The winners of the Wigmore Hall Quartet Competition, Leonkoro String Quartet, in their Kansas City debut, offer a multifaceted program with music by Haydn, Berg, Shaw, and Mendelssohn. The group  “possesses an extraordinary stage presence, glows for the music, embraces full artistic risk, and astounds through their profound sensitivity towards the unique sonority of each piece “ – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Hailing from Augusta, Georgia, Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar are known for their opulent harmonies and beautiful blends, which are showcased throughout their 2012 album, “Limitless.” The 14-track compilation is sprinkled with ballads and anthems of original songs that bring inspiration and joy to the hearts of those who listen.

In addition to their distinct gospel style, Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar have inspired audiences with clever arrangements of musical theatre covers. Always providing a fresh perspective, the group’s sound is truly authentic while capturing the essence of the original piece.

“Trailblazing Women of Country,” featuring Rissi Palmer and Kristina Train with a five-member all-female band, will entertain and inspire. With their chart-topping hits and record-breaking sales, Cline, Lynn, and Parton wove threads of contemporary womanhood throughout the tapestry of country music, resulting in unprecedented commercial success and earning each a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Cline’s assured contralto affirms that a woman can be heartbroken and sure of herself at the same time (“Crazy,” “Walkin’ After Midnight”); Lynn’s songs exalt autonomy attained through contraception (“The Pill”) and self-respect (“Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ with Lovin’ On Your Mind”); and Parton demonstrates that a woman can ascend the career ladder (“9-to-5”) while never losing sight of her roots (“Coat of Many Colors”). Through their singular voices and artistry, Cline, Lynn, and Parton defied restrictive gender norms, proving that women can be at once beautiful and strong, vulnerable and powerful.

They will perform a free concert at JCCC Polsky Theatre March 31 at noon. Works by:  Frank Bridge, Jean Sibelius, Edvard Grieg, Fritz Kreisler, Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, Gabriel Faure, Claude Debussy.

Grant has been strumming her way through a thirty-plus year adventure as a singer-songwriter, author, television host and speaker.

Early on, Grant’s iconic voice became instantly recognizable in both the Christian and pop worlds. Over the years, she has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, including three multi-platinum, six platinum and four gold. Her chart performance has also been consistent throughout her career, boasting six No. 1 hits, 10 “Top 40” Pop singles, 17 “Top 40” Adult Contemporary tracks and multiple Contemporary Christian chart-toppers. In recognition of such success, Grant has received 6 GRAMMY Awards and 26 Dove Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Additionally, she was most recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Helen Sung meets Kansas City’s own Bach Aria Soloists for a world premiere performance! BAS commissioned Sung to compose a work celebrating Bach as the OG improviser, the foundations of jazz. Join us for a one-of-a-kind collaborative evening and “piano playing at a quite unbelievably jaw-dropping level” (London Jazz News).

About Helen Sung

Helen Sung is an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer, and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of its High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), she eschewed her classical piano upbringing after a jazz epiphany during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Helen went on to become part of the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) at the New England Conservatory of Music. Her newest album Quartet+ (Sunnyside Records), garnered a 4.5 star DownBeat review and inclusion in its “Best of 2021 Albums” list, and a JazzTimes cover story (January 2022 issue), while previous releases Sung With Words (Stricker Street), a collaborative project with renowned poet Dana Gioia, and Anthem For A New Day (Concord Jazz) topped the jazz charts. In addition to her own band, Helen has performed with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and the Mingus Big Band. Recent activities of note include Re-Orientation: Asian American Artists Out Loud (made possible by a Chamber Music America Digital Residency grant): provoked by anti-Asian violence, Helen teamed her quartet with a poet, a hip-hop artist/rapper, and an installation artist in a series of interdisciplinary events to celebrate the range and diversity of Asian American artistry. Helen’s 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship is being applied toward a mutli-movement composition for big band; one of the movements, “Wayne’s World,” won the 2022 BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. Helen has served on the jazz faculties of the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School. She is currently visiting faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and an Associate Professor at Columbia University, where she also was the inaugural jazz artist-in-residence at its Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute exploring the intersection of jazz and neuroscience. Helen is a Steinway Artist.

About Bach Aria Soloists

Hailed for producing “the most surprising and brilliantly innovative collaborations,” Bach Aria Soloists curates and delivers their critically-acclaimed concert series presenting the genius and relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and those he inspired to today for our community, through exhilarating, multi-genre collaborations and BAS’ FREE BachReach education in the schools and for seniors. The ensemble’s repertoire is adventurous and broad, including chamber music from Renaissance to Contemporary, vocal arias, Bach-centered and inspired chamber music and arias, Tango and new living composer commissions. Their signature arrangements can be heard in every concert bringing ancient and modern music to new life.

