Enjoy Labor Day Weekend with a FREE Kansas City Symphony Concert in Shawnee Mission Park (Kansas City, MO) -- For the 28th year, the Kansas City Symphony will perform a free Labor Day Weekend concert at The Theatre In The Park inside Shawnee Mission Park, 7710 Renner Road in Shawnee, Kansas on Saturday, September 4 at 7pm. The Symphony's Associate Conductor Steven Jarvi will lead a program celebrating American music -- from The Sound of Music to Spiderman. Patrons are encouraged to bring their family, friends, lawn chairs and blankets for an evening of music under the stars. Coolers and picnic baskets with outside food and drink are permitted, and refreshments will also be sold on site. Please, no glass containers, alcohol or pets. The parking lot will open at 4:30pm, with gates opening at 5:00pm. Kids will enjoy the Symphony's Instrument Petting Zoo beginning at 5:30pm , where trained musicians help youngsters try their hands at a variety of orchestral instruments . This free community concert has become a favorite holiday weekend event, with over 6,000 attending in 2009. For additional information, please visit www.kcsymphony.org. Media Sponsor: 98.1 KUDL-FM About the Conductor: Steven Jarvi Described as an "eloquent and decisive" conductor by the Wall Street Journal and praised for his "uncommonly expressive and detailed" performances by the Miami Herald, Steven Jarvi is recognized as a dynamic talent with an equal passion for the concert hall and the opera house. Mr. Jarvi returns to the Kansas City Symphony for his third season. Recently the winner of the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, he came to Kansas City after spending several years as the Conducting Fellow with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach and as an Associate Conductor for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center. As Associate Conductor, Mr. Jarvi leads the Kansas City Symphony's Family, Young People's, Pops and Chamber Players concerts along with selected classical performances throughout the season. In the spring of 2010, he made his official Classical Series debut after filling in the previous season on short notice with violinst Midori, as Music Director Michael Stern awaited the birth of his second child. A frequent performer with the New World Symphony, Mr. Jarvi has shared subscription concerts in Miami with Michael Tilson Thomas, Roberto Abbado, Marin Alsop, Mark Wigglesworth and Alasdair Neale, conducted on the NWS Charles Ives: In Context Festival and developed and led the orchestra's popular Concerts for Kids and Symphony with a Splash. Mr. Jarvi has also served as a cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic as a competitor in the 3rd Sibelius International Conducting Competition in Helsinki, Finland. At the age of 21, he traveled to Austria at the invitation of Claudio Abbado for observation and study with the maestro and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Easter Festival. He was later selected by former New York Philharmonic Music Director, Kurt Masur, to appear on a concert with Masur at Manhattan School of Music as part of a week long master class. In 2005, as the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Jarvi was one of two conductors selected to study under Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera Music Director, James Levine, and conducted critically praised performances with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A frequent performer of new music, he has collaborated with many of the world's most celebrated composers including Henri Dutilleux, John Adams, John Zorn, Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Mackey, Jennifer Higdon and Leon Kirchner, has conducted at Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music, and has led performances at New York City Opera's annual VOX Festival Showcasing American Composers. Mr. Jarvi was the first conductor ever invited to be a member of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Kennedy Center's Washington National Opera, a position he was personally selected for by Plácido Domingo. He has held conducting positions for over 30 opera productions with companies including the Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, Baltimore Lyric Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn and Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble in New York City. Raised in Grand Haven, Michigan, Mr. Jarvi holds a Bachelor's of Music Theory from the University of Michigan where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler, Martin Katz and Jerry Blackstone, along with a Master's Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Gustav Meier. About the Kansas City Symphony Led by Music Director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony's 80-member orchestra performs more than 50 concerts on three series (Classical, Family, Pops) during its 42-week season, September through June. In addition, the Symphony performs non-series concerts such as Bank of America Celebration At The Station and Symphony In the Flint Hills, educational programs, community outreach performances, and serves as the orchestra for the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet. Classical performances are broadcast weekly on KCUR 89.3 FM during the Kansas City Symphony Hour, Thursdays at 9 pm. Visit the Kansas City Symphony online at kcsymphony.org .
Megan Felling | Marketing Coordinator
Kansas City Symphony
(816) 218-2621
mfelling@kcsymphony.org
CONCERT DETAILS & TICKETS: www.kcsymphony.org | 
