When the iconic building opens its doors in September 2011, Downtown will witness more than just another entertainment facility, or even a grand hall or arena. Nearby, the Sprint Center operation need not bow to any other location—it was recently designated the nation’s second-busiest venue in terms of performance events—the Kauffman Center will compete on an international stage, not just a national one.

For those who don’t regularly attend the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet or Lyric Opera, all of this may sound like hyperbole. It’s not. If anything, that may be understatement. For the first time in many of our lives, significant audiences around the world will have their eye on Kansas City, and not just for one event.

“The Kauffman Center has the potential to be one of the very finest facilities of its kind on the planet,” said Frank Byrne, executive director of the Kansas City Symphony. “It will bring enormous credit, even glory to Kansas City.”

Perfect Notes

Byrne and others base their estimates on the Kauffman Center’s unique layout, which features two specialized performance halls with state-of-the-art design. Just as the Truman Sports Complex avoided compromise by trying to fit baseball in a football stadium and vice versa, the center’s creators were supported in efforts to create separate stages: the 1,800-seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre and the 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall. To illustrate the difference, Byrne compares the symphony’s current settings at Lyric Theatre and Yardley Hall with its future at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center.

“This (new) room is designed to be the optimal environment for acoustic music,” he explained. “Unlike the other venues in which the symphony performs, the audience will receive 100 percent of the sound.”

Simply Better Sound

That difference won’t be insignificant. Byrne estimates up to 30 percent of the orchestra’s sound is currently lost to audiences, and much of the quality as well. The group now performs in a tall stage house, with the area above the stage used to store sets and other scenery. When the orchestra performs, a portable shell is put in, but such portable devices do not have sufficient mass to adequately reflect the sound energy the orchestra is producing.

“If you’d stand backstage at the Lyric, it’s very loud,” Byrne noted, “but that’s because it’s not being projected to the audience; they don’t hear that. We’re losing almost one-third of the performance.”

With a boost in quality at least equal to the boost in sound level, Byrne and others think Kansas City will literally take center stage to a worldwide audience. Kauffman’s inner workings were designed by acclaimed acoustician, Yasu Toyota, who was quoted as saying that if money were no object, he would construct exactly the size of symphonic hall that he has built in Kansas City.

“I believe it’s going to be the finest on the planet,” Byrne said. “Today, most people look at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Ours has equal, if even slightly more, potential,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

Global Reach

Julián Zugazagoitia, the new director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, also sees the facility’s potential for powering a global spotlight that will shine on Kansas City: “The Kauffman center,” he said, “will be the tipping point.”

A veteran of visual arts organization on four continents, Zugazagoitia knows something about what it takes to get onto that global stage. Kansas City, he says, is “a great city that has an appreciation for classical music with a great symphony. I think under (Conductor) Michael Stern that has really lit up, and it’s hard to imagine what will happen once they start in their new facility.”

In addition to that symphony, other beneficiaries will be the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet.

“It will transform the entire experience for our entire organization and particularly transform the experience for our audiences,” Byrne said. “We will have a dramatically improved environment for our musicians to rehearse and perform, and that’s essential to the development of any great orchestra. I cannot tell you how dramatic that will be. Many orders of magnitude.”

Equally important, audiences will experience something well beyond anything heard or seen here previously. “A concert hall becomes part of the instrument that audiences observe in going to a concert,” Byrne said. “The concert hall functions like the lens of a camera, in that it takes the sound the musicians produce and brings it into focus. A great hall can take the product of the musicians and bring it into focus and make it clearer, richer and more immediate.” Another feature is the unique seating: the audience sits on all four sides of the orchestra.

What makes Kauffman stand out is that this level of quality is being built throughout.

Ripples in a Pond

With a main floor and three balconies, Muriel Kauffman Theatre will provide outstanding viewing from every one of its 1,800 seats. Other world-class features include the concert hall’s 5,548-pipe organ, which is also expected to be among the finest in the United States. Even the glass-enclosed Grand Lobby and adjacent parking garage will be top tier.

The result will be something few cities in the world can equal. “This bold, two-hall facility reflects the same concept that went into our two-stadium sports complex,” Byrne said. “Kansas City could have built a single, multiple-purpose hall, but that would not have been distinguished around the nation. It took real vision and courage to build these two halls and make each as perfect as could be. It’s not just beautiful, which it is. It is also an enormous, profound artistic statement about the ambition Kansas City has for itself.”

As dramatic as all this is, other impacts will be significant as well, especially in Greater Kansas City and downtown.

The local arts scene, which has already blossomed in the adjacent Crossroads Arts District, at locations like the Bloch Addition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and other regional settings, will get a boost on steroids when the Kauffman Center opens. Again, this may be an impact few now appreciate.

“More people attend arts functions here than sports venues,” noted Rick Hughes of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association. “A lot of people don’t understand that, but it’s big.”

As Kauffman Center provides this a boost, the impact will fall outside even the area’s many arts circles. “It’s my hope that the facility will get enormous national and international recognition and people from all over the world will want to come to Kansas City to experience this,” Byrne said. “I believe this will solidify Kansas City as a destination for cultural tourism. People can come here, attend a major league sports event, visit the Plaza, then go to the Kauffman Center. I believe it will provide the critical mass to have a profound impact on our region.”

Similar buildings have, in fact, done just that. The Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles had a major effect there, quickly becoming an icon for the city and helping launch changes to the surrounding downtown.

Even more visible is the iconic Sydney Opera House in Australia, which, like Kauffman Center, boasts a dramatic setting for its imposing architecture.

Private Courage

Adding to the center’s special story is its private funding, especially in today’s economic environment. Unlike the Truman Sports Complex, the more recent Sprint Center, or similar efforts across the nation, the Kauffman Center was built through private contributions.

“Disney (Hall, in Los Angeles) is owned by the city and county,” Byrne noted. “But that also means they have a lot of investment in the project and skin in the game. It’s going to be important here for our civic and business leadership to embrace this incredible project for all that it’s worth and to realize what a phenomenal opportunity our region has.”

Many in the community already see that.

“It’s going to be a huge positive,” noted Downtown developer George Birt. “It takes the major public investments that have occurred and really pulls them together. It’s going to create more awareness of Kansas City on a very large scale.”

Ron Coker of Burns & McDonnell, who also serves as vice chair for the Downtown Council, agreed. “The performing arts center is really a venue that can set Kansas City apart from many urban areas in the country. The great thing is, it’s not the only amenity Downtown. It’s going to add to the wonderful setting we have.”

Hughes sees it as an unqualified boost to the community. “All eyes in the world will be on us,” he said. “We’re really excited to see the impact that’s going to have.”

This dramatic change in Kansas City’s artistic assets, though, comes in tandem with some requirements for the community at large.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Byrne concluded. “We cannot fail to swing for the fence on making this a total home run for Kansas City.

“All of the elements are there. But we need everyone singing from the same page and singing loudly … in a chorus of appreciation and praise about this amazing facility.”

«November 2010 Edition