History
Guest Stars Placido Domingo and Itzhak Perlman Will Perform At Opening Galas
Greater Kansas City Invited to Special Community Day
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a new center for music, opera, theater, and dance, will open in downtown Kansas City, Missouri September 16-18, 2011 with a weekend of celebration. The Kauffman Center will host back-to-back Grand Opening galas to inaugurate its two new performance halls, bringing legends Placido Domingo and Itzhak Perlman to Kansas City on the evenings of Friday, September 16 and Saturday, September 17, 2011, respectively. The opening weekend will culminate with a community day on Sunday, September 18 featuring performances on the stages of the Kauffman Center’s new houses: the Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall.
Designed by architect Moshe Safdie, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will present a wide spectrum of entertainers and performances from around the world, including classical, pop, and jazz music, ballet and contemporary dance, Broadway productions, comedy shows and more. It will also be the performance home to three of the region’s leading performing arts organizations—Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. The Kauffman Center will be one of the most technically and architecturally advanced performing arts centers in the nation, allowing its resident companies and presenters to stage more sophisticated work, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and foster the cross-fertilization of the companies’ audiences. The 285,000 square-foot facility will include two separate halls: the 1,600 seat Helzberg Hall and the 1,800 seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre—both housed within a dramatic overarching shell featuring a glass roof and glass walls. The Brandmeyer Great Hall will provide sweeping views of Kansas City.
The Kauffman Center’s Grand Opening events are designed to showcase the capabilities of the Center’s two venues, Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall. The weekend will kick off on Friday, September 16 with a tribute to the center’s late namesake, Muriel McBrien Kauffman. The gala evening will feature a range of performances from opera to Broadway, headlined by world-renowned tenor and musician Placido Domingo, making his first appearance in Kansas City. The Center’s three resident companies, the Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, will all take part in the program. The celebration will continue Saturday, September 17 in Helzberg Hall with a concert to showcase the acoustics of the new hall, featuring a special guest appearance by virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony, conducted by Music Director, Maestro Michael Stern.
On Sunday, September 18, the Kauffman Center will open its doors to the community, hosting a series of short, family-friendly performances throughout the afternoon in both halls. Tours of the Center, including opportunities to see backstage areas, will give visitors a rare sneak peek behind the scenes. “We can hardly wait to welcome the Kansas City community into the Kauffman Center and invite individuals and families from across the region to take part in our opening,” said Jane Chu, President and CEO of the Kauffman Center. “We are thrilled that two of the classical music world’s most acclaimed and beloved artists will be here to perform as part of the festivities, and we look forward to the opportunity to show off both the beauty and enhanced capabilities of our new performance halls. This is a great moment that we’ve all been waiting for.”
“I know mother would be proud to welcome the entire community to take part in these joyous opening celebrations,” said Julia Irene Kauffman, Chairman of the Board of the Kauffman Center and Chairman/CEO of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation. “The new performing arts center is a wonderful expression of her sense of civic responsibility and a gift that will keep on giving for generations to come.”
“When Mark and I married 12 years ago,” Susan shared recently, “I started engaging him in the arts activities I enjoyed. Soon, attending the theater, ballet and the symphony became activities we enjoyed regularly together.” Susan quickly added that Mark didn’t require much convincing; business interests earlier in his life just took most of his attention. Now that he’s sold his business and retired, the arts fit right in.
Mark and Susan Susz’s introduction to the Kauffman Center came through good friends Tom and Linda Beal. “We had heard bits and pieces about a new performing arts center, but no one had really filled us in,” Susan recalls.
That issue was remedied when the Beals invited them to lunch with Julia Irene Kauffman along with a small group of potential supporters. “We were immediately impressed,” Susan shared. Mark and Susan liked the idea of Kansas City getting high-quality performance spaces for the groups they enjoyed. “Plus, we were wowed by the emphasis on quality. There was so much attention being placed on acoustics and technical excellence,” Susan added.
Later, Mark and Susan met with President & CEO Jane Chu and began to talk about a contribution to the center. After reviewing a range of naming opportunities available to donors, Mark and Susan decided to fund and name three items within the Kauffman Center, including a glass elevator that is set prominently in the grand gallery.
“I liked the centrality of this special elevator and its graceful design,” Mark said. “Funding the elevator also seemed to have a nice synergy with our personal interest in getting more people to arts performances.” Susan says that the location of the Kauffman Center is so prominent that people will easily find their way from the highway loop to the center. “Then the elevator will whisk them away to a delightful experience. I’m looking forward to everything about it,” she concludes.
Few families in Kansas City can trace their theater and arts connections back as far as Dick Durwood. “Around 1915 or so, my father and his two brothers rewrote Shakespearean plays in ‘shirt-sleeve English,’ then they sold tickets to their performance of the plays they held in traveling tent shows around the Midwest,” Durwood says. The brothers hadn’t graduated from high school, but they found a way to make Shakespeare accessible and become theatrical entrepreneurs.
From there, Dicks’ father joined Paramount Theatres and eventually went on his own to found Durwood Theatres. It was the beginning of a storied family history in the movie business – one that included an office in Kansas City’s Film Row, the invention of the multiplex theater concept and beyond.
Wife Maureen says that getting involved in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts was inevitable against this backdrop – especially when combined with her own lifetime love of the arts. Maureen shares, “The moment we moved to Kansas City, I become involved with the Symphony and the Opera.” All of which has culminated in a generous gift to the Kauffman Center capital campaign. Dick and Maureen have selected the gift shop as their naming opportunity.
