Harriman-Jewell Series announces its 2016-2017 season.
The Harriman-Jewell Series, Kansas City’s respected performing arts presenter, will open its 52nd season in September 2016. The Series continues its long-held tradition of providing a world stage for performing arts to Kansas City audiences.
The 2016–2017 schedule is a wealth of the world’s top performing artists and ensembles, including soprano Renée Fleming, Boston Pops led by Keith Lockhart, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Jessica Lang Dance, Venice Baroque Orchestra with violinist Nicola Benedetti, and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.
“We have taken great care to curate a 52nd season to offer Kansas City and our region a sampling of the very best performing artists and ensembles in the world. Our audiences expect the highest quality in our programming, and it is a great pleasure to meet and exceed that expectation,” said Clark Morris, Harriman-Jewell Series executive and artistic director.
Of the season’s 18 events, six will be held at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway St.). The Series has the distinction of holding performances in both of the Center’s halls: three events in Helzberg Hall and three events in Muriel Kauffman Theatre. In addition, the Harriman-Jewell Series will present 10 events in the beautifully restored Folly Theater (300 W. 12th St.). Two more Kansas City landmark venues will share in the Series’ new season, with one performance each: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Atkins Auditorium (4525 Oak St.) and the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland (1228 Main St.).
The grand new season will open in September with events spanning through April 2017. Ensembles to perform in the Kauffman Center’s 1,800-seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre will be Jessica Lang Dance (October 1) led by its prolific namesake choreographer in a Kansas City debut; Moscow Festival Ballet will dance the story ballet Romeo and Juliet (January 27, 2017); and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra led by Keith Lockhart (March 24, 2017) will return to the Series and Kansas City for the first time since 2002, to play a Celtic-themed concert.
Ensembles and artists to perform in Kauffman Center’s 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall include the world-acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming in recital (October 15) to make her fourth Series appearance; National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (March 10, 2017), joined by Kiev native Alexei Grynyuk as soloist for Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3; and Kansas City’s favorite mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato with London-based baroque orchestra The English Concert and a cast of vocalists to perform a concert of Handel’s Ariodante (April 28, 2017).
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis has been a Harriman-Jewell Series favorite since 1999, but the ensemble’s appearance in Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland (December 1) will mark its first holiday concert in Kansas City. The Orchestra will be joined by jazz vocalist Catherine Russell.
The 116-year-old Folly Theater has been a principal venue since the 1,078-seat hall was saved from demolition and restored in 1981. The performers to appear on the Folly Theater stage include Russian pianist Denis Matsuev (October 28), praised by The New York Times for his “athletic virtuosity and steely power”; the 55-voice Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir (November 15) from South Africa; mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato with Italian chamber orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro (December 7) in a powerful program of Baroque arias titled War and Peace; Venice Baroque Orchestra and one of today’s most influential artists, violinist Nicola Benedetti, to play a program of Vivaldi and Corelli (February 16, 2017); and Anne-Sophie Mutter in recital, dubbed the “undisputed queen of violin-playing” by The Times (London).
The Harriman-Jewell Series also will offer five free Discovery Concerts at the Folly Theater. The first free concert of the season will be performed by Sphinx Virtuosi (September 24), an ensemble of 18 of the United States’ top Black and Latino classical soloists; followed by Kansas City native and rising star tenor Ben Bliss in an American recital debut (October 22); a holiday concert will be played by wind quintet WindSync (December 15); the accomplished young violinist Simone Porter will play a recital (February 26, 2017); and a final free concert will be performed by Israeli pianist Tomer Gewirtzman (April 8, 2017). Gewirtzman was awarded the Harriman-Jewell Series Young Concert Artists Performance Prize for 2016. The intent behind Discovery Concerts is to introduce excellence and artistry to new audiences by eliminating the barrier of cost.
For a second consecutive season, the Harriman-Jewell Series will collaborate with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to present jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to Kansas City audiences in the Museum’s Atkins Auditorium (April 22, 2017). The performance is a multimedia work by Frisell and filmmaker Bill Morrison titled The Great Flood. The concert to projected film will trace the evolution of indigenous American music beginning from the disastrous Mississippi River Flood of 1927.
For 2016–2017 season and ticket information, go to hjseries.org or call 816.415.5025.
–Tim Ackerman
