Spring is in full swing with this week’s calendar picks from KC Studio editor, Alice Thorson. Friday night, Art of the Americas opens at the Belger Art Center, The Friends of Chamber Music present the Takács Quartet and Jonah Bokaer performs cutting-edge choereography at the Nerman. Sunday afternoon, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance presents tenor Vinson Cole at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. For more ideas this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Jonah Bokaer – Choreography in Museums (Lecture)
April 7 @ 3:30 pm | Free
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
Jonah Bokaer – RECESS and Why Patterns (Performance)
April 8 @ 8:00 pm | $25
Polsky Theatre, JCCC
Jonah Bokaer has cultivated a new form of choreography with a structure that relies on visual art and design. His aim is to transform notions of how the public views and understands dance. Bokaer was born to Tunisian and American parents, and has been active as a choreographer since 2002. He has created over 55 works in a wide range of mediums, such as film, opera, applications, and installation, in a variety of venues, ranging from stages to museums and galleries. He works internationally, exhibiting and touring worldwide.
Art of the Americas
April 8 – August 6
Belger Arts Center
The Belger Arts Center is proud to present Art of the Americas, curated by Licia Clifton-James, Vice President and Board Member of the Pan American Association of Kansas City and wife of Kansas City Mayor Sly James. The exhibition includes works from 28 of the 35 countries represented in the Organization of American States. Clifton-James’ goal is to encourage cultural knowledge about our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere while establishing Kansas City as the cross-cultural hub of the heartland.
Image: Asilia Guillen, “Heroes and Artists Come to the Pan American Union To Be Consecrated,” 1962, 20″ x 24″, Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. Collection OAS Art Museum of the Americas, Gift of Jose Gomez-Sicre.
Takács Quartet
April 8 @ 8:00 pm | Free – $30
Folly Theater
Widely recognized as one of the world’s great ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth and humor, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. For thirty-two years the ensemble has been in residence at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
In 2015-2016, the Takács returns to Carnegie Hall for two programs, one featuring a new work by composer Timo Andres, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and one with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. They also perform with Mr. Ohlsson at Stanford, the University of Richmond, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and at the University of Florida. In addition to their annual Wigmore Hall series in London, where the Quartet are Associate Artists, other European engagements in 2015-2016 include performances in Oslo, Amsterdam, Budapest, Hamburg, Hannover, Brussels, Bilbao and a concert at the Schubertiade in Hohenems, Austria.
The Quartet’s award-winning recordings include the complete Beethoven Cycle on the Decca label. In 2005 the Late Beethoven Quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, Album of the Year at the Brit Awards and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy.
The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions, and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. In 2001 the Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary, and in March of 2011 each member of the Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit Commander’s Cross by the President of the Republic of Hungary.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
Folly Theater Shareholder’s Room | April 8 | 7 p.m
Subject: The Spirit of Beethoven II
Lecturer: Dr. William Everett, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Vinson Cole Sings! An Inspiring Gift of Music
April 10 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Free
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Join celebrated tenor Vinson Cole with pianist Mark Markham for an evening of personal favorites. Program includes Haydn: Selections from Canzonettas, Hob. XXVIa; Beethoven: Selections from Ariettas and a Duet, Op. 82; Bellini: La ricordanza; Copland: Selections from Old American Songs, Books I and II, and musical theater selections announced from the stage, including Broadway classics by Sondheim, Cole Porter and others.
