A Valentine’s Eve built around Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven is already a tempting proposition. Add a three‑course dinner, wine pairings, champagne, chocolates, and the luminous setting of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra’s The Music of Love program on February 13 becomes one of the city’s most romantic holiday offerings. Principal guest conductor Carolyn Watson leads the ensemble in a concert that blends classical‑era elegance with emotional warmth—an approach she says is truer to the period than many listeners realize.

The centerpiece of the evening is a pair of Beethoven works that have shaped Watson’s musical life since childhood: the Romances for violin and orchestra, performed with guest soloist Anne‑Marie Brown. “They’re a cornerstone of the repertoire,” Watson explains. “Most violinists grow up performing them, as did I as a young violinist. I certainly enjoyed studying these works. I’ve never presented them as a conductor, so I’m very much looking forward to getting on the other side of the score.”

The Romances—lyrical, compact, and quietly radiant—anchor a program built with the Chamber Orchestra’s scale in mind. “It is a chamber orchestra, it’s not a full symphonic orchestra,” Watson notes. “So we’re slightly limited in terms of what we’re able to do in terms of romantic repertoire.” That limitation became an opportunity: the Beethoven works suggested a classical‑era frame, and Watson began shaping a program that would feel cohesive, balanced, and emotionally resonant.

Carolyn Watson

Anne Marie Brown

Watson opens the concert with Mozart’s Symphony No. 15, written when the composer was still a teenager. Though early, the symphony already shows Mozart’s flair for charm and dramatic contrast. “It’s a quirky little Mozart symphony,” she says with affection. “Some of his early symphonies have three movements, but this one does in fact have four.” Its youthful brightness sets the stage for the more intimate Beethoven works that follow.

The evening concludes with Haydn’s Morning Symphony, the first of the composer’s famous triptych Morning, Noon, and Evening. Watson originally proposed a different Haydn symphony, but after discussing options with Kansas City Chamber Orchestra founder and artistic director Bruce Sorrell, the pair settled on this one. “We agreed on the Morning Symphony, which opens with a magnificent sunrise,” she says. It’s a fitting choice for a concert themed around renewal, affection, and the warmth of shared experience.

Though the program is rooted in the classical era, Watson pushes back against the idea that the period lacks emotional depth. “They definitely did have a romantic streak,” she says. “We don’t really associate heart‑on‑the‑sleeve with classical‑era composers, but actually thinking about it, Mozart definitely was a romantic. You think of all of his operas… he definitely had a Valentine’s Day streak to him.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Franz Joseph Haydn

The concert also offers Kansas City audiences another chance to experience Watson’s artistry, which has become a familiar presence in the region. In addition to her role with the Chamber Orchestra, she has conducted the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Her path from her native Australia to the United States began in 2013, when she accepted a position at the Interlochen Arts Academy. “I took a job, basically,” she says with a laugh. “That was the job that brought me to America.”

Her artistic lineage includes a deep admiration for the legendary conductor Carlos Kleiber, the subject of her doctoral thesis. “He’s a long‑held hero of mine,” she says. “The thing about Kleiber is the translation of all of the musical details into gesture. I think that serves as my inspiration.” For listeners, that influence may surface in the clarity, buoyancy, and expressive precision she brings to classical‑era repertoire.

The Valentine’s Eve event is designed as a full‑evening experience. It includes a three‑course dinner, a fabulous concert of some of the most dreamy romantic music by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and then after that, champagne and chocolates. The Kemper Museum’s contemporary architecture and intimate scale make it an ideal setting for a night built around beauty and connection.

The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra calls the program The Music of Love, and the title fits. Between Mozart’s youthful sparkle, Beethoven’s tender lyricism, and Haydn’s sunrise‑bright optimism, the evening promises a spectrum of feeling that will be remembered well beyond Valentine’s Day.

The Kemper Museum of Contermporary Art

The evening begins at 6:30. p.m. with a delicious three-course dinner followed by the concert and concluding with a Champagne Chocolate Celebration and a chance to meet the musicians. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick Blvd.