Past Season Concerts
View the concerts from the past few seasons!
​​
12th Season (2019-2020)
Concerts of our 14th season (2023-2024)
Annelies
Ryan Olsen, conductor
Updated location!
Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Central Presbyterian Church
3501 Campbell St, Kansas City, MO
Preview the printed program for this concert here.
​
Annelies is a 75-minute choral work for soprano soloist, choir and instrumentalists. The libretto is compiled and translated by Melanie Challenger from The Diary of Anne Frank. Music is by James Whitbourn. Annelies is the full forename of Anne Frank, now commonly referred to by her abbreviated forename, Anne. Annelies is divided into fourteen movements.
1. Introit - prelude (instrumental)
2. The capture foretold
3. The plan to go into hiding
4. The last night at home and arrival at the Annexe
5. Life in hiding
6. Courage
7. Fear of capture and the second break-in
8. Sinfonia (Kyrie)
9. The Dream
10. Devastation of the outside world
11. Passing of time
12. The hope of liberation and a spring awakening
13. The capture and the concentration camp
14. Anne’s meditation
The world premiere of Annelies was given on April 5, 2005 at the Cadogan Hall, London. Leonard Slatkin conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Choir of Clare College Cambridge and soprano Louise Kateck.
The US premiere of Annelies was given on April 28, 2007 in Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ. James Jordan and James Whitbourn conducted the Westminster Williamson Voices, an instrumental ensemble and soprano Lynn Eustis.
The world premiere of Annelies in its completed chamber version was given on June 12, 2009 in the German Church, The Hague, The Netherlands. Daniel Hope (violin) led the ensemble, with the Residentie Chamber Choir (conductor Jos Vermunt) and soprano Arianna Zukerman.
Bridges to Britain, and Beyond
Exploring the connections to the British Isles
Jay Carter, conductor
Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 3:00 PM
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
6401 Wornall Terrace, Kansas City, MO
Preview the printed program for this concert here.
​
Apart from the American Revolution and War of 1812, America and Britain have shared a friendly relationship encompassing Social and Political movements, Technological and Scientific development, and a shared body of artistic influences – including poetry and song. Increased economic ties in the late 19th century, and the wars of the first half of the 20th century, caused a number of British citizens to spend time in America. A significant number of composers participated in this cross-pollination and enjoyed fruitful relationships with American composers and librettists. Some made fleeting visits with professional ensembles or lectured at universities, while others spent years in the States, like Benjamin Britten and Frederick Delius. Percy Grainger spent more time living in America than he ever did as a subject of the Empire.
This concert explores some of the most fruitful, and now often overlooked, musical bridges across the Atlantic artistically linking America and the United Kingdom - which included domains across the whole world, and whose cultural influence is inextricably linked to British music - as is cuisine, literature, and visual art.
Memento Mori
Celebrating composers with centenary years in 23-24
Jay Carter and Ryan Olsen, conductors
Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 3:00 PM
Rainbow Mennonite Church
1444 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, KS
Preview the printed program for this concert here.
​
Autumn strikes particularly nostalgic notes in the Northern Hemisphere. Whether the shortening of days or the unmistakable change of seasons is responsible, this time has become the natural time for recollection, recognition, and remembrance. When those weeks on the calendar coincide with the commemoration of composers who celebrate important anniversary years, it seems appropriate to take note! Thus, our first concert of the 2023-2024 season explores a few composers whose birth or death year coincides with our calendar years, and who we feel ought to be specifically highlighted.
These works, many of them lesser-known, survey both secular and sacred compositions, and are as broadly expressive of the human experience. Like poets and composers who penned them, each work is entirely unique and speaks/sings with its own distinct voice.
Program
​
William Byrd (d. 1623)
Ave verum corpus
Stanford (d. 1924)
Eight Partsongs
1. The Witch
3. The Bluebird
4. The Train
Anton Bruckner (b. 1823)
Psalm 23, WAB 34
Du bist wie eine Blume, WAB64
Giacomo Puccini (d. 1923)
Requiem Aeternam
Aleksander Arcahngelsky (d. 1924)
Vzbrannoi voyevodye
Svyete Tikhiy
Faure (d. 1924)
Les Djinns
Cantique Jean Racine
Pavane
Gustav Holst
Nunc Dimittis
Evening Watch from Two Motets (1924)
Concerts of our 13th season (2023)
Modern Madrigals
Ryan Olsen, conductor
June 4, 2023 at 3:00 PM
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
Click the photo above to see the printed program for this concert.
