“Voyages”
The Forty-Ninth Season 2024-2025
“Voyage of Love”
The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City proudly opens its Forty-Ninth Season with “Voyage of Love” — a celebration of the most sublime human feeling with three works exploring the facets of this most human of expressions. The intimate side is revealed in Clara Schumann’s Violin Romances, the transformative side uncovered in Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, and its majestic affirmation displayed in Johannes Brahms’s String Sextet No.2. Join us this Friday the 13th, as we celebrate (to the day) Arnold’s 150th and Clara’s 205th birthdays in the company of spectacular virtuosos Jennifer Frautschi, Oliver Neubauer, Che-Yen Chen, Hsin-Yun Huang, Nicholas Canellakis, and FCMKC Artistic Directors Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park.
Christina & Michelle Naughton, Master Pianists
The Friends of Chamber Music opens its Master Pianists Series with the duo of Christina and Michelle Naughton. Their ensemble has been hailed as “downright idyllic spontaneity” (Rheinische Post) and in their playing “the textures shimmer like pure gold in bright light, dancing in every conceivable rhythm. They have to be heard to be believed” (The Washington Post). Works by W. A. Mozart, Tania Leon, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Jennifer Higdon, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Handel “Apollo e Dafne” — Twelfth Night Ensemble
Handel’s cantata Apollo e Dafne — a unique work among the composer’s output, with its highly operatic and theatrical elements — will be performed by soprano Nola Richardson, the baritone Roderick William OBE, and the phenomenal Twelfth Night Ensemble, led by multi-award-winning violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and keyboardist David Belkovski.
“Poulenc’s Homage to Winds” — The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Friends partners with the nation’s premier chamber music organization — the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center — to bring to light a spectacular program centered around music for wind instruments in multiple combinations. Marking the return of the phenomenal master pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, we have a chance to introduce to Kansas City the former principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, Radek Baborák, alongside a star-studded international cast of performers: flutist Adam Walker, oboist James Austin Smith, clarinetist David Shifrin, and bassoonist Marc Goldberg. Poulenc’s enchanting Sextet for Piano and Winds anchors the evening.
J. S. Bach: St John Passion — Dunedin Consort
The Friends continues its Early Music Series with one of J. S. Bach’s most foundational works – the St John Passion – with Dunedin Consort, one of the world's leading Baroque ensembles, recognized for its vivid and insightful performances and recordings. Based in Scotland under the direction of John Butt, the ensemble has earned two coveted Gramophone Awards – for the 2007 recording of Handel’s Messiah and the 2014 recording of Mozart’s Requiem – and a Grammy nomination.
Isidore String Quartet
Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the Isidore String Quartet was formed with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.’ They will make their Kansas City debut in a fascinating tour-de-force program featuring works by Erwin Schulhoff, Henri Dutilleux, Billy Childs, and W. A. Mozart.
Nikolai Lugansky, Master Pianist
The master pianist Nikolai Lugansky “is clearly one of those chosen few. [He] possesses one of the most complete and remarkable keyboard arsenals of our day.” — Chicago Classical Review. Mr. Lugansky makes his FCMKC debut in a magnificent tour through the music of Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and his own transcriptions of Richard Wanger.
The Gesualdo Six
In their Kansas City debut, The Gesualdo Six present a program full of ‘jewels in the crown’ of the Italian Renaissance entitled “Josquin’s Legacy” by tracing themes of pedagogy and patronage in northern Italy over 150 years, featuring works by Brumel, Josquin, Mouton and L'Héritier. They will bring “undefinable excitement that comes from a group of musicians working absolutely as one.” – Gramophone
Thomas Dunford in Recital
Dubbed by BBC Early Music Magazine “the Eric Clapton of the lute,” Thomas Dunford makes his Kansas City debut in a captivating program taking us on a voyage from the depths of the Early Baroque to the music of Erik Satie, passing through the likes of Marin Marais and J. S. Bach.
Leonkoro String Quartet
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
“Voyage de passion”
A phenomenal concert celebrating the riveting abandon of francophone passion. Featuring works by Maurice Ravel, Joseph Jongen, and Gabriel Faure, 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.
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Master Pianist
In a monumental feat of artistry and endurance, the master pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet will bring the 49th Season of the Friends to a magnificent close by performing the complete piano works of Maurice Ravel in one single evening in celebration of the composer’s 150th anniversary of birth. “He makes you listen to music as if you are discovering it Eureka!-style: yes, that’s what the composer must have meant.” — Financial Times