Arvo Pärt (born 1935) is an Estonian composer whose austere yet luminous music redefined sacred minimalism in the late 20th century. After early experiments with serialism, he withdrew from public composition in the 1970s to study medieval and Renaissance polyphony, emerging with his signature tintinnabuli style that evokes the resonance of bells. Works such as Tabula Rasa, Fratres, and Spiegel im Spiegel embody a spiritual clarity that transcends denomination, earning him recognition as one of the most performed living composers. His art, rooted in silence and devotion, bridges the ancient and the modern with profound simplicity.

The Friends of Chamber Music presents Voces8 October 3 at Village Presbyterian Church. For tickets and more information, 816-561-9999 or www.chambermusic.org

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

The Friends of Chamber Music presents Lea Desandre and the Jupiter Ensemble November 20 at Atonement Lutheran Church. On March 19, they will present lutenist Thomas Dunford (Artistic Director of the Jupiter Ensemble) and violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. For tickets and more information, 816-561-9999 or www.chambermusic.org.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors in history. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature annually from 1902 to 1906, and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909. Born into an aristocratic family, he produced works that stand as landmarks of realist fiction—War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878)—often cited among the finest novels ever written. His first literary success came in his twenties with the semi‑autobiographical trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), followed by Sevastopol Sketches (1855), drawn from his experiences in the Crimean War. Tolstoy’s fiction encompasses dozens of short stories, including After the Ball (1911), and several celebrated novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859), and Hadji Murad (1912). Beyond fiction, he wrote plays and essays that grappled with philosophical, moral, and religious questions, cementing his reputation as both a literary master and a profound thinker.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.

True life is lived when tiny changes occur.

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

In the summer of 1893, Dvořák found a haven in Spillville, Iowa among Czech immigrants who reminded him of home. He settled into a simple routine—morning walks, daily Mass, and playing the organ at St. Wenceslaus—while enjoying the quiet countryside and familiar language. The peaceful setting inspired him to finish the New World Symphony and compose the American String Quartet, works infused with both folk spirit and his impressions of America. For locals, his presence was memorable: the famous composer strolling along the Turkey River, relaxed and at ease in their small town.

Dvořák in Iowa | Iowa PBS Explores

The music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower growing amidst encroaching weeds. Thousands pass it, while others trample it under foot, and thus the chances are that it will perish before it is seen by the one discriminating spirit who will prize it above all else. The fact that no one has as yet arisen to make the most of it does not prove that nothing is there.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

“The trouble with most Englishwomen is that they will dress as if they had been a mouse in a previous incarnation. They do not want to attract attention.”

“I am an unpopular electric eel in a pool of catfish.”

“The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.”

“Hot water is my native element. I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since.”

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

The new season is packed with dance, classical music, jazz, theater, comedy, and two blockbuster Film‑in‑Concert events. On this episode of The KC Arts Beat Report, Midwest Trust Center’s Executive Director Stacie McDaniel takes Patrick Neas through the season — from Nutcracker and the Mouse King to Bach Aria Soloists and Rodney Marsalis to the Blind Boys of Alabama, Winterlude’s Mardi Gras Mambo, and the cinematic power of Black Panther and the swoony Scottish romanticism of Outlander, both accompanied by live orchestra. It’s one of the most wide‑ranging, joy‑filled seasons the Midwest Trust Center has ever assembled.

For tickets and the full season lineup: jccc.edu/mtc

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

When listening to Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, appropriately known as The Romantic, one can imagine a Pre-Raphaelite medieval tableau. The horns announce the sunrise over ramparts, strings unfold with the slow majesty of a procession entering a walled city, and the hunting horn scherzo gallops forward through forest paths. In the finale, the chivalric gestures become more searching and embattled, resolving only after a long symphonic quest.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

On this episode of The KC Arts Beat Report, artistic director Clark Morris takes Patrick Neas on a magical tour of what promises to be one of the Harriman-Jewell Series most amazing seasons yet — and that’s saying something!