Bach Aria Soloists is led by Artistic Director-Founder-violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane. The Soloists include sparkling soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson and multi-talented Elisa Williams Bickers, harpsichord-organ-piano. and numerous guest artists. In 2022 and 2016, Bach Aria Soloists was awarded the USArtists International grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and the Mellon Foundation. They were selected as a Finalist in the U.S. State Department’s Cultural and Educational 2022 American Music Abroad program and named The Arts Organization of 2020 by the Missouri Arts Council.

The UMKC Choirs perform a children's concert.

Proudly singing out in Kansas City since 1986, Heartland Men’s Chorus brings its “choral theater” format to The White Theatre, which uses music, narration, and multi-media to illustrate social issues.

The Chorus regularly performs with more than 125 singers and performs a varied repertoire of music, including jazz, Broadway, popular, and classical works. Heartland Men’s Chorus is a proud member of GALA Choruses, the international association of the lesbian and gay choral movement.

The UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble performs their mid-year repertoire.

The UMKC Dance department puts on their spring concert.

This program frames these iconic works in a new light. Their overtly narrative style (Vivaldi included sonnets – perhaps written himself - alongside the music) invites questions about the fleeting, cyclical nature of our existence, our relationship with nature, and the eternal renewal of earth’s cycles. Théotime Langlois de Swarte studied at the Paris Conservatory under Michael Hentz, and became a regular member of Les Arts Florissants at William Christie’s invitation in 2014, while still a student. He has since appeared as soloist with the ensemble, and will perform Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with them on North American tours in spring and fall, 2025. Swarte is a laureate of the Banque Populaire Foundation. He plays on a Jacob Stainer violin of 1665 loaned by the Jumpstart Foundation, and an Allessandro Gagliano from 1700 on loan from the Zylber Association.

The UMKC Conservatory celebrates composer Jake Heggie.

After a screening of the iconic movie, Elwes will engage in a moderated discussion revealing never-before shared secrets and tales of inconceivable antics! Journey back to the lands of Florin and Guilder in an adventure filled with fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, miracles and of course, true love.

Elwes has been in a multitude of films and tv shows, including Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Saw, Twister, Liar, Liar, Stranger Things and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He recently starred in Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part with Tom Cruise, Zack Snyder’s sci fi epic, Rebel Moon, and his latest movie, Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, based on the true story of the first British secret mission during World War II.

Now Elwes is hitting the road to share with fans the personal stories behind the making of this piece of cinematic history.

FIRST GENERATION is produced in partnership with Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Kansas City.

This play is being written while you read! Summary of the play will be provided asap.

The UMKC Jazz department performs at the Folly.

From New York City, the epicenter of contemporary pop and soul, Uptown combines the smooth stylings of R&B with the fresh hits of today. Each member of Uptown is a soloist, bringing a unique flavor of performance that will have any crowd on their feet, dancing and singing along. Regardless of the genre or era of music, the Uptown show exudes freshness and fun in a way that everyone will enjoy. Choreography, vocals, and stage presence… you do not want to miss out on Uptown!

The UMKC Conservatory Wind Symphony performs.

A phenomenal concert celebrating the riveting abandon of francophone passion. Featuring works by Maurice Ravel, Joseph Jongen, and Gabriel Fauré, the FCMKC Artistic Directors Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park will be joined on stage by violinist Martin Beaver (formerly the first violin of the famed Tokyo Quartet) and acclaimed violist Ettore Causa of Yale University.

Four billion years. Millions of species. Five mass extinction events (and counting). It’s the story of Life on Our Planet. From the Emmy® Award-winning team behind Netflix’s Our Planet series, comes a new natural history speaker series event: The Making of Our Planet. Brought to you by Silverback Films and Producer esk in association with Netflix, Our Planet Live is a new and immersive live show featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the explorers, filmmakers, scientists, and adventurers that created some of the most eye-catching footage of our planet. Join us live on stage as we bring to life these stories from the natural world. With a focus on climate fragility and climate migration, The Making of Our Planet tells an unprecedented story about overcoming obstacles on a global scale and explores the messages at the heart of these action-packed, emotional, and unforgettable sequences.

Mister G (Ben Gundersheimer) is a Latin Grammy Award-winning artist, author, and educator. Hailed as “a bilingual rock star” by The Washington Post, and “irresistible” by People magazine, he tours internationally, playing everywhere from Lollapalooza and Lincoln Center to climate change rallies on Capitol Hill.

An official partner of the United States Forest Service and the author of four multicultural picture books published by Penguin Random House, Mister G’s stories and songs aim to help children see each other across borders and foster cross-cultural connections.

The UMKC Conservatory Symphony Orchestra performs.