Cameron Carpenter, Organist

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014 | 7:00 PM
Muriel Kauffman Theatre

“There were many moments…of majestic beauty and manic ferocity that took the breath away…Carpenter is already the most gifted organist in many a generation. And he’s only just begun.” (The Los Angeles Times)

Back after his sold-out performance at the Kauffman Center, Cameron Carpenter performs in Muriel Kauffman Theatre on his newly designed international touring organ. Cameron is having a ball smashing the stereotypes of organists and organ music – all the while generating worldwide acclaim and controversy. His repertoire – from the complete works of J. S. Bach to film scores, his original works and hundreds of transcriptions and arrangements – is probably the most diverse of any organist. Cameron brings his International Touring Organ to the Kauffman Center – a monumental digital organ of his own design, playable throughout the world. Cameron’s embrace of fashion on the concert stage includes concert wear of his own design.

“Everything he touches turns fantastical and memorable.” (The New York Times)

As a keyboard prodigy, he performed Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier at age 11 before joining the American Boychoir School in 1992 as a boy soprano. 

Cameron Carpenter is “one of the rare musicians who changes the game of his instrument…He is a smasher of cultural and classical music taboos. He is technically the most accomplished organist I have ever witnessed…And most important of all, the most musical.” (The Los Angeles Times)

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Cameron Carpenter’s official website

Art Spiegelman Performs WORDLESS!

Created in collaboration with Phillip Johnston Sunday, October 19, 2014 | 7:00 PM Helzberg Hall

Art Spiegelman, noted as a historian and theorist of comics as well as an artist, collaborates with Phillip Johnston, the critically acclaimed jazz composer who will be performing live with his sextet. Johnston’s music accompanies the cartoonist’s personal tour of the first legitimate “graphic novels”— silent picture stories made by early 20^th century masters like Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward and Milt Gross—and their influence on him. As Spiegelman explores “the battle between Words and Pictures,” he smashes at the hyphen between High and Low Art in a presentation featuring a new work drawn specifically for this project, “Shaping Thought.”

This event is sponsored by Lawrence and Donna Gould Cohen and Martha Gershun and Don Goldman in memory of Gloria P. Gershun, a professional librarian and passionate booklover with deep ties to the Jewish community.

Art Spiegelman: Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves. In 1992, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful Holocaust narrative Maus— which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. His comics are best known for their shifting graphic styles, their formal complexity, and controversial content.  

Phillip Johnston:  A saxophonist and composer of both jazz and new music, Phillip has been a significant figure in the underground music scene of New York’s downtown since the beginning of the 1980’s. He has composed extensively for film, and his original scores for silent film have been performed at the Sydney Opera House and beyond. 

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Phillip Johnston’s official website

Abundant Turnout for Future Stages Festival

The Kauffman Center’s inaugural Future Stages Festival showcased more than 500 youth artists performing in Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Helzberg Hall and an additional outdoor stage. A free event for the entire community, Future Stages Festival was created to thank Kansas City for the warm welcome the Kauffman Center has received since opening in 2011. Since that time, more than one million visitors have experienced an event at the Center and 6,000 people participated in Sunday’s Future Stages Festival.

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KANSAS CITY, MO – Today, the Kauffman Center Board of Directors named Paul J. Schofer as its President and CEO. Schofer served as vice president of operations and chief financial officer of the Kauffman Center since March 2012.

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Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 | 7:00 PM
Helzberg Hall

Mandolinist Chris Thile and bassist Edgar Meyer are both composers and MacArthur Fellows (an honor known as a “genius grant”), who cross traditional boundaries in a diverse program of largely original music. The duo has collaborated on several critically acclaimed projects including the GRAMMY winning Goat Rodeo Sessions.

Watch a clip of Thile and Meyer’s collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Stuart Duncan below:

Chris Thile
London’s Independent called Chris Thile “the most remarkable mandolinist in the world.” A child prodigy, Thile first rose to fame as a member of GRAMMY Award-winning trio Nickel Creek, with whom he released three albums and sold two million records.
The MacArthur Foundation named Thile one of its 23 MacArthurFellows for 2012—a recipient of its prestigious “Genius Grant.” In honoring Thile, the MacArthur Foundation noted that his “lyrical fusion of traditional bluegrass with elements froma range of other musical traditions is giving rise to a new genre of contemporary music.”Prior to recording Punch Brothers acclaimed new disc, Thile completed an album of tradition upendinginterpretations of bluegrass classics with guitarist Michael Daves, Sleep With One Eye Open, which garnered a 2011 GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.

Edgar Meyer
In demand as both a performer and a composer, bassist Edgar Meyer has formed a role in the music world unlike any other. Hailed by The New Yorker as “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument”, Mr. Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.
As a composer, Mr. Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world, and collaborations are a central part of his work.

More Information
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get more details about upcoming performances at the Kauffman Center and behind-the-scenes access.

Chris’s official website