From the world’s finest early music ensembles like Les Arts Florissants and the Monteverdi Choir to the first-ever Kansas City appearance of The Swingles to Audra McDonald, this is a season that will be long remembered.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

Edward Burne‑Jones (1833–1898) was a British painter and designer whose lyrical, medievalizing imagination imbued a dreamlike, symbolist atmosphere into late Victorian art. Born in Birmingham and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he abandoned theology after meeting William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, forming lifelong artistic partnerships that shaped both his painting and his prolific work in stained glass, tapestries, and decorative arts. His breakthrough came with the 1877 Grosvenor Gallery exhibition, which established him as a leading figure of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetic Movement. Burne‑Jones believed that beauty is sacramental, that medieval art carries spiritual truth, and that modernity needs re‑enchantment.

“The more materialistic science becomes, the more angels shall I paint. Their wings are my protest in favor of the immortality of the soul.”

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

The influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. His sweeping system of absolute idealism sought to show how reality, history, and human consciousness unfold through a dialectical movement in which contradictions are overcome in higher unities. His major works—Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Science of Logic (1812–1816), and Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820)—trace the development of spirit as it comes to know itself through history, culminating in his famous claim that world history is the progress of freedom.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

This Preview brought to you by the Friends of Chamber Music.

There’s nothing like going on a road trip with friends, stopping at diners, having conversations both witty and profound, and exploring new landscapes along the way.

That’s what Friends Of Chamber Music have planned for its 2026-2027 season. Landscapes is going to be the ultimate musical road trip. You’ll explore wondrous vistas like Bach’s complete Musical Offering, early music that sounds brand new, keyboard music performed by piano superstars and chamber music galore.

A Season Built as a Journey

Cellist Dmitri Atapine and his wife, pianist Hyeyeon Park, the co-artistic directors of the Friends Of Chamber Music, never simply assemble a list of concerts. Each season is shaped as a narrative, with each concert connecting to the other. This year’s theme, Landscapes, explores the emotional, cultural, and geographic vistas that chamber music can evoke.

“Every concert is like a chapter of a beautiful book,” Atapine says. “We want the audience to feel compelled to explore things they’ve never heard before alongside familiar repertoire. And we want a sense of progression from the beginning of the season to the end.”

The road trip starts Sept. 19 with American Landscapes, a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. It features Samuel Barber’s youthful Opus 1 Serenade for String Quartet, Amy Beach’s sweeping Piano Quintet, and Dvořák’s beloved American String Quintet. Atapine and Park will join a roster of distinguished artists including violists Scott Lee, Chad Hoopes and Masumi Rostad, and violinist Danbi Um for the season opener.

Beach’s quintet, in particular, is a work Atapine champions. “It’s an absolute romantic masterpiece,” he says. “More profound than some of the deepest Fauré you could hear. There are resonances with Brahms, but also this incredibly unique voice she developed against enormous odds.”

From there, the season travels widely. On Oct. 21, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero brings a program of Spanish and Latin American works to the Folly. The concert will include composers from Soler and Scarlatti to Albéniz and Alicia de Larrocha. Montero is celebrated for her electrifying artistry and her rare gift for spontaneous classical improvisation. Trained in Caracas and London, she’s become a major voice on the world stage, known for performances that fuse virtuosity with emotional immediacy. Piano recitals too often focus on the standard repertoire. This concert will give audiences a chance to experience the rich literature of Spanish music for the keyboard.

“The vastness of piano repertoire is astonishing,” Atapine says. “No wonder it’s the king of instruments.”

Speaking of pianists, the acclaimed Sir Stephen Hough arrives from London on Jan. 30 with a satchel full of miniatures, ranging from Schubert and Brahms to Stockhausen and Beethoven’s bagatelles. Atapine is especially excited for Hough’s own arrangement of the Mary Poppins Suite. “This is a bold and traveling program,” he says with a grin.

Hough is a true Renaissance man: a pianist of staggering refinement, a composer of crystalline imagination, and a writer whose essays move with the same elegance as his phrasing at the keyboard. He’s one of the few classical musicians ever awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, a nod to the rare combination of intellect, curiosity, and artistic daring that defines his work.

