Author: tg4kcco

Pops series – Fiesta for Your Ears

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Two great performances!

Friday, November 14, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

and

*Saturday, November 15, 2014, 2 p.m.

*Featuring an instrument petting zoo for kids at 1:00 p.m., prior to concert! Thank you to Manning Music for sponsoring the zoo!

Free – no tickets required

Atonement Lutheran Church (directions)
9948 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66212

  • Moncayo: Huapango
  • Fantasia Parachico & Other selected works, featuring guest artists, Marimba Sol de Chiapas
  • Marquez: Danzon No. 2
  • …much more!

 

Echoes of Eastern Europe (Review by KC Metropolis)

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By Lee Hartman Tue, Oct 14, 2014
From KC Metropolis

With a subtler program than usual, the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, under the direction of Christopher Kelts, brought the sounds of Bohemia and Jewish culture to Atonement Lutheran Church on Saturday evening.

The minor mode and a prevailing sense of melancholy embodied the Kansas City Civic Orchestra’s opening concert of its 56th season, but fine communal playing kept a metaphorical light shining through the proceedings.

Bedřich Smetana’s nationalist “Moldau” from Ma Vlast opened the concert. The programmatic work traces the Moldau river from its source in the mountains, through the Czech countryside and forests, over rapids, past a wedding feast, and through the city of Prague. From the burbling flutes to thunderous percussion the piece is wonderfully evocative. The opening flute line wasn’t as seamless as it needed to be because it was evident which player was playing at which time. However, the strings on their main theme were warm and rich. The rapids section lacked some of the required drama. The final section was well balanced and grand though.

The Overture on Jewish Themes by Sergey Prokofiev was a strange-yet-delightful, unfamiliar work. The clarinets were superb in their filtered-through-Prokofiev’s-pen Klezmer lines. Prokofiev model of toccata, melody, and invention were in equal partnership with the Jewish source material. My only complaint is the entire piece lacked an upper dynamic—a rarity for community ensembles! The softs were beautiful (and the addition of the piano gave some extra body) but the louds were understated for Prokofiev.

Hyerim Jeon, Cellist

Cellist Hyerim Jeon stepped in last minute to solo on Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. The pair of Hebrew melodies for obbligato cello and orchestra is an exercise in lyricism. I often refer to Bruch as “Brahms with exoticism” because the harmonies are dark and rich with emphasis on low timbres. The bassoons got carried away with this predisposition and at times overpowered. Jeon is a capable, expressive player, but the lack of rehearsal time showed as the soloist and orchestra seemed unwilling to budge in their perceived interpretation of the work making Jeon perform more rigidly than desired.

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 closed the program in fine fashion despite a few wrong notes and intonation slips. The woodwinds, especially the oboes, played the second movement wonderfully with clear lines, delicate articulations, and appropriate style. The brass tonguing also was commendable. Conductor Christopher Kelts emphasized the dramatic mercurial shifts of the piece, including the odd coda of the third movement and the insanely fun horn line in the final movement.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Echoes of Eastern Europe
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, KS

Classical Series – Echoes of Eastern Europe

tg4kcco

Saturday, October 11, 2014

7:30 p.m..
(pre-concert talk, 6:45 p.m.)

Free – no tickets required

Atonement Lutheran Church (directions)
9948 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66212

  • Prokofiev: Overture on Jewish Themes
  • Smetana: MaVlast (Moldau)
  • Bruch: Kol Nidre, Featured guest soloist, Hyerim Jeon*
  • Dvořák: Symphony No. 8, Op. 88

*Due to a change in availability, Mark Stauffer will be performing with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra during a future season.  We are excited to invite Hyerim Jeon as soloist for Bruch’s moving, Kol Nidrei.

Classical Series – Classic Civic

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Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn

Saturday, March 8,  2014

7:30 p.m..
(pre-concert talk, 6:45pm)

Atonement Lutheran Church (directions)
9948 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66212

  • Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, Yu-Fang Chen, violin & David Kovac, viola
  • Weber: Concerto for Clarinet (Mvt 1), Debbie Allen, Principal Clarinet
  • Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 “Reformation”

Free – no tickets required!

April Yu-Fang Chen
April Yu-Fang Chen

April Yu-Fang Chen is the winner of the 2001 Commemorative Violin Competition of Professor Cuei-lun Dai competition, the 2005 Kansas City Medical Arts Symphony Concerto Competition, the 2007 Naftzger Competition, the 2009 UMKC Concerto/Aria competition and the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City Concerto Competition. Ms. Chen is also a recipient of the 2008 Mui Phi Epsilon Scholarship Audition, and the 2008 and 2009 Kansas City Musical Club Fellowship. As a soloist, she has performed with the Academy of Taiwan Strings, the Kansas City Medical Arts Symphony, and the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, and UMKC Conservatory Orchestra.  As an enthusiastic performer of chamber music and orchestral music, Yu-Fang Chen has been invited by Mimir Chamber Music Festival, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Festival Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Youth Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra and her performance career has taken her to Southeast Asia, Russia, South Africa, Estonia, German, Finland, France, and the United States. Ms. Chen is also a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at UMKC Conservatory in violin under the tutelage of Benny Kim, and in viola with Scott Lee.

David Kovac
David Kovac

David Kovac started to play violin at the age of four and later, at the Janacek Conservatory in Ostrava, decided to play viola. Mr. Kovac received a scholarship to the Longy School of Music in Boston, where he completed his Bachelor of Music degree. In 1998, he received a Graduate Teaching Assistantships in chamber music and orchestra at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. Mr. Kovac was the principal violist of the UMass orchestra and played with many other orchestras in the Boston area. In 2001 he received his Master of Music degree from UMass—Amherst. In 2002 Mr. Kovac was offered a Graduate Assistantship at the University of Missouri—Kansas City, where he was a member of the Graduate String Quartet and is pursuing a doctoral degree in viola performance. His principal teachers include Pavel Vitek, Michelle LaCourse, and Charles Treger. Mr. Kovac has taught at the Dana Hall School of Music in Wellesley and the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont and is currently teaching at the UMKC Music and Dance Academy.

Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen

Debbie Allen began to practice clarinet in band class during elementary school. She later completed a Bachelor of Music Education degree at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln and a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Missouri -Kansas City. Clarinet teachers include Wesley Reist, John Ziegler and Patricia Huebner. Master classes with clarinet professionals include Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr, Ron Reuben and Richard Stoltzman.

Debbie is the Performing Arts Resource Specialist for the Shawnee Mission School District where she supports teachers and students in their musical pursuits. She served as bass clarinetist for the Lincoln and Omaha Symphonies 1978-1980. She has performed with the Overland Park Civic Band, the Overland Park Civic Orchestra and the Liberty Symphony. She has been a member of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra since 1990. In addition she has the pleasure of playing in pit orchestras for The Johnson County Barn Players, Music Theatre for Young People and Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park. She currently plays on a Buffet R13 Vintage and uses a Vandoren M- 13/15 mouthpiece with Vandoren V12 clarinet reeds.