“Voyages”
The Forty-Ninth Season 2024-2025
Handel “Apollo e Dafne” — Twelfth Night Ensemble
Handel’s cantata Apollo e Dafne — a unique work among the composer’s output, with its highly operatic and theatrical elements — will be performed by soprano Nola Richardson, the baritone Roderick William OBE, and the phenomenal Twelfth Night Ensemble, led by multi-award-winning violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and keyboardist David Belkovski.
J. S. Bach: St John Passion — Dunedin Consort
The Friends continues its Early Music Series with one of J. S. Bach’s most foundational works – the St John Passion – with Dunedin Consort, one of the world's leading Baroque ensembles, recognized for its vivid and insightful performances and recordings. Based in Scotland under the direction of John Butt, the ensemble has earned two coveted Gramophone Awards – for the 2007 recording of Handel’s Messiah and the 2014 recording of Mozart’s Requiem – and a Grammy nomination.
The Gesualdo Six
In their Kansas City debut, The Gesualdo Six present a program full of ‘jewels in the crown’ of the Italian Renaissance entitled “Josquin’s Legacy” by tracing themes of pedagogy and patronage in northern Italy over 150 years, featuring works by Brumel, Josquin, Mouton and L'Héritier. They will bring “undefinable excitement that comes from a group of musicians working absolutely as one.” – Gramophone
Thomas Dunford in Recital
Dubbed by BBC Early Music Magazine “the Eric Clapton of the lute,” Thomas Dunford makes his Kansas City debut in a captivating program taking us on a voyage from the depths of the Early Baroque to the music of Erik Satie, passing through the likes of Marin Marais and J. S. Bach.