Early Music, New Music, and Everything Between

Early music has long been one of the Friends’ defining strengths, and this season offers a particularly rich array. The great a cappella ensemble Voces8 returns Oct. 3 with Towards Paradise, a program of Croce, Purcell, Mendelssohn, Casals, Lotti, and Gibbons. “We want to transport our audience into this beautiful landscape of paradise,” Atapine says. “And we want them to remain there for the rest of the season.”

The Jupiter Ensemble’s program Nov. 20 draws from Baroque operas and instrumental works inspired by the legendary women warriors of the Amazon. Based on the ensemble’s acclaimed Amazone project, it blends sinuous arias, storm‑tossed sinfonias — complete with wind machine and thunder sheet — and tender laments sung by the exquisite mezzo soprano Lea Desandre. It’s exactly the kind of bold storytelling the Jupiter Ensemble brings to early music with such flair.

The Jupiter Ensemble performs Nov. 20 at Atonement Lutheran Church.

Cappella Pratensis and Piffaro perform together on March 5 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The two groups have a beautiful complementary partnership, each ensemble illuminating a different facet of early music. Cappella Pratensis specializes in Renaissance polyphony sung directly from historical facsimiles, giving their performances the feeling of attending a liturgy in a fifteenth‑century chapel. The Piffaro ensemble brings the vibrant colors of shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, and bagpipes, the very instruments which once surrounded and supported sacred vocal music. Together, they create a richly textured soundscape, offering audiences a rare chance to hear Renaissance repertoire in something close to its original sonic environment.

They’ll perform a true rarity, the Mass for Manila, a luminous reconstruction of music written for the Manila Cathedral by the Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco Guerrero. It’s a fascinating work shaped by migration, empire, and the meeting of European sacred practice and the devotional life of early colonial Philippines.

Another highlight is Bach’s Musical Offering, performed by seven artists including harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss. It’s a brilliant labyrinth of canons and fugues spun from a single theme, a work that reveals Bach’s contrapuntal imagination at its most daring. Conceived after Frederick the Great challenged him with an intricate melody, it unfolds as a kind of sonic puzzle where each movement deepens the sense of intellectual play.

“It’s one of the most profound and intellectually revealing works Bach ever composed,” Atapine says. “A compendium of invention.”

The program will also include works by Bach’s sons, Johann Christoph, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann. The concert on Dec. 15 at the Folly Theater is the perfect early Christmas present for Bach fans and a festive holiday treat for any music lover.

A more intimate early music concert will take place March 19th at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral when violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford (Artistic Director of the Jupiter Ensemble) turn seventeenth‑century English melancholy into something strangely seductive. Their program, “Mad Lover,” reimagines that titular figure as a member of Charles II’s court, his emotional turbulence unfolding through music by John Eccles, Henry and Daniel Purcell, Henry Eccles, and Nicola Matteis. Infused with the exuberance and freedom Italian musicians brought to Restoration England, melancholy never felt so good.

The season also champions new music. On Oct. 16, the Modigliani Quartet will perform Debussy and Schumann alongside the United States premiere of Kryštof Mařatka’s AMEDEA—visage de jeune fille, a haunting, psychologically charged portrait of a young girl. On February 6 at the Folly, the Espressivo Piano Quintet presents Joy Steppin’, a new work by Nokuthula Ngwenyama. An American composer born in Los Angeles to Zimbabwean and Japanese parents, Ngwenyama’s music blends spiritual inquiry, ecological awareness, and a vivid sense of sonic color. That concert will also include works by Mozart and Brahms.

The Balourdet Quartet concert on Feb. 24 is part of the New Horizons series at the 1900 Building. Atapine described their appearance as an invitation into “a bold, new vision of chamber music as an art form that’s alive and well,” a program built around repertoire that is both challenging and deeply rewarding. He emphasized that New Horizons is designed for listeners who relish adventurous music, noting that “some people have that incredibly spicy taste in music and we are already gaining more devotees.”

