Mid America Freedom Band announces 18th season, “Dualities”
Press release
Kansas City, MO, 26 March 2020 — As the world reels from the coronavirus isolation policies, the Mid America Freedom Band looks forward to returning to Kansas City’s concert stages with its 18th season, “Dualities”.
“While we are all hunkered down, we are missing our band family,” MAFB Artistic Director Lee Hartman states. “I looked forward to seeing my friends and fellow musicians on Thursdays, but the emotional toll it takes when you are banned from gathering is immense. Getting back on the podium, rehearsing, and preparing for our next season of concerts as soon as possible, will be most welcome!”
“Dualities” is a season of musical and thematic juxtapositions filled with MAFB’s typical adventurous programming. We focus on marginalized composers and works and supplement these unjustly unheard voices with pieces from the standard concert band and pop world.
Opposites Attract
Sunday, October 25, 2020
3:00 p.m.
Gem Theater, American Jazz Museum
1615 E. 18th St., Kansas City, MO, 64108
“Opposites Attract” pairs dissimilar pieces together throughout the program to highlight the connections across musical styles. The immortal lyrics of Paula Abdul will ring in your ears alongside the unforgettable melodies of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, all helping us remember indelible moments of the gay rights movement.
Plus! Stacy Busch’s It’s For Us, a concerto for two drag queens, will receive its belated world premiere at this performance with Tajma Stetson and Mrs. Jones as soloists.
Sleigh Rides Old and New
Saturday, December 12, 2020
7:00 p.m.
Gem Theater, American Jazz Museum
1615 E. 18th St., Kansas City, MO, 64108
Whether titled sleigh ride, troika, schlittenfahrt, or galop, the holiday season brings an avalanche of pieces with sleigh bells and dashing-through-the-snow clip-clops. The history of musical sleigh rides stretches back to the Baroque era with countless composers contributing to the genre. MAFB takes it a step further and has commissioned a cadre of today’s best and brightest composers to contribute their own take on a sleigh ride to continue this novelty genre’s legacy. Be there with bells on!
Before and After: WWI-era Chamber Music
Sunday, February 28, 2021
2:00 p.m.
National World War I Museum and Memorial
2 Memorial Dr., Kansas City, MO 64108
MAFB explores how WWI changed not only the shape of the world but also the musical landscape with chamber music selections and arrangements for winds and percussion that straddle the pre- and post-war years. Central to the program is Kurt Weill’s unorthodox Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra with guest soloist Kyra Davies. Written during the Weimar Republic, the work contains Weill’s trademark satirical, caustic wit and is a tour de force for both the solo violinist and ensemble.
Massive Light
Sunday, May 2, 2021
3:00 p.m.
Gem Theater, American Jazz Museum
1615 E. 18th St., Kansas City, MO, 64108
Day and night. Light and dark. Black and white. Good and evil. Sacred and profane. MAFB’s spring concert is a sonic journey out of the darkest mysterious night and into resplendent daylight. Taking a page from the impressionist painters’ play on light and shadow, this program balances the delicate impressionist composers Griffes and de Falla with the unabashed full-frontal assaults of Björk and Shostakovich.
Season and individual tickets go on sale August 1, 2020 at www.freedomband.com. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Season tickets are $25. Admission to the February concert is free with RSVP.
Season 18 (programs subject to change)
Opposites Attract
Stacy Busch: It’s For Us
Vivian Fine: Triple-Goddess
Olivia Kieffer: And the Universe Exploded
Francis Lai: Theme from Love Story
Alan Menken: Beauty and the Beast
Julia Perry: Symphony for Band
Randall Standridge: The Photo Album
Randall Standridge: Stonewall: 1969
Sleigh Rides Old and New
Old (selections to be chosen from the following): Anderson, Carmichael, Delius, Eilenberg, Faith, Hermann, Ibert, Lumbye, Morley, L. Mozart, W.A. Mozart, Offenbach, Palmgren, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Streisand, Sviridov, Tchaikovsky, Wassmuth, Wendel
New: Griffin Candey, Stephen Vincent Casellas, Nicholas Omiccioli, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Angela Elizabeth Slater, Randall Standridge, Alan Theisen
Before and After: WWI-era Chamber Music
Kurt Weill: Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra
Johanna Beyer: Selected percussion works
Edward Elgar: “Nimrod” from Enigma Variations
Emil Hartmann: Serenade
Johanna Senfter: Tonstück
Jean Sibelius: Tiera
Other selections TBD
Massive Light
Björk: Overture to Dancer in the Dark
Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Wes Flinn: Ghost Mountains
Charles T. Griffes: White Peacock
Jennifer Jolley: Lichtweg/Lightway
Kristofer Maddigan: Selections from Cuphead
Eric Richards: Dance of the Southern Lights
Dmitri Shostakovich: Prelude in E-flat minor
Dmitri Shostakovich: Finale from Symphony No. 5
Evan Williams: Variations on “Wachet auf”
The Mid America Freedom Band is a community ensemble of LGBTQ+ and allied adult volunteer instrumental musicians with about 80 playing members. MAFB provides opportunities for instrumental music lovers to share their passion for performance with the diverse community of Kansas City.