​Musica Vocale continues to reimagine ancient and modern choral music with a series of modern madrigals by composers from the 20th and 21st century inspired by the traditions of Renaissance Italy and England.
Morten Lauridsen, Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, is renowned for his choral part-songs and motets which are performed worldwide. The Madrigali Six Fire Songs On Italian Renaissance Poems premiered in 1988 in Los Angeles and have become a staple in the modern choral repertoire.
Melissa Dunphy’s Suite Remembrance features is a cycle of four contrasting “memorial dances” in dance forms that were popular in the late Renaissance and early Baroque Eras: saltarello, gavotte, sarabande, and a gigue in the Venetian double chorus style. Musica Vocale proudly performed her multimovement AmericanDREAMers in 2018.
Finally, Joshua Shank’s Color Madrigals (2007) are settings of six poems by John Keats, each featuring a different color from the spectrum and various musical “colors” commonly found in Renaissance madrigals. These three song cycles capture various aspects that characterize Renaissance madrigals utilizing modern harmonies and tonal structures, rhythmic and metrical figurations, as well as other modern compositional techniques.
Brave New World
Music from Puebla de los Àngeles
Jay Carter, conductor
March 12, 2023 at 3:00 PM
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
Click the photo above to see the printed program for this concert.
Musica Vocale continues a commitment to lesser-known but worthy choral works. Against the backdrop of European colonialism, the Cathedral de los Àngeles nourished a musical alliance between the best musical minds of Imperial Spain and the supremely skilled indigenous peoples of the New World. As the cultural center of Novohispanic holdings, Puebla attracted musicians and artists from both sides of the Atlantic, and many European-born composers, like Juan Gutierrez de Padilla, spent their entire career working there. Francisco Lopez Capillas, the first ‘American-born’ composer of note, trained under Juan Gutierrez de Padilla before becoming the primary musician at the Cathedral in Mexico City.
This program includes 17th century motets and villancicos Francisco Lopez Capillias, Joan de Cererols, Gaspar Fernandez, and Francisco Guerrero interspersed with Juan Gutierrez de Padilla’s Missa ego flos campi for double choir.
Concerts of our 12th season (2019-2020)
Bad Decisions
Music Reflecting Moral Questions
Our May 31st concert has been postponed. Please read our note below, and stay tuned for the new concert date.
​
Sacred Heart – Guadalupe Catholic Church
2544 Madison Avenue
Kansas City, MO
​
With the health and safety of our community, singers, and visiting artists as our top priority, Musica Vocale’s March 29 concert is postponed. A new date will be announced as soon as possible. We are closely following the news of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in our area and the world and are encouraging you to practice “social distancing,” as recommended by the CDC. The World Health Organization states that:
​
-
We must stop, contain, control, delay and reduce the impact of this virus at every opportunity.
-
Every person has the capacity to contribute, to protect themselves, to protect others, whether in the home, the community, the healthcare system, the workplace or the transport system.
​
We are in our 12th season of music making in Kansas City and believe that the arts are an inspiration to us all, especially in times of challenge, and we thank you for your continued support. Keep up to date with the rescheduling of this concert and consider making a charitable donation by visiting musicavocale.org.
​
Be well, friends.
For our concert BAD DECISIONS, we return to Sacred Heart – Guadaloupe Catholic Church on the West Side. The Kansas City Baroque Consortium and soloists join Musica Vocale for cantatas by Giacomo Carissimi and J. S. Bach, in the story of the Old Testament character Jephte, and of mythic Hercules (BWV 213).
Composer Melissa Dunphy returns for her two movement work Listen, with texts by Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford from their testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Come, Thou O Traveler Unknown
American Choral Music before 1950
Our March 29th concert has been postponed.
​
​
For COME, THOU O TRAVELER UNKNOWN, Grammy-nominated organist Jan Kraybill collaborates with Musica Vocale, playing the historic Ernest M. Skinner organ at Grand Avenue Temple. The program includes Melodious Accord, which is a collection of early 19th century Moravian shaped-note hymns, arranged by Alice Parker for choir, brass, and harp. The concert also features early 20th century music by Leo Sowerby for choir and organ, including his 1946 work that won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1946, The Canticle of the Sun, with text by Saint Francis of Assisi.
Cathedral Masterworks
Beautiful Music in KC Northeast Treasure
Sunday, November 3, 2019
3:00 p.m.
