Big-time shows in intimate settings

Classical music | Big-time shows in intimate settings

By ANN SPIVAK

August 29, 2010

The Kansas City Star

Famed saxophonist Bobby Watson will collaborate with Bach Aria Soloists for a performance that combines jazz and classical music.

An evening of classical music or opera in Kansas City doesn’t necessarily mean going to a big concert hall or performance center.

Ensembles and smaller orchestras tend to offer more intimate musical experiences.

“You are looking into the faces of these people as they perform, and that makes it very enjoyable,” said Don Loncasty, executive director of the Kansas City Chorale, a vocal ensemble of 24 professional singers. “It’s a nice change if you’ve only ever gone to the larger ensembles.”

Elizabeth Suh Lane, president of Bach Aria Soloists, agreed. In its 11th year, her ensemble of vocal and instrumental chamber musicians is dedicated to bringing the music of Bach to new life in small settings. This season the group also is reaching out to other artists, such as jazz great Bobby Watson, to collaborate on projects.

Some performances are in private homes where the guests and the musicians get together for food and drinks after the show.

“This is really fun for the audience,” Suh Lane said. “We’re all together, communing at one event. And that’s the way chamber music originally was played, so there was this greater connection between the musicians and the audience.”

But just because they’re smaller doesn’t mean the quality of the music is any less than outstanding, she said.

The Kansas City Chorale, for example, has won a Grammy Award for its music.

“Winning a Grammy, it brought all kinds of awareness to our group,” Loncasty said. “It brings to light the excellence of the group, so people will come see us out of curiosity, kind of like, ‘Wow, there’s a group in Kansas City that’s this good.’ ”

Bach Aria Soloists

Five concerts are scheduled October through June. Two of the highlights, Suh Lane said, will be the “Night of Tango” in late February and the “Bach & Jazz Inventions With Bobby Watson” event in June.

For “Night of Tango,” the group is bringing in world-renowned tango bandoneónist Hector Del Curto and a tango pianist, Suh Lane said, to form a quintet.

“But our biggest event of the year most likely will be the collaboration with Bobby Watson,” she said. “It’s a unique event that will really show how Bach music and jazz are very much alike.”

www.bachariasoloists.com and 816-820-1473

KC Metropolis Review – March 27 Concert

Bach continues to delight and inspire

By Megan Browne Helm, KC METROPOLIS Wed, Mar 31, 2010

REVIEW:
Bill McGlaughlin and the Bach Aria Soloists
Inspired by Bach
Saturday March 27, 2010
Village Presbyterian Church
Prairie Village, KS

All musical roads lead to Bach.  Not one of the many J.C. Bach’s or the significant W.F or C.P.E Bach but – the big guy – Johann Sebastian Bach.  From the simple educational pieces in the Notebook for Anna Magdelena Bach to the mind blowing complexity of the Concertos for Solo Violin, musicians all over the world have grown up with Papa Bach.  Violinist and director of the Bach Aria Soloists, Elizabeth Suh-Lane has. “Mastering Bach is a lifelong pursuit” she told the audience last Saturday. Read more

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