He placed the Balourdet within the season’s larger arc, where tradition and innovation meet: “What’s important to us is presenting the full array. You understand the roots of chamber music in Beethoven and Brahms and Mozart, Haydn, and then you connect to the voices of present day young composers who are actively exploring new terrain but always rooted in tradition. That conversation between centuries is essential.”

This extraordinary season will conclude with works by two meat and potatoes composers but it’s repertoire rarely heard live: the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets. There is something about the sweet combination of clarinet and strings that can just make you melt. Clarinetist Sebastian Manz will perform along with musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an organization with which Atapine and Park have a long and warm relationship.

Why Chamber Music Matters

Kansas City’s artistic life is unusually rich, and Atapine sees chamber music as a vital part of its cultural health. “To have a chamber music organization like the Friends entering our fifty‑first season is truly a jewel in the crown of this city,” he says. “Not every community has access to world‑class chamber music, and yet it’s one of the most transformative art forms I know.”

He’s especially passionate about its impact on young musicians. The Friends’ Young Artists Project nurtures emerging ensembles, including the Tesura String Quartet, which recently participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. “When young players discover their ability to influence each other, to cooperate, to synthesize ideas, it brings them to a level of understanding of what human community can do,” Atapine says. “It’s not just chamber music. It’s knowing how to be a better member of society.”

Atapine’s enthusiasm is infectious, and he knows it. “The news of chamber music not being the greatest art form has been greatly exaggerated,” he says with a laugh. “One of our missions is to make people realize how much fun, how much beauty, and how much communion this music can bring into their lives.”

He hopes audiences will not only attend concerts but share their experiences. “Post about how much you love chamber music,” he says. “Help us stay true to our mission, which is to make more friends of chamber music.”

Friends of Chamber Music Present

Landscapes

For tickets and a look at the complete season:

816-561-9999 or www.chambermusic.org

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) was a conductor, composer, and pianist whose exuberant musicianship made him one of the most visible cultural figures of 20th‑century America. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, his career took off with startling speed after a 1943 last‑minute debut with the New York Philharmonic, eventually becoming its first American‑born music director. His output ranged from Broadway—West Side Story, On the Town, Candide—to symphonies, choral works, and film scores, all marked by a vivid blend of classical craft and American vernacular idioms. Bernstein’s televised Young People’s Concerts made him a household name, while his advocacy for Mahler helped reshape the modern orchestral canon. A charismatic educator and humanitarian, he accumulated dozens of major awards, including multiple Emmys, Tonys, and Grammys, and remained a restless creative force until his death in 1990.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was one of the first women in Europe to build a successful career as a professional painter, working in Bologna and later in Rome. Trained by her father, Prospero, she became renowned for her portraits of noblewomen and scholars, as well as her religious altarpieces. Fontana’s ability to combine precise detail with a warm sense of character made her a sought‑after artist in courtly and intellectual circles, and she is often credited as the first woman to run her own workshop in Renaissance Italy.

Among her most striking works is the portrait of Antonietta Gonzalez, painted around 1594. Antonietta, like her father (who was known as the “wolf man” of Tenerife) had congenital hypertrichosis (excess hair growth). Fontana depicts the young girl with dignity and calm, her face framed by the unusual hair condition, while her fine dress and composed posture emphasize her humanity and individuality. The portrait is both sympathetic and curious, reflecting Renaissance fascination with natural wonders while affirming Antonietta’s place in society.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

On this episode of The KC Arts Beat Report, Patrick Neas sits down with Mario Pearson, Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and Jan Kraybill, one of Kansas City’s most admired organists, for a lively conversation about the upcoming three-hour French Organ Music Festival on August 23 beginning at 2 PM. They discuss how the festival began, why the Cathedral’s unique Ruffatti organ is so perfectly suited to French music, and what makes this annual event such a beloved tradition for performers and audiences alike. The concert is free and open to the public. There will be a reception after the final performance.

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

When Moten died in 1935, Basie formed what soon would be known as the Count Basie Orchestra, a band that made the Kansas City’s style known around the world. Their sound — anchored by the All‑American Rhythm Section and powered by riff‑driven arrangements — was essentially Kansas City in big‑band form: bluesy, swinging, unpretentious, and irresistibly danceable.