​
Saint Anthony Catholic Church
318 Benton Blvd
Kansas City, MO
CATHEDRAL MASTERWORKS opens the season at St. Anthony Catholic Church, a magnificent edifice with cathedral resonance in the Northeast on Benton Boulevard, just two blocks from the Kansas City Museum. The concert opens with the first local performance of Ave, maris stella by Kansas City composer Anthony Maglione. Also, works by Josquin des Pres, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, Felix Mendelssohn, Josef Rheinberger, Charles V. Stanford, and William Harris.
Magnificent Holidays
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
7:30 p.m.
​
Old Mission United Methodist Church
5519 State Park Road
Fairway, KS
MAGNIFICENT HOLIDAYS is a a glorious celebration of sound with the KC Chamber Orchestra and Musica Vocale performing J.S. Bach's Magnificat with choir and soloists, and then the orchestra performing Telemann's Concerto for Oboe d’amore and other beautiful Baroque works.
​
Bruce Sorrell, conductor
Margaret Marco, oboe
Program
Rameau - Overture to Les fetes de Polymnie
Rameau - Overture to Naïs
Handel - Concerto Grosso in C Minor, Op. 6 No. 8
Telemann - Concerto for Oboe d'Amore in G major
J.S. Bach - Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243
Concerts of our 11th season (2018-2019)
Resist
Challenging State and Circumstance
Sunday, May 19, 2019
5:00 p.m.
Sacred Heart – Guadalupe
2544 Madison
Kansas City, MO
Please join us for the pre-concert talk with
Melissa Dunphy at 4:40 p.m.!
​
Monday, May 20, 2019
7:00 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
946 Vermont Street
Lawrence, KS
Our final concert this season centers upon a new work by Australian-American composer Melissa Dunphy, whose work focuses upon the intersection of art with political discourse. Her work, American DREAMers, takes texts written by undocumented young persons impacted by the immigration laws in the United States and presents their stories in a multi-movement a cappella work.
Another work, War-Dreams by Zachary Wadsworth, continues the focus on oppression and violence as they impact the migrant experience and will be paired with William Byrd's Bow Thine Ear, O Lord, which is presented within the work as a response to Walt Whitman's poem "Old War-Dreams." We will also feature movements from Geoffrey Wilcken's That Promised Land and a new work by Dr. Wilcken written for this concert, Everyone's Brother, with text from "Nobody's Son – Notes from an American Life" by Luis Alberto Urrea.
Other works include Chester Alwes’ Psalms of Ascent for men's chorus, and the rarely performed O Vos Omnes by cellist, composer, and conductor Pablo Casals.
Chiaroscuro
Contrasts of humanity and nature
Sunday, March 17, 2019
3:00 p.m.
​
Immanuel Lutheran Church
4205 Tracy Avenue
Kansas City, MO
Our 11th season continues with a concert celebrating the cyclical contrasts of light and shade in the natural world, and humanity’s interaction with contrast and nature. Chiaroscuro spans a variety of musical works including Thomas Tallis, Frank Bridge, Max Reger, and Ä’riks Ešenvalds. Each work is highly driven by musical settings of great poets including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Christina Rosetti, and Marino partnered alongside sacred songs and canticles.
Now does the glorious day appear
Music for Royal and Saintly Women
Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th St.
Kansas City, MO 64105
Our first concert explores music written in praise of inspirational women, focusing specifically upon ceremonial music of Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten.
The royal women surveyed include Elizabeth I, Mary II, and Elizabeth II – the current British sovereign, in works written for ceremonial events in their reigns. Text by or written in commemoration of Dame Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen, and Cecilia – the patroness saint of music whose feast day is in November.
While Britten and Purcell serve as the anchor points for this program, other works by Hildegard von Bingen, Giles Swayne, and William Byrd complete this survey.
Bach Home for the Holidays
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th St.
Kansas City, MO 64105
A rare performance of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio by the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra with Musica Vocale, conducted by Arnold Epley.
The performance features vocal soloists Jay Carter, Kyle Stegall, Jason Steigerwalt and Lindsey Lang. Kick off the holiday season with this Christmas narrative as seen through the eyes of the angels, shepherds, and magi – some of Bach's most sublime music!
Concerts of our 10th Anniversary Season (2017-2018)
Musica Vocale opens its 10th season with a concert of partsongs from 12 composers, from the Renaissance to the present, in music of enormous emotional contrast. Almost all composers create, at some point, unaccompanied brief (from 1 minute to 7 or 8) sacred or secular choral pieces, many seeing the form as a major area of their compositional life.
