Harriman-Jewell Series to Present Emerging and Celebrated Stars
With crisp temperatures and trees burnished with red and gold, October is perhaps the loveliest month of the year in Kansas City. As always, the Harriman-Jewell Series is adding to the beauty of the season with glorious performances this October: A violinist and two singers will make their Kansas City debuts, and the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet will bring its distinctive style of dance for a return engagement.
A free Discovery Concert Oct. 5 at the Folly Theater will feature violinist Randall Goosby. After winning the prestigious Sphinx Concerto Competition at the age of 13, Goosby, now 22, has gone on to study with Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School and perform with orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.
“Last fall, I went to New York to the 2018 Young Artist International audition finals to award the Harriman Prize to one of the winners,” Clark Morris, executive and artistic director of the Harriman-Jewell Series, said. “I chose Randall because he just stood out from some really talented peers. He is fantastic and has a radiant personality.”
The Tony Award-winning star Kelli O’Hara will make her Harriman-Jewell Series debut Oct. 12 at Helzberg Hall. O’Hara will sing Broadway selections and works from the Great American Songbook, a unique American cultural treasure, which the Harriman-Jewell Series has long championed.
“I saw Kelli on Broadway in The King and I, for which she won a Tony,” Morris said, “but I was particularly intrigued by her because she is that rare Broadway star who also has an opera voice and has performed at the Metropolitan Opera. It’s a rare talent to have a classical voice that can also sing Broadway. Kelli is a great actress and can do it all.”
Soprano Nadine Sierra, who will make her Kansas City debut Oct. 19 at the Folly, is an opera superstar in the making. The Florida native says she fell in love with opera when she watched a VHS of La Boheme as a young girl. In 2017, Sierra won the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award, whose previous winners include Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato, and in 2018, Sierra won the Beverly Sills Artist Award given by the Metropolitan Opera.
“She has a transcendent voice,” Morris said. “Nadine is amazing and is one of the most sought-after young opera singers in the world. She comes from a diverse background and is proud to bring that diversity to the opera world. She released an album last year called There’s a Place for Us, with the inclusive theme that everyone has a place in the world, which is a beautiful sentiment. Being able to reach out to other audiences in other ways can only be helpful to the classical world.”
On Oct. 25, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, renowned for its breathtaking athleticism and superb artistry, will perform at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre. The New York Times says that Aspen Santa Fe Ballet “raise the bar, and then they jump over it.”
“They’re a gorgeous company,” Morris said. “They do modern dance, but it does have a ballet core to it. Their work is very easy to appreciate. People love knowing that when they go into an evening of dance, they’re going to enjoy it.”
One of the works the company will perform is Nicola Fonte’s Where We Left Off, with a score by Philip Glass. Pianist Han Chen will perform the music live onstage.
“He is an incredible young pianist and composer and has been a prize winner at multiple competitions on the classical side and plays with several music ensembles in New York,” Morris said. “He’s a great choice to deliver the Philip Glass score. I think live music brings a special element. Having music performed live on stage reminds you of the complexity and brilliance of dance as an art form, how it flows and moves to the music.”
For tickets and more information, call 816-415-5025 or visit www.hjseries.org.
–Patrick Neas