Count Basie got his famous title one night at Kansas City’s Reno Club in 1936, when the announcer decided that “Bill Basie” needed something with a little more flair. He introduced him as “Count Basie” on a whim, and Basie shrugged and said “OK” — and from that moment on, the name stuck. Even after fame pulled him toward New York and beyond, Basie remained a proud ambassador of the city that taught him how to listen, how to lead, and how to let a band do its thing.

“I’m saying: to be continued, until we meet again. Meanwhile, keep on listening and tapping your feet.”

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.

On Sunday, August 23 at 2 P.M., the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception will once again open its doors to Kansas City audiences for the 14th annual French Organ Music Festival. The three‑hour event, free and open to all, has become one of the city’s most distinctive musical traditions: a marathon of French repertoire performed on a magnificent Ruffatti organ in one of the region’s most resonant acoustic spaces.

The festival was the brainchild of Mario Pearson, the Cathedral’s Director of Music and Principal Organist. Pearson recalled attending the long‑running Bachathon at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, and imagined a complementary event across the street. “Here are two cathedrals in the heart of the city in downtown,” he said, “why not explore the idea of having a festival that celebrates the organ, but maybe a different genre?” French organ music, with its sweeping colors and architectural grandeur, seemed a natural fit for the Cathedral’s buoyant acoustic.

Pearson also wanted audiences to see the organist at work. “Most people hear organ music and they can recognize it as the organ,” he said, “but they don’t quite know what the performer does on the console—there’s so many facets to it.” From stop changes to pedal technique to the increasingly common use of iPads and hands‑free page‑turning technology, the festival offers a rare chance to watch the instrument’s dazzling complexity up close and personal.

A Unique Organ for a Unique Festival

The Cathedral’s organ is itself a draw. Pearson describes it as “four organs in one,” combining pipe ranks, digital versions of most stops, and an MX‑200 module that imports additional sampled sounds. “You can literally use any stop you want,” he said, “and include it in your registrations. The beauty of the acoustics in that space is it just blends together so beautifully.”

Organist Jan Kraybill—one of Kansas City’s most celebrated musicians and Conservator of the Casavant organ at Helzberg Hall—agrees that the instrument’s flexibility is extraordinary. “Every organ has its strengths and weaknesses,” she said, “but the acoustic is I think what makes this organ very, very successful.” She added that its vast palette of stops makes registration “an adventure in creativity,” allowing performers to find exactly the color they imagine. “Oh my gosh, the flexibility of this instrument is amazing.”

The Afternoon’s Program

The festival begins at 2:00 p.m. with organist Beth Elswick, a longtime participant and retired educator. Pearson calls her “a very, very fine organist,” noting that she will perform works by Alexandre Guilmant and Jean Langlais and will include a vocalist for one selection.

One of the early highlights will be a dramatic work by Charles Tournemire, a composer whose music is rooted in improvisation. “I believe that this one was originally an improvisation and then transcribed by somebody else so that the rest of us can play it,” Kraybill said. “It’s a very, very dramatic piece, and, oh, it will sound wonderful in the cathedral.”

At 2:30, University of Kansas master’s student Max Linares takes the console. Pearson describes him as “remarkable,” both technically and creatively. Linares will perform movements from Louis Vierne’s Sixth Symphony—music that Pearson says is tailor‑made for the Cathedral’s instrument. Vierne, a central figure of the French Romantic organ tradition, appears twice on this year’s program: once in Linares’s solo performance, and again in the festival’s 4:00 p.m. presentation of his Messe Solennelle. “It can go from the subtle to the dramatic,” Pearson said, “a whole sublime spectrum of tonal color.”

Fauré’s “Lullaby of Death”

At 3:00, Pearson will conduct the Cathedral Schola and the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Choir in Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem. Father Paul Turner, the Cathedral’s pastor, will be at the organ. Pearson calls the work “a choral gem,” noting its tender musical lines and its emphasis on serenity rather than terror. “Fauré’s Requiem does not include the dramatic parts like the Dies irae that a lot of other Requiems include,” he said. “This is very understated, focusing more on Paradise.”