The Bird and The Deer of this concert's title are references to works by Arvo Pärt and Charles V. Stanford. Both Stanford's The Blue Bird and Pärt's The Deer's Cry are quiet, deeply serene pieces which succeed in stopping the rush of time for a few moments, allowing each hearer to see around us and listen attentively to the quiet.
Renaissance master Monteverdi leads with two madrigals, joined by Poulenc (Un soir de neige, a set of four), Britten, Finzi, and Distler. Americans Chester L. Alwes, Halsey Stevens, Michael Hennigin, and Randall Thompson (in an almost never heard work) fill out the program.
Our collection of these spectacularly exciting and elegant pieces promises to leave you captivated by their beauty!
The Blue Bird & The Dear's Cry
Partsongs Sacred and Secular
Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.
St. Johns's United Methodist Church
6900 Ward Pkwy
Kansas City, MO 64113
Shared Music Transcends Time
Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 1:00 p.m.
Immanuel Lutheran Church
4205 Tracy Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64110
This is a free concert!
Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th St.
Kansas City, MO 64105
Musica Vocale continues its 10th season with Shared Music Transcends Time, featuring three motets by Johannes Brahms, two 20th century masterworks by Benjamin Britten and Polish born Krzysztof Penderecki, and pieces by five composers with Kansas City connections: Ian David Coleman, Stewart Duncan, Anna Krause, Anthony Maglione, and Geoffrey Wilcken.
​
Joining conductor Arnold Epley and the 23 vocalists of Musica Vocale will be guest artists Paul Meier, Organist and Director of Music at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Nell French, viola, and Kyle Chandler, trumpet.
Harmoniemusik
Music for choir and wind ensemble
Sunday, June 3, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
The Grand Hall at Power & Light
1330 Baltimore Ave
Kansas City, MO 64105
CELEBRATE the completion of our 10th SEASON in a wonderfully restored downtown venue in one of Kansas City's architectural Art Deco icons: THE GRAND HALL of the KANSAS CITY POWER AND LIGHT building. Musica Vocale is honored to present the first concert in the magnificent performance hall!
Our June 3 concert, Harmoniemusik - Works for Choir and Wind Ensemble, will feature Igor Stravinsky's masterful Mass, motets by Bruckner for choir and trombones, and Mendelssohn's exalted setting of the Ave Maria with voices and winds. The concert opens with Bach's accompanied motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118. We will also honor newly appointed Associate Director and Conductor Jay Carter.
Our 10th anniversary concert will not be overlong, and you can join the singers and instrumentalists for a wine and cheese reception on The Grand Hall balcony, and visit with conductors Arnold Epley and Jay Carter.
Take some extra time to explore this amazing marble concert space, only recently opened to the public after being in use as office space for a generation. The Grand Hall is immediately across from the President Hotel.
St. Nicolas! with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
Old Mission United Methodist Church
5519 State Park Rd.
Fairway, KS 66205
Join the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and Musica Vocale for Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas cantata and other classical holiday favorites!
Concerts of our 9th Season (2016-2017)
Voices of Women
Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Westport Presbyterian Church
201 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO 64111
​
Pre-concert talk at 2:30 with musicologist Dr. Alison DeSimone.
Although there are many noted women composers at present, much of the music from women during the preceding eight hundred years is just now coming to light. We highlighted not only Judith Weir, Joan Szymko, Patricia Van Ness, Paula Foley Tillen, and Kristen Walker from the present, but Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Lili Boulenger and Rebecca Clarke from the 19th century.
A Cappella!!!
Sunday, March 26, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13th St. Kansas City, MO 64105
A Cappella!!! is just what the name implies. The central work for this concert was Herbert Howells' magnificent Requiem, written in 1936 after the death of his young son but not released until 1981. Leonard Bernstein's French Choruses from The Lark, plus music from Heinrich Schütz, Hugo Distler, Johann Nepomuk David, and Geoffrey Wilcken rounded out the program.
Baroque, Barocco, Barock
Sunday, June 4, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.
Westport Presbyterian Church
201 Westport Road
Kansas City, MO 64111
A celebration of baroque masters from Germany, England, and France: Cantata 104 Du Hirte Israel, höre from J. S. Bach, My heart is inditing by Henry Purcell, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier's glorious Te Deum. Musica Vocale was joined by soloists and the Kansas City Baroque Consortium.
