“Major League Baseball has called up two big guns of classical music to perform the national anthem at the last games of the World Series: The Kansas City Symphony and homegrown opera star Joyce DiDonato,” writes Lisa Gutierrez in Monday’s (10/27) Kansas City Star (Missouri). “For Tuesday’s game, MLB has invited members of the symphony to perform ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ before the game at Kauffman Stadium.… DiDonato will sing the anthem on Wednesday night if the Royals win and force a Game 7…. The musicians will perform in blue Royals gear, just as they did when they filmed a Royals tribute video with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus last week. The groups, directed by Michael Stern wearing a Royals jersey, performed ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’ That video has been seen more than 400,000 times on YouTube and other social media outlets since Thursday. [Kansas Symphony Executive Director Frank] Byrne believes that might have influenced MLB’s decision. ‘We let them know when the Royals went into the playoffs and headed toward the World Series that we would love to be included,’ he said…. Though musical director Michael Stern is in New York, he will fly back on Tuesday to conduct the performance.”
Posted October 28, 2014
