Kansas City Symphony Begins Holiday Season with Handel's Messiah

(KANSAS CITY) – The Kansas City Symphony marks the beginning of the holiday season with Handel’s Messiah on Thanksgiving weekend. The Kansas City Symphony and Chorus join with the Independence Messiah Choir for this mosaic of the scriptures, which remains Handel’s most famous work. With over 400 musicians on stage, it is one of the most triumphant choral pieces ever written. Messiah is best known for its familiar “Hallelujah” chorus.

Handel’s Messiah is being presented on Saturday, November 28th at 8pm at Community of Christ Auditorium, located at 1001 W. Walnut in Independence, Mo.

This performance of Handel’s Messiah continues a 93-year tradition of Messiah performances by the Independence Messiah Choir. The Symphony’s Bruno Walter Associate Conductor Steven Jarvi will lead this enduring favorite. Charles Bruffy, Chorus Director of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, is rehearsing and leading the combined choruses. Mr. Bruffy is one of the most admired choral conductors in the United States, receiving Grammy Awards in 2007 and 2008 for his choral work.

Tickets ranging from $10 to $35 are available by calling 816.471.0400 or online at kcsymphony.org. Youth tickets are available for $12. Group discounts are available. Box office hours are Monday-Friday 10am-5pm.

About the Kansas City Symphony:
Led by Music Director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony’s 80-member orchestra performs more than 50 concerts on three series (Classical, Family, Pops) during its 42-week season, September through June. In addition, the Symphony performs non-series concerts such as Bank of America Celebration At The Station and Symphony In the Flint Hills, educational programs, community outreach performances, and serves as the orchestra for the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet. Classical performances are broadcast weekly on KCUR 89.3 FM during the Kansas City Symphony Hour, Thursdays at 9 pm. Visit the Kansas City Symphony online at kcsymphony.org.

About Steven Jarvi, Bruno Walter Associate Conductor:
Described as an “eloquent and decisive” conductor by the Wall Street Journal and praised for his “uncommonly expressive and detailed” performances by the Miami Herald, Steven Jarvi is recognized as a dynamic talent with an equal passion for the concert hall and the opera house. Mr. Jarvi returns for his second season with the Kansas City Symphony holding the Bruno Walter Associate Conductor Chair as a winner of the 2009 Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award. He came to Kansas City after spending several years as the Conducting Fellow under Michael Tilson Thomas with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach and as an Associate Conductor for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center.

As Associate Conductor, Mr. Jarvi leads the Kansas City Symphony’s Family, Young People’s, Pops and Chamber Players concerts along with selected classical performances throughout the season. In the spring, he will make his official Classical Series debut after filling in last season on short notice with Violinst, Midori, as Music Director, Michael Stern awaited the birth of his second child. A frequent performer with the New World Symphony, Steven has shared subscription concerts in Miami with Michael Tilson Thomas, Roberto Abbado, Marin Alsop, Mark Wigglesworth and Alasdair Neale, conducted on the NWS Charles Ives: In Context Festival and developed and lead the orchestras popular Concerts for Kids and Symphony with a Splash. Mr. Jarvi has also served as a cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic as a competitor in the 3rd Sibelius International Conducting Competition in Helsinki, Finland.

At the age of 21, Steven traveled to Austria at the invitation of Claudio Abbado for observation and study with the maestro and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Easter Festival. He was later selected by former New York Philharmonic Music Director, Kurt Masur, to appear on a concert with Masur at Manhattan School of Music as part of a week long master class. In 2005, as the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Steven was one of two conductors selected to study under Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera Music Director, James Levine, and conducted critically praised performances with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A frequent performer of new music, he has collaborated with many of the world’s most celebrated composers including Henri Dutilleux, John Adams, John Zorn, Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Mackey, Jennifer Higdon and Leon Kirchner, has conducted at Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music, and regularly leads performances at New York City Opera’s annual VOX Festival Showcasing American Composers.

Mr. Jarvi was the first conductor ever invited to be a member of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera, a position he was personally selected for by Plácido Domingo. He has held conducting positions for over 30 opera productions with companies including the Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, Baltimore Lyric Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn and Peabody Opera. Steven is also the Principal Guest Conductor of Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in New York City.

Raised in Grand Haven, Michigan, Steven Jarvi holds a Bachelor’s of Music Theory from the University of Michigan where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler, Martin Katz and Jerry Blackstone, along with a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Gustav Meier.

Contact: Megan Felling
816.218.2621
mfelling@kcsymphony.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 5, 2009