Now in his third year as music director/conductor with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Christopher Kelts is preparing to embark on the orchestra’s 52nd season.

Through his programming, Mr. Kelts has expanded the audience base for the KC Civic Orchestra. He has also expanded the concert season to feature extra “classical” series concerts, an “Encore” holiday concert and educational outreach. The Civic Orchestra, under the baton of Christopher Kelts, invites soloists from all over the United States: from local talent such as guitarist Doug Neidt to internationally acclaimed violinist Mark O’Connor.

In addition to the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Mr. Kelts has been appointed Director of Orchestras at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is also co-artistic director and conductor for the new Springfield (MO) based The Opus 6 Project: a chamber group of musicians devoted to baroque performance practices and the Op. 6 works of Corelli and Handel.

A native of St. Louis, Mr. Kelts has had many opportunities to perform in his home city. He has been the recipient of the “Arts for Life” Award for his musical direction in local theatre, served as guest conductor for the St. Louis Suburban Honors Orchestra and clinician to to many St. Louis School Districts. Kelts has also served as a guest clinician for the Hickman Mills Honors Orchestra (Kansas City) in addition to giving many clinics to local and state wide middle and high schools. He has also served as an adjudicator for the American String Teacher’s Association (ASTA).

Other conducting engagements have included: assistant conductor of the Kansas City Ballet, Chamber Orchestra of the Ozarks and the Urban Cultural Project (Kansas City).

Mr. Kelts completed his formal conducting training at Illinois State University and University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. His teachers have included Glenn Block, Robert Olson and Paul Vermel. While in his studies at UMKC Conservatory, Chris served as the assistant conductor for the Conservatory Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. He maintained the position as Opera conductor of many of the Conservatory’s opera productions. Mr. Kelts has conducted stage productions as: Le nozze di Figaro, Il Ritorno di Ulisses in Patria, Susannah, Pirates of Penzance, Hansel und Gretel, Guilio Cesare, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi and recently premiered Tonatzin. Chris has worked with stage directors, Linda Ade Brand, Marciem Bazell and Richard Gammon.

Not limited to his studies in orchestral conducting, Mr. Kelts formally trained as a violist where he studied at Missouri State University and Illinois State University. Mr. Kelts has ample symphonic experience as a violist. Recent positions have included; Springfield (MO) Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Symphony, Opera of Illinois Orchestra and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra. His teachers have included Amy Muchnick, Kate Hamilton and Karen Tuttle.

For over nine years, Chris has served on the summer faculty for Missouri State University’s String Institute (String Fling) and is conductor for Stringendo-Heartland’s summer Chamber Music festival. Christopher Kelts is a member of the Conductor’s Guild.

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005
By PAUL HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star

In opera, you can hear only so many “La Bohèmes” before you are ready to move on to fresh fare.

On Sunday at the Folly Theater, I found myself fascinated and more than a little amused by Puccini’s early opera “Edgar,” in a shoestring production by the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City.

Despite being the composer’s first completed opera, it is hardly a primitive piece: It predates his “Manon Lescaut” by only four years and “Bohème” by just seven. It contains the Debussian parallel chords and Wagnerian orchestration of the later works, not to mention the ferocious choral climaxes. Its voluptuous vocalism is, if anything, refreshingly unfettered compared to the more mannered restraint of the later works.

The Civic Opera’s “Edgar” won the heart with remarkable solo singing and an inventive stage setup that might prove revelatory for future small-scale opera productions here.

The orchestra was upstage, largely hidden by the stage set — designer Laura Burkhart’s lowlying representation of a wall, a set of glass doors and so forth — and a choir of monks.

This allowed the leads to sing from the stage extension, which thrust them into the audience’s front-and-center view. Three video monitors allowed them to follow conductor Andy Anderson, who was well behind them.

The setup somehow filled the hall with amazingly rich sound. From the balcony, I heard a blend between soloist and orchestra that was as fine as you get in any theater in Kansas City.

Granted, the performance remained earthbound by marginal choral males and unpredictable orchestral playing by the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. And the supertitles were so faint as to be unreadable, leaving us to rely on our college Italian.

But none of this obscured the fine solo performances. Bruce Burstert as the hotheaded Frank sang with a warm, mellow sound. Robert Grady in the title role belted out the high notes, at least, with precision, and commanded the part despite some lack of vocal support, which might explain why his voice was failing by Act 3. Phil Eatherton showed off a highly polished voice in the small role of Gualtiero.

Stacey Stofferahn Uthe’s focused, penetrating voice made her ideal for the torchy Gypsy

Tigrana. Act 3 belonged to Megan King as Fidelia, which she inhabited with a sparkling, textured soprano and a mature dramatic grasp.

The Civic Opera continues to take risks and to score marginal successes despite its use of volunteer performers. For a few dollars more, the company could easily pass into the ranks of truly significant local arts groups.

By PAUL HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star

Even those with a casual acquaintance with opera have probably seen or heard something from Puccini’s “Tosca,” “Madama Butterfly” or “La Boheme.”

But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, even opera fans, who have seen the composer’s “Edgar” on the stage.

This week Kansas Citians will have a chance to see Puccini’s first completed opera, a youthful morsel with flashes of the greatness that would bloom in later verismo masterpieces.

At 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Folly Theater, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City opens its 21st season with “Edgar.” Andy Anderson is conductor and stage director of this semi-staged production.

“It’s a love triangle. Actually it’s a love square,” Anderson said of the story. “Boy and girl are in love, but boy (Edgar) has loved another girl before that. And the girl has loved others, too.

Several others. It happens that the boy’s best friend, Frank, is in love with the girl he loved earlier.”

And on it goes. “It’s very Carmenesque,” Anderson said.

The musical language, he added, is that of the Wagner and Verdi that the young Puccini was hearing at the time.

“In a lot of ways, it’s the Puccini that we’ve come to know, with a twist.” The female lead sings in a florid bel canto style, he said, while the other characters are more in keeping with the later Puccini.

“The orchestra is thick and lush, like all his other operas,” Anderson said. This “Edgar” marks the inaugural collaboration between the Civic Opera Theater and the Civic Orchestra of Kansas City, which Anderson also directs.

The cast includes Robert Grady in the title role, Bruce Burstert as Frank, Megan King as Fidelia, Stacey Uthe-Stofferahn as Tigrana and Phil Etherton as Gualtiero, the father.

Tickets cost $18 ($15 for students and seniors, $10 for persons in groups of six or more). Call (816) 235-6222.