writing by Libby Hanssen
I reviewed Stefon Harris and Blackout for The Kansas City Star. They performed at the Gem Theater for the American Jazz Museum's Jammin' at the Gem series. This concert was also the part of the 18th & Vine Jazz Festival, featuring workshops and performances by middle school, high school and college ensembles. I was surprised... Continue Reading →
I watched part of the Owen/Cox Dance Group dress rehearsal on Thursday, since I'm unable to make any of their performances this weekend or next. Jack was with me, so I didn't catch the first number, A Good Missouri Song, since he decided that it was more important to screech and crawl around on the... Continue Reading →
Last Friday was quite the Communist uprising at the Kauffman Center. Lyric Opera presented John Adams "Nixon in China" in Kauffman Theatre and the Harriman-Jewell Series brought in the Red Star Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble to perform in Helzberg Hall. I reviewed the group for the Kansas City Star. It was a pleasure,... Continue Reading →
I reviewed newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble's "Worlds Apart" concert. The performance featured two excellent pieces by Kansas City resident composers Nicholas S. Omiccioli and Ingrid Stölzel. Read it here.
A group of mostly strangers sat in an old house in the Valentine neighborhood staring at the walls. We were listening to a recording by Frank Zappa, performing the most famous piece by one of the last century’s most innovative composers. The HVAC system swirled, the beams of the old house creaked. Bewildered, some people... Continue Reading →
“Piano for Two Large Hands and Two Small Ones” by Wisman the Elder and Wisman the Younger, performed by the composers. The indeterminate display featured amorphic responsorial effects, laced with motivated sequences. In an atypical situation, the players performed with Wisman the Younger sitting on the lap of his compositional partner, Wisman the Elder. The... Continue Reading →
I reviewed the Kansas City Young Audiences' concert performance of "A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol" for KCMetropolis.org. This version of Dickens' tale pulls inspiration from famous melodies from Gilbert & Sullivan's extensive output. Read it here.
As a music critic, it's essential to my development to study the cultural commentary of the past. Though in recent times critcs have become speciliasts in a genre (to even more recent times when budgets mandate that critics became specialists on whatever they're going to see that night...), it used to be that critics were... Continue Reading →
Forgive him - he just flew in from Moscow. Paul D. Miller, AKA DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, presented an eclectic performance/lecture loosely connected to the work of Romare Bearden, whose work and process are currently exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Friday evening’s lecture was disjointed, jumping from topic to topic, making narrative... Continue Reading →
I wrote about the young pianist Behzod Abduraimov, a student of Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University in Parkville, MO. His debut with the Kansas City Symphony is this coming weekend, in Helzberg Hall.
Proust Eats a Sandwich 