fall Season Lookahead: Dance

The dance community starts out strong this season with five straight weekends of stunning contemporary dance. New Dance Partners at Johnson County Community College’s Carlsen Center, which has facilitated some thrilling performances during its tenure, once again brings together the Kansas City Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance Company, Störling Dance Theater and Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company with national-level choreographers.

August 27, 2019

Fall Season Lookahead: Music

Sure, nearly every classical music fan is drooling over the Beethoven Bicenquinquagenary (250th anniversary) in 2020, but there’s a fair bit of action in the last quarter of 2019 to keep us busy. Park University’s International Center for Music hosts a special benefit concert evening with Stanislav & Friends in Helzberg Hall, with the audience seated onstage (Sept. 20).

July 29, 2019

Jean Belmont Ford: The Joy of Writing Music

Last March, during the last performance of the American Choral Directors Association’s conference, the Kansas City Chorale performed the latest work by Kansas City composer Jean Belmont Ford, “Manifesto.” The piece wasn’t listed on the program and when artistic director Charles Bruffy announced that she was in the audience, people gasped.

July 27, 2019

In “Women of Note,” Kansas City Baroque Consortium Celebrates the Influential Women of the Era

Kansas City Baroque Consortium’s summer concert series, now in its third year, is elegant and intimate, and growing into a must-attend event. These concerts are..

July 7, 2019

Summerfest Chamber Music series opens first chapter of “Short Stories and Novelettes” in bold performance

We live and learn through stories, balancing the comfort of the familiar and the thrill of the new. Of our heroes, we strip away humanity..

July 3, 2019

Arts News: KC Symphony Welcomes an Ambitious New Leader

Every carpenter knows that to build quality furniture, you start with quality materials. It just so happens that Daniel E. Beckley, the newly appointed executive..

July 2, 2019

Harlem Quartet Comes to Carlsen Center as Ensemble-in-Residence for Heartland Chamber Music Festival

The Harlem Quartet debuted in 2006, named to honor the Harlem Renaissance of 100 years ago. The ensemble was founded by the Sphinx Organization, which uses classical music to further social justice. It has traveled the world promoting diversity in classical music and engaged young audiences by presenting both traditional string quartet repertoire and a variety of styles by underrepresented composers.

June 22, 2019

Moving Arts: New Name, Same Passion.

The name you are born with isn’t always how you are known. Such is the case with Moving Arts, which began existence as the Kansas..

June 14, 2019

Cracking the Code: Kansas City Symphony Demystifies with “Secrets Revealed.”

Though “Secrets Revealed” was the theme for the final Classics Uncorked concert for the Kansas City Symphony this season, the idea of unlocking the mysteries..

Author: Libby Hanssen