Last week for my KCMetropolis.org coverage I saw two “classical” ensembles perform works heavily influenced by jazz—the Kansas City Symphony with pianist Garrick Ohlsson downtown at the Kauffman Center and the Harlem Quartet on the JCCC Performing Arts Series. I really enjoyed them both! For the Symphony’s, I think my favorite was Copland’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra—definitely the most complex.

And I really loved the Harlem Quartet’s performance of selections from famed trumpet player Wynton Marsalis’s first string quartet, At the Octoroon Balls. They were a lot of fun to watch and created a more relaxed vibe for a normally “formal” concert experience.

Read my reviews on KCMetropolis.org: Ohlsson’s Rhapsody anything but blue and Jazz and classical meet via Harlem

Thanks, always, for reading!