The Cathedral performs the Requiem annually for its All Souls Mass, and Pearson says its opening gesture never fails to moves him: “It goes from a very dramatic first chord when that D minor chord plays on the organ, and then it brings it down to a piano, and then the choir enters with the Requiem aeternam.”

Alain, Franck, and a Festival Finale

At 3:30, Village Presbyterian organist Elisa Williams Bickers performs works by Jehan Alain and César Franck. Kraybill, a close friend and admirer of Bickers, offered a vivid portrait of Alain, who died at 27 while serving as a motorcycle courier in World War II. “He fought with such honor that after his death, both sides gave him awards for honor,” she said. “To get an award for fighting with honor from your enemy is quite amazing.” His sister, Marie‑Claire Alain, performed in Kansas City several times and taught at KU. She ensured her brother’s music survived.

Franck’s Pastorale, dedicated to organ builder Aristide Cavaillé‑Coll, will also resonate beautifully in the Cathedral. Pearson noted that the organ includes digitally sampled Cavaillé‑Coll sounds, allowing performers to evoke the timbres Franck himself knew. “It kind of brings the music closer to what the composers heard when they composed the music,” he said.

Finally, at 4:00, Kraybill closes the festival—as she has nearly every year— with a showstopper. This year it’s Alexandre Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1. Pearson insisted on the choice after hearing her perform it earlier this year. “It’s like the woman was on fire!” he said. Kraybill describes the sonata as a full‑spectrum work: a dramatic opening featuring the Cathedral’s en chamade trumpets, a luminous middle movement with intertwining oboe and clarinet lines, and a finale designed to “end the festival with a bang.”

Kraybill says she never misses the festival unless she’s out of town. “I love performing, but I also love hearing the creativity and just the beauty, both visually and aurally,” she said. “The beauty of that space is just without question, and it’s such a gift.”

Pearson returns the admiration. “She’s not only one of the finest organists and musicians I’ve ever met,” he said, “but she’s also such a kind and dear friend. For as long as she wants to, and as long as this festival exists, she will always close the program.”

For anyone who thinks organ music isn’t for them, this festival might very well change some minds. Kraybill’s Guilmant and the entire afternoon will demonstrate that French organ music is rich with drama, color, and fire. In the gold‑domed cathedral downtown, it becomes something unforgettable.

THE FRENCH ORGAN MUSIC FESTIVAL XIV

The festival begins at 2:00 p.m. August 23 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Admission is free, and the event will be livestreamed through both the Cathedral’s website and the local AGO chapter. A reception will follow the final performance.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American writer whose eerie, atmospheric tales reshaped modern horror by shifting fear from ghosts and monsters to the vast, indifferent cosmos.

Living most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island, he published primarily in pulp magazines, developing a style now called cosmic horror—stories where human beings confront forces so ancient and immense that sanity itself falters. His most famous creation, Cthulhu, is a colossal, tentacled entity who sleeps beneath the ocean in the sunken city of R’lyeh, symbolizing the idea that humanity is insignificant in a universe ruled by unknowable powers. The Necronomicon is Lovecraft’s most infamous fictional grimoire, a “book of the dead” attributed to the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred and said to contain forbidden lore about the Old Ones. Within the Cthulhu Mythos, it serves as the central occult text, a volume whose unsettling revelations about entities like Yog‑Sothoth and Cthulhu hint at knowledge no human was meant to possess.

Though Lovecraft died in obscurity, his mythos has become a cornerstone of modern horror, influencing literature, film, games, and the broader cultural imagination.

“Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.”

"Madness rides the star-wind... claws and teeth sharpened on centuries of corpses... dripping death astride a bacchanale of bats from nigh-black ruins of buried temples of Belial."

"The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind."

KC Arts Beat is sponsored by Get Well KC, which offers a body‑mind approach to health and healing, helping individuals alleviate pain and optimize their overall well‑being. Learn more at www.getwellkc.com.