“We also had a close relationship with Ewing and Muriel,” Maureen says. “Muriel would call us at 10 p.m. and ask what we were doing.” Soon afterward she and the Durwoods would be down at Alameda Plaza, listening to piano music late into the night. “Helping Julia Irene build this center, in honor of her mother, is important to us.”
Maureen, who serves as vice president on the boards of both the Kansas City Symphony and the Lyric Opera, explains that she and Dick are both huge music fans — and their love isn’t limited to the classics. As they travel, they seek out the arts and incorporate them into their experiences. “It’s worth noting,” she explains, “that when we were in Australia and New Zealand, the first thing the locals showed us were their performing arts venues and productions. That’s going to happen here with the Kauffman Center, and Dick and I want to be a part of showing off Kansas City to the world.”
The Durwoods also enjoy shopping in the cities they visit. “I seek out museum gift shops when we travel,” Maureen admits. “They often have high quality, specialty items that become memories of the city we’ve enjoyed. We want to be the couple that helps visitors enjoy the arts and take home a piece of Kansas City,” says Maureen.
When asked what impresses them about the Kauffman Center, the Durwoods say “everything.” Both mentioned the incredible attention to detail and the talented team developing the project. But they also appreciate the intimacy that will occur because of the way seating is arranged. “I think that, when you sit in the concert hall, for example, it will feel like the orchestra is playing just for you,” Maureen says.
And Dick mentions the experience for the audience, “In my business the customer was king, and we did everything we could to treat them royally. I think audiences are going to have an excellent experience here. Even parking is going to be easy.”
Maureen adds, “Just the way the Kauffman Center will gather everyone together around the arts, and mingle them together comfortably, in that big lobby will be a new experience for Kansas City. We can’t wait.”
Honor Someone Special with a Space in the Kauffman Center
As you begin to think about holiday gifts, here are two unique ways to honor someone special. “Consider this an engraved invitation to anyone in the community to step forward and make a lasting imprint on this historic place,” says Jane Chu, President and CEO of the Kauffman Center.
Name a Seat
The 3,400 seats in the Kauffman Center’s two performance halls will be so special they ought to come with their own names inscribed. And, indeed, that’s exactly how you can become an integral part of this special moment in the cultural history of Kansas City. For a donation to the Kauffman Center of $2,500 to $10,000 (payable over multiple years), you can put a name on a seat. Simply print the attached form, fill it out and send it in along with your contribution.
The names donors choose will be permanently engraved on plaques embedded in the arms of the seats. They say that someone cared enough to make a lasting impression on the cultural landscape of a great city.
Attach a Special Greeting
And speaking of caring enough … now donors have a new way to acknowledge those they honor. Through a partnership with Hallmark Cards, a greeting card has been developed to accompany a gifted seat. “The card has a lovely watercolor rendering of the Kauffman Center and a message to the honoree,” says Chu. “When it’s opened, the recipient will be greeted with music from the Kansas City Symphony.”
A Gift for a Special Child in your Life
The Kauffman Center is providing parents, grandparents or anyone with a special child in their life the opportunity to give a personal gift that lasts a lifetime and also gives back to the community. The Children’s Wall is a unique donor recognition project that allows children to literally leave their handprint as a lasting impression on a landmark building. For a $1,000 donation per handprint, a child, grandchild or a youngster who deserves some special recognition can be honored. Simply fill out the attached form.
Colorful reproductions of the handprints will be artistically arranged near the escalators that rise to the majestic glass lobby of the Kauffman Center. Each handprint is personalized with a child’s name and the year the print was made.
To learn more, message contact@kauffmancenter.org.
In 2002, both the Kansas City Power and Light District and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts were still on the drawing boards when leaders of both organizations came together to discuss common interests in downtown development.
A bit later, Julia Irene Kauffman and new KCP&L Chairman Mike Chesser sealed a partnership that will shed light on performances in both Kauffman Center halls. KCP&L’s leadership believes, “The economic development potential of the Kauffman Center made it a strong charitable investment for the company.”
KCP&L has made a significant gift to the Kauffman Center’s capital campaign and has selected naming rights for, appropriately enough, a number of lighting features in both halls.
Their contribution supports concert lighting for the stage in the concert hall, performance lighting instruments in the proscenium theatre and a range of other critical equipment including followspots, canopy lighting and stage work lights. In addition, KCP&L’s Energy Solutions staff worked closely with Kauffman Center designers in planning energy components of the building.
In 2007, KCP&L formally became the signature sponsor for Downtown’s new entertainment district. Monies from the naming rights will be used to provide free community events and educational opportunities within the district. The KCP&L clock tower is already in place. The company has also placed an energy producing, helix-shaped wind turbine nearby with a colorful electronic LED display that lights up when energy is being produced by the turbine.
Investing in Downtown revitalization is an important part of KCP&L’s overall community strategy. Both the Kansas City Power & Light District and the Kauffman Center believe that people will be drawn to all the amenities, both before and after an arts event. In addition, they both contribute to workforce development and give area children a great place to experience the arts, two priorities for KCP&L’s charitable giving.
KCP&L was also interested in the Kauffman Center’s environmentally friendly features. The parking structure to the south will be covered by a “green roof”—literally. Landscaping above the garage not only provides a friendlier view, but reduces the effect of urban heat islands (that would be caused by surface lot parking). There is also a green roof north of the facility, at ground level, between the building and the street. A radiant heating and cooling system delivers heating and cooling only where it is needed and reduces the need for fan energy. Airside economizers allow outside air, when conditions permit, to naturally cool the interior zones.
“We are thrilled to have KCP&L support the Kauffman Center,” says Jane Chu, president and CEO of the performing arts center. “Their commitment to downtown is substantial and provides a great model for other businesses to follow.”
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