Good day, and a cold one it is.

Every concert by the KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY is more than outstanding.  The concerts this past weekend were just fabulous! The soloists, the players, and the conductor received enthusiastic praise from everyone who attended.  The same will be true this coming weekend when pianist/composer CONRAD TAO joins Maestro PINTSCHER and the Orchestra for music by Mr. Tao himself and by Beethoven.  Beethoven's First piano concerto is really the second, but was the first to be published.  The second half features the 7th Symphony which, for me, is the composer's finest.
The concerts are at 8:00 on Friday and Saturday 24th and 25th, and at 2:00 p.m. on the 26th.

Today, at 12 noon, the DOUG TALLEY QUARTET honors Martin Luther King, Jr. at the annual concert at Westport Presbyterian Church.  This will a welcome relief from the cold.  The concert is free; donations are welcomed. Bring your lunch, if you so wish.

I admire the musicianship of SEAN CHEN, Professor of Piano at the UMKC Conservatory.  Prof. Chen will give a master class at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday the 21st, at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Overland Park.  Several young pianists will be privileged to learn from the master.  There is no admission charge.

Recently, I heard the broadcast of an in-concert performance of the OPUS 76 QUARTET on KANU-FM.  The playing was as fine as that of any Quartet I've ever heard, and I've heard many.  This Thursday, the 23rd, Opus 76 will play music of Franz Josef Haydn at the Kansas City Museum, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The setting is intimate, the Museum beautiful.  You can purchase tickets on site.

Friday the 24th, the PARK TRIO will perform at the 1900 Building beginning at 7:30 p.m. Works by Anton Arensky and Antonin Dvorak will be played by violinist BEN SAYEVICH, cellist DANIEL VEIS, and pianist LOLITA LISOVSKAYA-SAYEVICH.  The International Center for Music is the presenter. There is a modest admission charge.  I most assuredly will attend.

"From the Top" is a program on Classical 91.9, one that is devoted to present accomplished young musicians.  This Saturday, beginning at 10:00 a.m., host Peter Dugan will present performances by three local musicians and one from Springfield. There is a rebroadcast at 7:00 on Sunday.

DR. STEPHANIE HENRY has selected music of Antonio Vivaldi for a concert on Saturday the 25th at 4:00 p.m. at St. Mary's Episcopal Church.  Specifically, the repertoire includes the Gloria, Concerto for Two Trumpets, "Winter" from the Four Seasons and  the aria "Vedro con mio diletto". You can expect to hear an excellent chorus, superb instrumentalists (including solo trumpeters KEITH BENJAMIN and MATT VANGJEL; and solo violinist ANNE-MARIE BROWN), and several of the area's best vocal soloists (including our world acclaimed countertenor JAY CARTER).  There is no admission charge for the concert!  And there is good parking all around the church.  I suggest that you attend the concert, then  go to dinner prior to attending Symphony.

"To experience Time for Three live is to hear various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music fold in on themselves and emerge anew." The concert is at 7:00 p.m. in Polsky Theatre in the Midwest Trust Center at JCCC.  Dr. Paul Laird will give a pre-concert talk at 6:00 p.m. This is a paid admission event.

As always, there are other events that warrant our attention. I wish I could go to all of them.

Leonard Bernstein has written: MUSIC can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.

 I wish you the very best. Cordially, John Schaefer