Kansas City Performing Arts. A Little Help Please.
 By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post While most of us are familiar with cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland because of the Steelers and the Browns, did you know these cities also have world class symphonies, thriving opera houses and highly acclaimed ballet companies? Opera not your cup of tea? Not a fan of the ballet? Symphony holds no interest? That's personal choice. But just like there are some Kansas Citians who live and die with the Chiefs, there are others who can't tell Nickelback from a quarterback. It takes all kinds of people to make a community and it takes more than professional sports to make a city major league. Our hometown paper, The Kansas City Star has been a downtown cheerleader for many years. The Star has published miles of news print exhorting the public to believe in the renewal of our urban core. I personally think this is a good thing but I also think the Star is missing a key component. Would it really be that much of an imposition to promote our performing arts? The Sprint Center gets entire sections of the paper devoted to it, but when is the last time you saw the Star heralding the opening of a new season at the symphony? Few people would know this, but on certain nights, the Kansas City Symphony plays to a full house at the Lyric Theater. Other nights, including last month's season opener, the Lyric is only about 60% full. This is the same symphony that brings down the house every year at the Celebration at the Station. It is a sad commentary on the attitude of this town's media when the Symphony was actually giving tickets away on Friday afternoon in the hopes of opening the season to a full house but not one TV or radio station thought to make mention of it. Perhaps part of the problem is the perceived stuffiness of the performing arts. I'll admit the financial well-being of the symphony depends on corporations and patrons with names like Helzberg and Kemper, but you are just as likely to see young people in blue jeans as you are octogenarians in black tie. Of course when you read reviews by the Star's resident arts critic Paul Horsely it's easy to see why people would get that stuffy impression. Consider this excerpt from Mr. Horsely's review of the symphony's opening night performance: While some yank and twist Chopin’s phrases willfully in the name of rubato, Ohlsson mined a more Apollonian vein, with crystalline transparency of sound, muscle when needed and passagework that was stoical, at times almost detached. Who talks like that? Nobody I know thank goodness! Perhaps if Mr. Horsely wrote for philistines like me instead of music snobs there might actually be a few more people taking notice of our growing performing arts scene. The arts have depended on the patronage of others for as long as there has been art. Patronage doesn't always take the form of money. Sometimes a kind word (that you don't have to look up in a dictionary), a recommendation, or maybe even a pull-out section in the local newspaper can do wonders for an arts organization. I hope the Star, along with the rest of the Kansas City media will see through the arena, the entertainment district and of course where to park, to find the real story. |
posted by Mark at 1:42 PM
Comments on "Kansas City Performing Arts. A Little Help Please."
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Anonymous said ... (8:43 PM) :
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KC Sponge said ... (1:16 PM) :
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the wife said ... (9:51 AM) :
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KC Sponge said ... (2:32 PM) :
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David B. said ... (3:05 PM) :
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Mark said ... (4:03 PM) :
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the wife said ... (9:10 PM) :
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Anonymous said ... (9:22 PM) :
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David B. said ... (1:32 PM) :
post a commentThey should assign that guy to the crime beat:
The eerie nocturnal calm at Linwood and Main was harshly disturbed at 12:30 AM as three miscreants, intoxicated with youthful delusions of invincibility, discharged their firearms at our noble law enforcement officials. The suspects were attempting to take the cash from a purveyor of tobacco and High-Fructose Corn Syrup laden delectables when their unlawful exploits were interrupted by the police.
Well, reading that tidbit makes more sense to me than the sports section does sometimes - and a hell of a lot more sense than the crossword puzzle on certain Sundays in certain papers.
But it would be nice to break the news to the city that you dont have to have a vast knowledge of music to enjoy the symphony, just like you don't need to have rhythm to enjoy jazz, or have a feeling for composition when looking at an art installation or for dancers lines and technique when going to the ballet. It's just a kick ass night out, enjoying the pleasures of life and the incredible talent and beauty of people.
So, yeah, I guess it would be nice to have something written about the arts scene that is a little less hoity toity - but you'd miss out on the art of the written word - and that just inspires people to go out and see that Kansas City is far more than jazz, barbecue, and a shiny new downtown. But it also takes people that enjoy these things today to open their world up to new people and let go of a little of their hold on the arts.
Horsley writes for the half-dozen or so music snobs here in our city - which is too bad b/c music snobs are not going to keep the Symphony alive.
The general public needs awareness of the competitive aspects of the business. The arts need to take a cue from the sports world. I'm thinking some sort of Hard Knocks type program which shows the audition process, or prep for any concert, or behind the scenes planning.
I am aware that the Musicians' Union would not be very happy to have any intrusion into the "behind the scenes" competition (esp the audition process, or end of career degradation of physical abilities) but just like the Auto Workers' Union, the Musicians' Union is going to have to come to grips with the changing times. Mid-major orchestras will have to look beyond snob-appeal to maintain their audience base.
That would be awesome, really. The coolest thing about going to see Wicked in Chicago was the 'Behind the Emerald Curtain' (I think that's what it was called) - where they showed costumes up close and had question and answer sessions from the directors and actors. It gave people an appreciation for what they were watching and a connection to the process.
