Editor’s Weekend Calendar Picks, February 16 – 19

Here are this week’s calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson. For more things to do this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.

Stick Fly by Lydia R Diamond

February 9 – February 26 | $10 – $30
The Arts Asylum

The affluent, African-American LeVay family is gathering at their Martha’s Vineyard home for the weekend, and brother Kent and Flip have each brought their respective ladies home to meet the parents for the first time.

As the two newcomers butt heads over issues of race and privilege, longstanding family tensions bubble under the surface and reach a boiling point when secrets are revealed.

BEETHOVEN’S EIGHTH and PROKOFIEV’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3

February 17 & 18 @ 8:00 pm
February 19 @ 2:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

In his Eighth Symphony, Beethoven brilliantly combines humor with his trademark manipulation of themes and an irrepressible momentum. Hindemith’s Ragtime spotlights the 20th-century German composer’s more playful, jazzy side. Russian composer Prokofiev, a superb pianist, was soloist in the 1921 world premiere of his Third Concerto. Prokofiev described the work as “devilishly difficult,” and without a doubt, it demands an astounding demonstration of skill by the piano soloist. Tickets for this Kansas City Symphony concert start at $25.

KCAC Art Auction

February 18 @ 6:00 pm | $25 – $125
Kansas City Artists Coalition

Collectors, art enthusiasts and friends of the Artists Coalition know this is the best place to buy art from established and emerging artists. The quality and quantity of the art makes it a not-to-be-missed event.

Hundreds of pieces of art donated by the region’s best artists are on display and attendees have the chance to buy in both silent and live auctions under the direction of professional auctioneers, whose banter with the audience is often as entertaining as the art itself.

BACH ARIA SOLOISTS ‘L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT’, STRAVINSKY’S MASTERPIECE

February 18 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm | $21 – $25
Polsky Theatre, JCCC

“L’Histoire du soldat” or “The Soldier’s Tale” is a theatrical work performed by two actors and a dancer accompanied by a septet of instruments. The piece was conceived by Igor Stravinsky and Swiss writer C. F. Ramuz based on a Russian folk tale, “The Runaway Soldier and the Devil.” During World War I, a young soldier trades his violin to the devil in exchange for great wealth. Full of the wit and humor of Stravinsky, rhythms are always shifting, the music incorporates elements of jazz, Viennese waltz and ragtime. The violin is guttural and raw, the clarinet seems to have a will of its own and the piano acts as a rhythm section, full of barroom “honky tonk.”

Bach Aria Soloists is the adventurous chamber music ensemble dedicated to presenting the genius and relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries and those he inspired through performances, collaborations and BachReach education.