Dance Mix

Don’t miss the Homecoming Dance! Our opening night of the season will be a joyful celebration of thrilling dance rhythms to usher in our new year. There will be orchestral fireworks with Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet score and you’ll have a hard time not dancing along to Marquez’s Danzon No. 2. We will also feature a true star soloist — virtuoso violinist Rachel Lee Priday will thrill you with sultry, ecstatic, and spectacular dances for violin and orchestra.

Arturo Marquez — Danzon No. 2
Pablo Sarasate — Carmen Fantasy
With Rachel Lee Priday, Violin
Pablo Sarasate — Zigeunerweisen
With Rachel Lee Priday, Violin
Igor Stravinsky — Firebird (1945)

PLEASE NOTE: Masks will be required for all audience members attending this concert.

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Don’t look at your feet! Enjoy an eclectic evening of orchestral and piano show-stoppers, including Dvorak’s high-spirited Slavonic Dances and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s lively Petite Suite de concert. We also welcome to our stage for the first time the wonderful pianist Anna Shelest, who will play two amazing and neglected works for piano and orchestra — Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Cecile Chaminade’s Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — Petite Suite de concert
Antonin Dvorak — Slavonic Dances, Op.46
Clara Schumann — Piano Concerto
With Anna Shelest, piano
Cecile Chaminade — Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra
With Anna Shelest, piano

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For the Capitol Federal® Holiday Concert we’ll be right en pointe for the holiday season with music from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. This ballet has become a beloved part of the season and it is especially thrilling to hear this music played by a full symphony orchestra. Our Holiday concert is always one of our biggest hits of the season, and this year will be no exception! Get your tickets early so you won’t miss your seasonal favorites and a return of our audience carol sing!

Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky  — Nutcracker Selections
With the K-State Tap Dance Ensemble
Other holiday favorites

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We’ll start off 2022 with an intimate concert of romantic and soulful dances, including Gabriella Lena Frank’s flirtatious Conqesteos from Leyendas and William Grant Still’s transcendent and enchanting Summerland. The Topeka Symphony’s wind section will get a chance in the spotlight with Dvorak’s Serenade for Winds, and the string section is featured in Benjamin Britten’s playful Simple Symphony, full of dance-motifs and charm.

Gabriella Lena Frank  — Coqueteos — from Leyendas
William Grant Still  — Summerland
Benjamin Britten — Simple Symphony
Antonin Dvorak — Serenade for Winds

Concert Sponsor: Stormont Vail Health

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The Pas de Deux is a grand duet — a love story in ballet form — and at this concert we present the epic love story of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. Gorgeous and lush, this orchestral masterpiece tells an impressionistic story. We are also excited to present American composer Amy Beach’s courtly and elegant Bal Masque for the first time in Topeka. Our soloist David Briggs is one of the preeminent organists of our time, and we are pleased to feature him playing his own organ concerto on the magnificent organ in White Concert Hall.

Amy Beach — Bal Masque
David Briggs — Organ Concerto
Maurice Ravel — Daphnis and Chloe

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At our final masterworks concert of the year, we bring Europe’s many dance traditions together. You’ll hear a traditional elegant, swirling Viennese Waltz, by Johann Strauss, Jr., who was, of course, the “Waltz King.” You’ll enjoy the exciting performance of our Young Artist Competition winner. We conclude our concert with Mahler’s epic First Symphony, which includes foot-stomping dances and yodeling that Mahler had already put to good use in one of his first songs, Hans und Grete. “Dance around, around!” the song goes. “Let whoever is happy weave in and out! Let whoever has cares find his way home.”

Johann Strauss, Jr. — Voices of Spring Waltz
Young Artist Competition Winner
Gustav Mahler — Symphony No. 1 — The Titan

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An Evening of Flamenco Dance with Ensemble Iberica

We will finish our season of dance music with a Spanish flourish! Join us for a thrilling evening of Flamenco music with Kansas City’s own Flamenco group Ensemble Iberica.  Hear the rhythms and melodies of Spain as the orchestra is joined by guitar, percussion, and vocals.  Watch as the drama of the Flamenco dance is brought to our stage.  It will be a great way to cap a season of Dance Mix! 

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