Performing Arts Center Receives Contribution From Symphony Musicians' Association

Fundraising support for Performing Arts Center continues to grow

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

June 23, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (June 23, 2006) — Today, the Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center (MKCPAC) announced that the Kansas City Symphony Musicians’ Association, which is comprised of the Symphony’s 80 full-time musicians, has pledged more than $17,000 to the MKCPAC’s ongoing fundraising effort.

“On behalf of the Performing Arts Center’s Board of Directors and the Capital Campaign Steering Committee, I want to thank each and every one of the Symphony’s musicians for their contribution to this important project,” said Julia Irene Kauffman, Chairman of the Board and President of the MKCPAC and Chairman/CEO of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation. “Under the direction of Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony is well on its way to joining the ranks of America’s top symphonies. The Performing Arts Center will be a world-class home worthy of this extremely talented group of world-class musicians.”

The pledge from the Symphony Musicians’ Association is just the latest in the MKCPAC’s “Hands-On” campaign. Last week, local law firm Spencer Fane Britt & Browne pledged $100,000 and challenged other law firms to follow suit. The “Hands-On” campaign represents a unique way to enable Kansas Citians to come together from across the region to truly own the Performing Arts Center.

In January 2006, the Symphony musicians adopted a resolution which, among other things, pledged their support to the Performing Arts Center. Contributions from the Symphony’s Musicians’ Association are being collected and sent on behalf of individual musicians to the Performing Arts Center on a regular basis through 2007.

“It is our honor and privilege to partner with Julia Irene Kauffman and the many generous donors who already have committed their support to the Performing Arts Center,” said Brian Rood, chairman of the Kansas City Symphony Musician’s Association. “It is our hope that this financial commitment from the Symphony musicians will encourage others throughout the Kansas City area to contribute to this incredible facility. The Performing Arts Center will be a magnet for learning and education and will benefit patrons and fans of the arts of all ages.”  

Located at 16th and Broadway, the Performing Arts Center is being designed by a world-renowned team, including architect Moshe Safdie, Yasu Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, and Richard Pilbrow of Theatre Projects Consultants. The MKCPAC will include a 1,800 seat hall for the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet and a 1,600 seat concert hall that will be the new home for the Kansas City Symphony.

The MKCPAC will hold an official groundbreaking ceremony in early October 2006. The facility is scheduled to open in fall 2011.

About the Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center
The Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center is a project with one overriding goal — to bring artists and audiences together. Ten years of collective research, planning, and design have brought into focus our vision for the mission of the Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center. A world-class technical team of architects, acousticians, and other theater designers has been selected, and significant public and private funding has been secured. Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center, Inc. (MKCPAC) was incorporated in October 1999, at which time a separate board of directors was established. In January 2000, MKCPAC received notification from the IRS it was approved as an independent 501(c)(3) public charity.