This delightful production is both bi-lingual and interactive!

The classic fairytale, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” is told with the audience’s help, who assist Jack as he climbs the beanstalk and emerges on the giant’s land. In the giant’s rich and fertile garden - where young audiences become tiny bugs to help keep the soil healthy - Jack uncovers the source of troubles with his own farmland and learns how to make it fertile again by understanding and balancing the life cycle

For Families with Ages 4-8

¡Esta encantadora producción es bilingüe e interactiva!

El clásico cuento de hadas, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” es contado con la ayuda de la audiencia, que asiste a Jack mientras el escala la planta de frijol hacia la tierra fértil y rica del gigante. Mientras están ahí, Jack descubre que la fuente de problemas para su campo de cultivo, aprendiendo como hacer la tierra fértil nuevamente al entender y balancear el ciclo de la vida. La audiencia de jóvenes se convertirá en pequeños bichos en el jardín del gigante. ¡El gigante ama a los bichos por que mantienen saludable a su tierra y sus plantas!

Para familias con edades entre 4-8 años

By Qui Nguyen

Original Music by Shane Rettig

18 Apr - 13 May

Directed by Cynthia Levin

The Levin Stage

In Vietgone, award-winning pioneer of "geek theater" ,Qui Nguyen, brilliantly chronicles the love story of his parents' meeting in an Arkansas refugee center after fleeing Vietnam. It's a buddy story, an all-American romance, and a motorcycle road-trip adventure that revisits how we think about he heroes and victims of the Vietnam War. Vietgone skips through time and roams the globe with snarky humor, hip-hop, and lots of sex. It's one ironic, foul-mouthed, bad-ass new play.

The Conservatory Wind Ensemble, founded in 2002, is comprised mostly of undergraduate students who are pursuing degrees in music performance, music education, composition and music therapy. The Conservatory Wind Ensemble is guided by a philosophy that seeks to expose its students and its audiences to the highest quality music written for wind instruments. Through the rehearsal and performance of a diverse repertoire, students are exposed to a wide variety of compositional techniques, rehearsal processes and expressive possibilities.

The Conservatory Wind Ensemble is under the direction of  Dr. Joseph Parisi.

The extraordinary creativity of the UMKC Conservatory dance faculty's choreography is combined with our dance students and collaborations with Conservatory musicians.

As an equal-emphasis program in ballet and modern dance, students' experiences conform to the current repertoire of national companies. Through the Dance Division's Great Works Projects, our students have the opportunity to dance in masterpieces including George Balanchine's Serenade, Robert Battle's Battlefield, Twyla Tharp's Torelli, Petipa's Paquita, Philip Jerry's Our Town, and Paul Taylor's Aureole.

Mellon Foundation KCRep Resident Playwright and Kansas City, KS resident, Nathan Louis Jackson (Sticky Traps, Broke-ology, When I Come To Die), brings us an arresting new play about two families’ from different stations in life as they search for answers to gun violence right here on our own city streets.

An all-star ensemble comprising eight of the finest performer/composers at work in jazz today, the SFJAZZ Collective’s mission each year is to perform fresh arrangements of works by a modern master and newly commissioned pieces by each Collective member. Through this pioneering approach, simultaneously honoring music’s greatest figures while championing jazz’s up-to-the-minute directions, the Collective embodies SFJAZZ’s commitment to jazz as a living ever-relevant art form.  In 2017-2018, they pay tribute to trumpeter, composer and innovator Miles Davis.  More than any other figure, Davis changed the sound of jazz throughout his career.

Individual Tickets Go On Sale August 18th.

Max Groove is one of the pioneers of the smooth jazz style that has dominated the airways and captivated countless listeners for years. He has twelve internationally released CDs, three in the top twenty Billboard Jazz.  His current release “Night Owl” has his signature urban smooth jazz sound while showcasing his innovative Funky jazz structures.

Along with Garland Smith on drums, and Clay Johnson on bass, they bring their world of sound, melody, and emotion to the stage, a refreshing combination of original and contemporary jazz that guarantees to satisfy the most avid fan.

Over the years, national tour appearances with performers such as Joe Sample & the Crusaders, the Temptations, Four Tops, Peabo Bryson, Count Basie, Chaka Khan, Jeff Lorber, Ronnie Laws, Joan Armatrading, Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons, Marcus Miller, Dave Koz, and many other greats have added to the reputation of “The Groove”.

The New York Times heralded that Julia Bullock is “poised for a significant career.” The charismatic soprano has been lighting up stages around the world, performing vocal repertoire from Schubert to Broadway. Her Folly Theater recital will show off her amazing range.

Check your powdered wigs at the door and join us in Seville, Spain for a Barber of a different color. While true to every character, every wink and every note, this vibrant performance of The Barber of Seville draws inspiration from the magical realism of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar to stretch the opera’s Spanish setting into an experience that is as ’60s psychedelic as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Sung in Italian with English subtitles.

It’s July 1977 and the South Bronx is HOT — from a heat wave, from this new thing that would come to be known as “hip-hop,” and from the number of fires burning throughout the borough. WELCOME TO FEAR CITY takes a jarring, yet hopeful and funny, look at a community trying to get by in the midst of crime, apathy, poverty, and a whole new art form that’s about to electrify the world.

Dr. Arthur White, an ANDREAS EASTMAN Jazz and Saxophone Artist, is a nationally recognized composer, arranger, educator, and is enjoying a renaissance as a touring saxophonist. All About Jazz calls White’s ensembles “solidly impressive”, while referring to his “virile tenor solos”, “scorching alto broadsides”, and his ability to “vacate(s) the podium to fashion ‘splendid’ tenor solos…”.

