Music competitions: High-stakes horse races, followed by lucrative prizes and worldwide fame, right? Well, not exactly. The competition of today has in fact become a sort of “second education” for […]

When Darryl Chamberlain established the A-Flat Music Studio Inc. in 2016, he had several goals in mind. First, he believed that young people ages 10 and up should learn how […]

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival started pretty much the way many Kansas City performing arts organizations have begun: Nobody really knew if it was going to get off the ground […]

We often say that an actor on stage or screen has “leonine grace,” or eats like a ravenous wolf, or moves with reptilian stealth. What you might not realize is […]

Members of the Marsalis family have made such regular visits to Kansas City that listeners might not realize that one of the most famous, and most fabulously gifted, scions of […]

The common perception that the dance world is controlled chiefly by men might be partly true, but the situation in Kansas City presents a noticeably different landscape. Consider this: Of […]

If music is a universal language, then why have its institutions historically been run almost entirely by men? Women account for roughly half of the audience for classical music, yet […]

By the end of most serious operas you can be pretty sure that at least one main character will be dead. The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs needs no spoiler alert, […]

Local offerings of music, theater, and dance display evolving awareness of diversity and inclusiveness    FEBRUARY 18-27 Kansas City Ballet; Dracula; Michael Pink’s 1996 choreographic setting of Bram Stoker’s novel, with […]

Puppet theater has been around for millennia: Archaeologists have found remains to suggest that puppetry existed in ancient Egypt, Asia, and Africa some 3,000 years ago or more. It has […]

Why should boys get to have all the fun? That’s one of the questions Kate Hamill asked herself as she began to refocus the Holmes and Watson stories to view […]

As our nation struggles with issues of inclusion and racial equity, performing-arts organizations also find themselves reexamining their own core values, to ensure that their activities reflect a changing America. […]

It was not preordained that Maria Ioudenitch would become a professional musician. It’s true that her parents, Kansas City-based pianists Tatiana and Stanislav Ioudenitch, saw an innate musicality in her […]

Countertenors have been with us for hundreds of years. If it seems that they are suddenly everywhere, it’s partly because the demand for them internationally has spurred conservatories toward a […]

The pandemic of recent months has inspired a number of remarkable innovations among Kansas City’s performing-arts groups, from livestreamed concerts and “Zoom theater” to high-tech ventures combining seemingly disparate art […]

Hollywood thrives on cliché, and its treatment of classical music through the years has ranged from the puerile to the downright offensive. When it comes to opera, though, filmmakers have […]

When we think about musical giants of our time, we often completely overlook a hugely significant segment of the community. In terms of the impact their music exerts on our […]

Classical music might occupy a radically different place in American culture if more of us thought about it the way Keith Stanfield does. The violinist and founder of Kansas City’s […]

If you wish to gain a well-rounded view of American dance during the last century, look no further than the list of works presented through the years by the Wylliams/Henry […]

If you want to know the strength of an organization’s guiding principles, observe how it acts during times of crisis. Kansas City Ballet believes that live music is as essential […]

You might at first wonder what artist-poet-filmmaker Michèle Saint-Michel has in common with singer-songwriter AJ Harbison or UMKC Conservatory doctoral student Yunfei Li. All are among the six Kansas City […]