“What really marks Kansas City as a city of music lovers is its incredible number of community orchestras,” writes Patrick Neas in the 8/24 Kansas City Star (Missouri). “These groups are full of committed and talented musicians creating high-level music. And they all have devoted audiences. Next season, the Heritage Philharmonic will celebrate its 75th anniversary with four concerts…. Jim Murray, Heritage Philharmonic’s music director and conductor … is only the fourth conductor in the history of the Heritage Philharmonic. The group began as the Independence Symphony Orchestra in 1944…. Heritage will kick off its season on Oct. 19 … with a concert in the Community of Christ Auditorium that will showcase the mighty Auditorium organ [with Jan Kraybill in Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony].… Heritage will celebrate its diamond anniversary with its first-ever concert in Helzberg Hall [the Kansas City Symphony’s regular performance venue] on March 15, 2020… ‘The Blue Springs South A Cappella Choir and the Truman High School Concert Choir [are] going to be our grand chorus for Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom,’ says Murray. ‘And the big work for the orchestra will be the Swan Lake Suite by Tchaikovsky. When you’re playing Helzberg, you want to pick an orchestral showpiece.’ ”
Posted September 5, 2019
In photo: the Heritage Philharmonic in performance