White performs throughout the US, though he keeps his home, and roots firmly planted, in the Midwest with his wife Megan, his son Sam, and his dog Lily. He performs as a full-time member with Kansas City’s iconic Boulevard Big Band, St. Louis’s Dave Dickey Big Band, and MERGE, his original jazz quintet. He is also a frequent collaborator with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the Jim Widner Big Band. His debut album, recorded in August 2017, will be released this fall on the Artists Recording Collective label.

Sponsored by the Kansas City Symphony Guild and benefitting the Symphony, this event includes a fun cabaret-style themed concert featuring the orchestra. Bid on many silent auction items during the cocktail hour prior to dinner. Visit kcsymphonyguild.org for more information or to purchase tickets.

Jason Seber, David T. Beals III Associate Conductor

This exciting program includes Stravinsky's Sumphony of Psalms, directed by Robert Bode, with orchestra, choirs and Conservatory dancers. Stravinsky's 1930 work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

TJ Hooker-Taylor comes from a musical family. His mother, Mary Ann Hooker, and father, the late Great Johnnie Taylor, raised him in the church. Along with his family and at the age of ten he joined his first group, The Young Golden Voices, who performed at all the churches in the Kansas City area. At the age of 16, TJ started an R&B band called The Grand Jury Band, who opened for many top acts that came to the city, like The Bar-Kays, Cameo Slave and many more. Some of the members of that band went on to become the group Low-Key, which was signed by top R&B poducers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

At the age of 21, TJ's young voice started to change. "I could hear that [Taylor sound]. I had never tried to sound like my dad, I didn't even like the Blues. But on my 25th birthday I was given a chance to open for my dad and get paid," says Hooker-Taylor. "That's when the Blues hit me."

Unapologetically proud of his lineage, Hooker-Taylor has released CD's independently with that Johnnie Taylor sound, albeit with mostly new, original songs. His most recent, The Total Package, featured the hit song, "Player Haters."

CDS Records signed TJ Hooker-Taylor and released two albums with him: 2009's Your Babies Need a Daddy and 2012's Taylorized. In 2015, Taylor began performing with local Gospel group, The KC Clouds.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry, as both a singer and an actor. With a record six Tony Awards®, two Grammy® Awards, and a long list of other accolades to her name, she is among today’s most highly regarded performers. Blessed with a luminous soprano voice and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth telling, she is equally at home on Broadway, opera stages and in concert halls as she is in roles on film and television. Share in this special one-night-only performance with the Kansas City Symphony as Audra visits the American Songbook as only she can.

It’s the classic family adventure for those who never want to grow up! Witness the magic of Peter Pan as he flies into the Darling family nursery, convincing Wendy, John and Michael to join him for the adventure of a lifetime in Never Never Land, his enchanted home. The troublesome Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, their nemesis Captain Hook and a hungry crocodile all help bring J.M. Barrie’s fantastical tale to life. Peter Pan makes its delightful Kansas City premiere with world premiere choreography by Artistic Director Devon Carney and a soaring score by Carmon DeLeone, performed live by Kansas City Symphony.

After 40 years on the air, KCUR will be retiring the Cyprus Avenue show and the Folly will host its final Cyprus Avenue LIVE! at the Folly show. On May 11th, we’ll spend the evening celebrating Bill Shapiro, host of KCUR’s Cyprus Avenue, with one of his favorite artists, Kelley Hunt performing on the C. Stephen Metzler Hall stage at the Folly Theater. Kelley brings a 9 piece ensemble and new material to this show as a special honor to Bill.

Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming is many things to many people – renaissance man, style icon, social activist, bon viveur. Legal Immigrant, his latest cabaret show, features songs and stories of the Scottish-born performer’s life and loves in his adopted U.S. homeland, where he’s been a citizen since 2008.

Alan Cumming won a Tony Award for his performance as the emcee in the revival of Cabaret and an Olivier Award for Accidental Death of an Anarchist. His portrayal of Eli Gold on television’s The Good Wife earned him Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award nominations. He has won more than 30 awards for his humanitarianism and social activism, recognizing his contributions to the arts and LGBT equality.

Enjoy a warm-weather inspired performance by Kansas City Symphony musicians. Haydn’s “Sunrise” String Quartet.

Sponsored by Lead Bank.

Grammy award winning pianist Yefim Bronfman returns to The Friends’ stage where he last appeared as a soloist in 2003. Joining the ranks of many living-legends, his celebrated collaborations include duo piano concerts with Martha Argerich, recitals with violinist Pinchas Zukerman (as presented by The Friends in 2010), and concerto performances under the batons of numerous world-renowned conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, and Riccardo Muti.

Audiences will delight in Mr. Bronfman’s imaginative interpretations as he compares Schumann’s “Humoresque,” with those of the contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann, whose “Eleven Humoresken” were inspired by Schumann. The program continues with Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque (with its beloved Clair de lune), and climaxes in a performance of Stravinsky’s Petruschka, based on the famous macabre Russian fairytale.

Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director

Join us for this very special afternoon performance of Duruflé’s Requiem, a soaring Gregorian chant-themed masterpiece. You’ll also enjoy Kansas City composer Mark Hayes’ This Moment and witness an exciting 20th anniversary performance of Morten Lauridsen’s radiant Lux Aeterna.

Note: The Kansas City Symphony does not perform during this presentation.