I think a big first step for the symphony would be to get rid of the tails . . . a little intimidating for the jeans and jackets crowd, I think. You'd never consider a casual night out where the people on stage are out-dressing the ones in the audience.
They'll figure it out. It's not going away. But it would be nice to have more people with whom to share it.
In some of his work, particularly in reviews like this one, Horsley writes from a critical point of view, specifically for readers who presumably know (or don’t mind learning) a thing or two about the subject. For this mode of writing, Horsley – indeed, any critic – will typically employ terms of art, both specific (“rubato”) and general (“Apollonian”), without which the task of describing a performance would be impossible. Imagine Joe Posnanski describing a baseball game without being allowed to use the appropriate terminology. Should he assume his readers don’t know a home run from a bunt? Or is it okay if he continues writing for the snobs – er, excuse me, the fans. Does Joe ever lie awake at night wondering if it was his overwrought metaphor that resulted in such a dismal turnout at Kauffman?
Paul Horsley is a good writer, in my opinion, and the Star does a fine job of informing the public about the performing arts. I would guess the KC Symphony would merit a special pull-out section in the paper when you can tune in to a symphony performance on a television network every Monday night during the season, or when you start seeing letters to the editor from outraged grandmothers who can’t find tickets to the Nutcracker for under $500.
In the meantime, it appears that the leading performing arts organizations in KC are doing just fine – or so it says in an article by Paul Horsley. (Why, the article also says they’re building a new performing arts center. Who knew?)
The best hope for the performing arts in Kansas City, short of dying a billionaire and starting a foundation, is for those who already have a love for it to take a friend to a show. Fortunately, we live in a city where there’s a ton of it to choose from.
Thanks for your comment David B. Always glad to hear from the Star.
In my opinion you fell a little short with your baseball/symphony comparison. If Joe Posnaski were to ever write "The pitcher managed to complete the subterfuge by releasing with much aplomb what appeared to be high-velocity offering, causing the batsman to fail to gain significant contact with said offering. While sending the ball into play, it was deftly retrieved by the 3rd baseman who dispatched both the on-base runner and advancing batsman to retire the side in orderly fashion" I would agree with your analogy, but wouldn't it be easier to say the pitcher got the batter to ground into a routine inning ending double play?
I had no idea our performing arts organizations are "doing just fine." That's certainly good news! Thanks for the update!
david b.
Dwindling audiences, shrinking budgets, cuts in arts education at the school level, sluggish economy - any you think that all adds up to everything is "just fine"??
Performing Arts Center (no, we didn’t forget) is an exciting and MUCH NEEDED investment in Kansas City but measuring the success of the major players in KC performing arts by their anticipated performance space is very short-sighted.
That’s like saying that a corporation is "doing just fine" simply because it launched an initial public offering. It's a HUGE step forward, yes - but one which is too vulnerable to exigent factors to grantee success.
However, you have proven my point by linking to the article where Horsley provides the Performing Arts Center some much needed spin - something "doing just fine" would obviate.
I had no idea our performing arts organizations are "doing just fine."
they'd better be because I wouldn't know how to get a ticket or where to go, even if I had a mind to. It's kinda one of them things you other folks do.
@ the wife:
According to the linked article, the ballet, symphony and opera are “in the best fiscal and artistic health in their histories,” hence my gloss “doing just fine.” Without numbers to back it up, that doesn’t tell us much, but according to the KC Symphony’s own PR, “the Symphony's annual operating budget has grown to more than $9 million,” and has an endowment of $20 million, while the Opera’s budget has grown to $3.3 million. So, rather than budgets declining, the opposite seems to be the case. (I couldn’t find any numbers for the Ballet.)
I couldn’t find any figures for ticket sales, but I’ve read elsewhere that nationally, “[classical music] concert attendance is anxiously holding steady”; lacking evidence to the contrary, I’ll assume the same holds true for KC audiences.
My aside about the performing arts center wasn’t meant to imply anything about the health of our arts organizations, and I’m sorry my cryptic sarcasm led you astray. My point was that in Mark’s post about the relative exposure that the Star has given to the Sprint Center and sports facilities versus the performing arts, he makes no mention of the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts – a rather high-profile project that has received its fair share of coverage in our paper of record. And when the time comes for its grand opening, I bet it will receive its due “Star treatment,” just as the Sprint Center did. I’ll be very surprised, though, if it gets the same amount of media attention, and not because the Star is unfairly neglecting it, nor because Paul Horsely has an off-putting prose style, nor because the “snobs” want to keep it a secret from hoi polloi – but because the public cares much, much less about Sir Edward Elgar than Sir Elton John, and much, much more about Garth Brooks than George Balanchine.
I’m all for changing that equation, and I’ll follow the wife into supporting increased arts education, because I think that’s probably effective, up to a point. And I agree with kc sponge that doing away with coats and tails would be a good destuffification measure – also, encouraging rather than stifling applause between musical movements.
But I don’t think Paul Horsely is a stuffy writer, and he is about the last person in this city that I would blame for poor concert turnout. But I speak only for myself, as an occasional concert-goer who appreciates a fancy turn of phrase and has risked the price of a ticket based on something Horsely wrote.