Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson! Stop by the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park on Sunday for the opening of an exhibition celebrating Black History Month from KC Black Artists Network. Friday, Saturday or Sunday, enjoy a tribute to Kansas City jazz with the Kansas City Symphony and Bobby Watson at the Kauffman Center. Saturday night, Park University ICM presents Tesla Quartet (pictured above)at the 1900 Building and Bach Aria Soloists performs Bach’s Opus 22 at Village Presbyterian Church. Sunday night, Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College presents violinist Lara St. John at Yardley Hall. For more ideas this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
The Invitational Exhibition: KC Black Arts Network
February 2, 2018 – March 16, 2018
Tomahawk Ridge Community Center
An exhibition celebrating Black History Month. Opening Reception: February 11, 3 pm – 6 pm
A TRIBUTE to KANSAS CITY JAZZ: From BASIE to BEBOP featuring BOBBY WATSON
February 9 & 10, 2018 @ 8:00 pm
February 11, 2018 @ 2:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
From the great Count Basie to Charlie Parker and Bobby Watson, the Kansas City Symphony pays tribute to Kansas City’s homegrown jazz musicians and timeless tunes. Special appearances by vocalists David Basse and Deborah Brown, trumpet player Hermon Mehari and Chuck Haddix, the producer of KCUR-FM’s “Fish Fry.” You’ll love this saucy, special performance of KC jazz, presented in association with the American Jazz Museum.
Park University International Center for Music Concert — Tesla Quartet
February 10, 2018 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm | $15 – $30
1900 Building
The internationally acclaimed Tesla Quartet, which features cellist and 2010 Park University International Center for Music graduate Serafim Smigelskiy, will perform in concert on Saturday, Feb. 10, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the 1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kan. The performance is a part of the Park ICM Distinguished Alumni Series and Park ICM 1900 Series.
Formed at The Juilliard School in 2008, the Tesla Quartet also includes violinists Michelle Lie and Ross Snyder, and violist Edwin Kaplan. The concert is scheduled to include the following repertoire:
- “String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2,” composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
- “String Quartet No. 3,” composed by Béla Bartók
- “String Quartet in D Major, No. 3, P. 53,” composed by Ottorino Respighi
Praised by The International Review of Music for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style or technical demand” the Tesla Quartet brings refinement and prowess to both new and established repertoire. Dubbed “technically superb” by The Strad, the Tesla Quartet took the second prize at the Banff (Alberta, Canada) International String Quartet Competition in 2016. The quartet has also garnered top prizes at numerous other international competitions, including the gold medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (South Bend, Ind.), third prize at the 2015 International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna, Austria, and third prize at the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition.
Opus 22: An Organ Celebration
February 10, 2018 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm | $17 – $35
Village Presbyterian Church
Elisa Williams Bickers, Bach Aria Soloists’ harpsichordist-organist, will lead the exploration of Village Presbyterian Church’s new organ, Opus 22, and BAS’ music with organ through the centuries. For more than 18 months, in her role as principal organist at Village, Bickers has overseen the installation of the splendid Opus 22, built by Richards, Fowkes & Co. with 3,800 pipes and 59 stops!
The program will include choral and instrumental works by J.S. Bach; Vaughn Williams, Handel and Handel-Halvorsen.
Lara St. John, violin, and Matt Herskowitz, piano
February 11, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | $21 – $25
Polsky Theatre, JCCC
In Lavuta, Lara St. John combined her knowledge of melodies with composers she knew and respected, and the project was born. It includes songs from Armenia, Palestine, the Jewish Diaspora, Russia, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Romania and Hungary.
Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times. St. John will perform Lavuta, a program of music from Eastern Europe she has collected through the years. She met the exceptional Curtis Institute of Music-trained classical and jazz pianist Matt Herskowitz several years ago, and he proved a catalyst to her idea that this significant collection of melodies was worth reimagining for the concert stage. Some are fully written, some are partly improvised, and the amount of technical prowess, soul and excitement is dazzling.
