Michael Stern (photo by Todd Rosenberg)
April concert brings Ravel’s “Bolero,” Xavier Foley’s “Soul Bass” and a world premiere by Angel Lam
We are now in the midst of Michael Stern’s farewell season as music director of the Kansas City Symphony, in which he’s brought back many beloved friends and programmed some of his favorite pieces from the orchestral repertoire.
“There are many reasons to invite artists to collaborate with the KCS,” said Stern. “Sometimes, it is tied to a specific program — either a new work that was written especially for a certain musician, or repertoire that is particularly identified with that musician. Sometimes, it is the pleasure of discovering a new talent. Sometimes, it is the ongoing and deepening relationship that a given artist has established over time with the KCS. In any and every case, I have always tried to bring the best musical experience for our audiences as well as for us onstage.”
Already this season, we’ve seen Yefim Bronfman, Joyce DiDonato and Pamela Frank, with performances by Joshua Bell, Jeffrey Kahane, Kelly O’Connor and Yo-Yo Ma yet to come.
It is also about the music of now.
This April, Stern welcomes two new voices to Helzberg Hall in an eclectic program April 5-7 that demonstrates not just the versatility of the orchestra but the wide scope that constitutes contemporary orchestral music.
Xavier Foley makes his KCS debut both as soloist and composer, performing his concerto “Soul Bass.”
Foley is an award-winning and sought-after double bass soloist and chamber musician. He grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2016. A short list from among his many awards and accolades: First Prize in the Sphinx Competition in 2014, winner of the Young Concert Artist Auditions in 2016 and the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2018.
Not only is he a virtuoso on the double bass, but he’s drawing attention as an up-and-coming composer, too.
“I did it out of necessity,” said Foley. As a student, he ran out of the very short list of double bass solo repertoire. In many cases, bassists will use music written for other instruments, but Foley decided not to follow that path and started experimenting. “Soul Bass” was his first concerto for solo bass and full orchestra. (He’s also written double concertos and is now on his fourth concerto for solo bass.)
The concerto was commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and premiered by ASO in 2022.
“Foley’s radiant expressiveness and extreme virtuosity, perfectly in tune, showed a young master at work,” wrote Arts ATL’s reviewer, of the premiere.
The three-movement piece is inspired by the music Foley heard growing up: soul, R&B and the music and dance performed on the television show “Soul Train.” The first movement has a tango-like vibe, the second movement is prayerful and the final movement, “Fugue,” centers on a funky, catchy melody.
Foley will also lead a masterclass for KCS’ “Inside Music” series on Saturday, April 6, at 11 a.m.
Foley lived in Kansas City the last few years, recently moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Not only is he looking forward to playing in Helzberg Hall for the first time, but he’s also excited to revisit Kansas City’s cocktail bar scene and some of the area’s museums.
The other new voice is Grammy Award-nominated composer Angel Lam. KCS presents the world premiere of her work “Please let there be a paradise…”
Lam, born in Hong Kong, came to the United States to attend Yale University. She earned her doctorate at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and now lives in New York City’s Chinatown, where she composes, teaches and performs.
Lam was living in the U.S. and raising two young children during the pandemic when her father, still in Hong Kong, died suddenly. Due to travel restrictions and protests in Hong Kong, she was unable to travel to attend his burial or grieve with family after his death.
Lam would frequently dream about her father, wondering and wishing that she knew more about his life and death, searching for answers. Her father, she said, was her greatest supporter, her muse, and “was like Leonardo da Vinci,” knowledgeable about many different topics.
He loved classical music — “he was always humming this or that” — and she took inspiration from some of the snippets she remembers, shifting and elongating them into a sweeping melody. The piece is a journey, coming out of the dark place she first dreamed of — the underworld — to a sort of paradise, or search for paradise. It also includes what Lam imagines as the “sound of the universe,” beginning and ending with tones from crystal bowls, insinuating a meditative state and the soul’s cyclical travel from one plane of existence to another.
“I want to find a paradise for him,” said Lam. “I want to be able to see him in paradise. I didn’t see that in my dream, and he just disappeared again. But I wish that for him, and I wish that that’s where he is. I don’t know that there’s a paradise, but I hope that he’s there.”
Lam’s work will also be performed with the Utah Symphony, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony and, again conducted by Stern, Orchestra Lumos (formerly Stamford Symphony).
But Stern’s programming this final season is not just about guest artists, it’s about the talented musicians in the orchestra itself.
“I crafted all the programs in order to spotlight the individual and collective virtuosity and artistry of our KCS musicians,” said Stern. Over the last 19 years he’s developed an ensemble of exceptionally skilled members. Moving into Helzberg Hall in 2011 amplified that dynamic growth.
The April 5-7 concert features three evocative and tuneful works from the 20th century, each allowing solo opportunities to appreciate many of the powerful individual voices.
Maurice Ravel was revered for his knowledge of orchestration, and that skill is apparent in both “La Tombeau de Couperin” (originally written for piano, he arranged it for orchestra in 1919) and the fan favorite “Boléro,” from 1928. Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, written in 1953, uses folkloric melodic and harmonic influences as it showcases different solo instruments in each of the variations.
From fresh faces to familiar tunes, the concert exemplifies the Kansas City Symphony’s skill and eclecticism.
The Kansas City Symphony performs Xavier Foley’s “Soul Bass,” Angel Lam’s “Please let there be a paradise…,” Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones concertantes” and Maurice Ravel’s “Le tombeau de Couperin” and “Boléro” at 8 p.m. April 5-6 and 2 p.m. April 7 at the Kauffman Center. For more information visit www.kcsymphony.org.
