A Season of Rediscovery and Celebration as KC’s Summertime Chamber Music Ensemble Turns 25.
Silver Anniversary Gala Concert will be a season highlight.
Summerfest Concerts, Kansas City’s summertime chamber music festival, celebrates its 25th anniversary season this year with four entertaining concert weekends July 11 to Aug. 2. Actor Robert Gibby Brand will be the featured guest vocalist at the silver anniversary Gala Concert on July 25 at 7:30 p.m.
“Twenty-five years ago, Summerfest was launched by a group of talented and visionary musicians who believed that Kansas Citians yearned for live performance music throughout the summer months. Today, Summerfest is Kansas City’s principal summer classical music festival, and it has earned a reputation for creative programming with a refreshing approach to chamber music,” said Mary Zimmerman, President of the Board of Directors.
This season, music enthusiasts will experience the full spectrum of classic repertoire –beginning with Telemann and then closing the season four weeks later with Kristin Kuster’s Ribbon Earth, a commissioned work by Summerfest in 2008 that was inspired by Brent Collins’s sculpture Pax Mundi located at the H&R Block headquarters.
Concerts are held on four consecutive weekends starting on July 11 with Saturday concerts at 7:30 p.m., in White Concert Hall in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry, and Sunday performances at 3 p.m., Country Club Christian Church, 6101 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO., with the exception of no concert on Sun., July 26.
2015 Concert Series
Celebrating Place – July 11 and 12
Summerfest Chamber Music Festival opens week one with two works on either end of the performing spectrum: the Baroque composer Telemann’s Quartet in E minor and the modern composer Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles. Telemann, working to maintain a rising profile in France, wrote a quartet with all the elegance and grace expected in that country that contained traces of his Eastern European travels, while Ligeti paid homage to his countryman Bela Bartók with a set of folk-like dances similarly inspired by Hungarian sounds. The concert ends with Gabriel Faure’s magisterial Piano Quartet no. 1 in C minor.
Rediscovering Delight – July 18 and 19
The Festival’s second week continues the exploration of French music with Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp. His wonderful pastel colors complement George Handel’s Trio Sonata in F major, HWV 389. Handel only published two collections of trio sonatas during his life, and this charming and vivacious work for two treble instruments displays his genius for spinning out melodies by the yard. The week closes with Paul Moravec’s Tempest Fantasy.
Celebration – July 25
Note: 25th Anniversary Gala Concert and Reception is July 25 at 7:30 p.m. (There will not be a concert on Sun., July 26.) Week three brings with it three remarkable works that will take guests from the courts, to the countryside, to the city, all for an extraordinary fete. J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, written as an audition piece, still enchants audiences today with the power and virtuosity of its composition and those who perform it. Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite is a slice of true Americana built off the Shaker tune “‘Tis a Gift to be Simple.” The week ends with William Walton’s Façade.
Rediscovering Hidden Gems – Aug. 1-2
Week four exemplifies that Summerfest presents wonderful music and helps create it as well. Kristin Kuster’s Ribbon Earth, commissioned by Summerfest in 2008, was inspired by Brent Collins’s sculpture Pax Mundi that sits in the H&R Block headquarters. Morton Gould’s Benny’s Gig was also motivated by an outside idea, in this case Benny Goodman’s 1962 tour of Russia and the clarinetist’s remarkable fusion of jazz and classical music. Osvaldo Golijov returns to Summerfest with his Lullaby and Doina, a work that takes a Yiddish lullaby and spins it into a gypsy dance. Finally England’s overlooked Charles Villiers Stanford brings us his Serenade in F minor, Nonet, Op. 95, a work that languished through most of its life until, a little over 25 years ago when someone took a chance and rediscovered a hidden gem.
Ticket Information
Early Bird Ticket Pricing is available for tickets purchased April 1 to May 15, 2015. Discounts are available throughout the season on single tickets for seniors, groups of 10 or more, and students. For more information, go to www.summerfestkc.org.
Tickets are not refundable but may be exchanged for any other concert in the series up to 72 hours (3 days) prior to curtain time pending availability. Programs are subject to change.
About Summerfest Concerts
Launched in 1990, Summerfest Concerts is considered one of Kansas City’s principal summertime classical music festivals. Concerts traditionally are held on four consecutive weekends, and each concert is followed by a “meet the musicians” reception. For more information: www.summerfestkc.org .
