Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at the Kauffman Center
From June 14 to 16, Michael Stern conducts the Kansas City Symphony, while Grammy winner Charles Bruffy conducts the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 known as the Resurrection.
Mahler (1860-1911), an Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor credited with bridging 19th-century Romanticism with 20th-century modernism, had his work banned by the Nazis during World War II because of his Jewish heritage. After 1945, his compositions were rediscovered. Today, his work is some of the most performed throughout the world.
Mahler wrote the Resurrection symphony between 1888 and 1894, establishing his long-held belief in the beauty of the afterlife. In this work, he explored the idea of “sound at a distance” creating “a world of its own.”
It all adds up to a transcendent experience. Soprano Joélle Harvey and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor give voice to this luminous work.
Soloists, chorus, and a massive orchestra join together to contemplate the nature of life and death, the role of faith, and ultimate meaning.
Visit the symphony’s website for more information and tickets.
Doris Kearns Goodwin at Unity Temple
On June 16, Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling historian Doris Kearns Goodwin comes to Unity Temple on the Plaza for a Rainy Day Books event.
Her new book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, mines the 300 boxes of correspondence and artifacts that Kearns and her late husband Richard (Dick) Goodwin amassed from their work with the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. Dick Goodwin worked on Kennedy’s New Frontier program of domestic social and economic reform, which brought about the Peace Corps and the NASA space program. The Great Society program was Johnson’s agenda for Congress in 1965, introducing Medicare, the war on poverty, the construction of major highways, and civil rights.
Her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005), about Abraham Lincoln’s presidential cabinet, was adapted by Tony Kushner into the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln.
At an intimate reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Unity Temple on the Plaza, preceding the author event, you could have the chance to meet Doris Kearns Goodwin in person.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Rainy Day Books website.
Whispers and Screams at Belger Arts
Through August 3, Belger Arts Center presents Whispers and Screams: Voices from the Belger Collection.
When people start collecting art, the usual first step is finding a work of art that speaks to them. After a while, serious collectors take it further and become more focused, perhaps following an artist through his or her career.
One of the underlying premises in assembling the Belger Collection is the importance of collecting multiple works, over time, by the same artist. Collecting in depth provides a glimpse through the artwork into how the artist approaches life, love, loss, and the other inevitable changes over the course of time.
John and Maxine Belger’s extensive collection is rich in its variety of local, national, and international artists.
The works selected for Whispers and Screams explore the artists’ memories and perceptions of people, places, and moments in time. Some of those memories are loud and jarring. Others are more reflective and have softened with the passage of time. There are examples of stereotypes, idealized love, lust, romance, excitement, loss, and regret. There are glimpses into the complexity of communities at all levels, the commonalities, and the differences.
For more information, visit the Belger Arts website.
MUXE: The Language of Art & Culture at Tivoli
On Friday, June 28, Kansas City artist Hugo Ximello-Salido presents his new documentary film MUXE: The Language of Arts & Culture at Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Ximello-Salido, who keeps one foot firmly planted in the Oaxaca region of Mexico, has long been fascinated by Muxe culture, in which artistically inclined men dress as women, yet live as men with wives and children. In the film, Ximello-Salido documents his journey to find out more about this unique expression of gender fluidity.
Before screening the film, he will give an introduction and open the floor to questions.
Ximello-Salido’s Muxe sculptural work was part of the Nelson’s exhibit A Layered Presence/Una presencia estratificada featuring 22 local artists.
For tickets, visit the Nelson-Atkins website.