THEATRE KANSAS

TO THE STARS: The Ad Astra Music Festival founder Alex Underwood had a vision.

In the month of July, his hometown of Russell, Kansas would be the setting of a music festival over three weekends that would attract both renowned musicians and young prodigies who would present old and new, rather highbrow works that locals could also be part of. The Kansas motto—Ad Astra Per Aspera—seemed a fitting mission statement.

While the vision has been realized, it has been difficult and accomplished through a lot of networking and pavement pounding. But the result is that each July the stars align in this prairie town as the Ad Astra Music Festival comes to life.

Theatre Kansas turns to Underwood, the artistic director, to tell the festival’s origin story and talk about the upcoming season.

TK: When did you start the Ad Astra Music Festival and why Russell, KS?

AU: I was born and raised in Russell and taught music at Russell High School for four years. I knew I would be spending the summer of 2014 at home and wanted to fill the summer with a few musical projects. That summer’s concert series was successful at which point we decided to name it the Ad Astra Music Festival and make it an annual affair.

TK: Russell plays a big part in the mounting of this festival. Can you explain?

AU: This festival is a massive undertaking for the people of Russell each summer. Volunteers pitch in by hosting our 40 guest artists, shuttling them to and from the Kansas City or Wichita airports, providing meals, donating gym passes, singing in the community choir, buying a celebratory round of drinks after a concert, ushering, organizing, lending us their performance spaces…..The list really could go on, but the point is, the community of Russell is the reason this festival is a success.

TK: You appear to try to appeal to a diverse audience and use a wide range of musicians. Is that accurate?

AU: Yes! We have singers, pianists, string players, jazz musicians, orchestra members—ranging from high school students, local volunteer musicians, local professional musicians, undergraduates selected from a national search, and professional musicians who work at some of the country’s most renowned performing arts institution. Then, our artistic team creates performances where the musicians can collaborate in different combinations to create impactful experiences for our audiences.

TK: Talk about this season’s offerings.

AU: 1) Our opening concert features our high school honor choir, our community choir, and our professional chamber choir. They’ll sing Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Walzer”(Love Song Waltzes) and Libby Larsen’s “Love Songs.” It’s a charming, light, and wonderful way to kick off our season. It’s also a celebration of choral music—which is central to the festival.

2) Jazz at the Barn. We’ve been doing this for four or five years now and it’s been such a success. Brad Dawson, a Russell native, is a fantastic jazz trumpeter who teaches at FHSU and gigs around the country. He invites four of his friends from the Kansas City jazz scene to collaborate with him on this program. It’s 10 miles out in the country from Russell at Granny Mae’s Barn. We serve popcorn and cocktails and have such a lovely time. It’s always one of our most popular events.

3) Anna Pidgorna is the composer we’re commissioning an opera from to be premiered in the summer of 2021. She was in Russell last summer doing some research and interviews as she and her fantastic sister (librettist) create this work about the life of influential Russell High School art teacher, Trudy Furney. This year, the festival is presenting an afternoon of her work—some of the music I fell in love with which compelled me to approach her about this project. I’m looking forward to sharing that with our community.

4) Each year, the festival selects four undergraduate singers from an international search to live in Russell for the month of July and perform. This year, their feature program explores perspectives from the US Civil War: Whitman and Lincoln texts set to music by living composers Richard Danielpour and Jennifer Higdon as well as songs from the time.

5) This year is the third year we’ve produced a fully staged new opera. We’ve selected Missy Mazzoli’s “Proving Up” about a Nebraska family struggling to prove to the U.S. government that they are capable of homesteading their land and thus obtaining the deed. Many Russell County family farms were acquired through this process. The opera is 65 minutes long and was co-commissioned by Columbia University, the Kennedy Center, and Opera Omaha.

6) Each year, the festival features Katelyn Mattson-Levy, one of my favorite mezzos on the planet who happened to live right here in rural [Sterling] Kansas. We also feature pianist Matthew Piatt who is an assistant conductor at Chicago Lyric and San Francisco Operas and happens to be from rural western Kansas. They collaborated last summer on a short song cycle, and I knew then that we had to pair them for a full concert this year. The program is an exploration of four archetypes of women: maiden, mother, enchantress, crone. Hearing brilliant music performed by unbelievably talented musicians is one of the most exquisite listening experiences and this will be just that.

7) What might be the surprise hit of the season is a performance by Unaccompanied – they’re an a cappella/vocal jazz group who met while students at Northern Arizona University. Some of them have been featured on Pentatonix albums, some are music educators, and some are aspiring opera singers. They arrange all of their own music and sound stunning.

We try to end each season with a big collaborative project. This year, we’re returning to our Handel oratorio series and are producing “Theodora.” It’s slightly obscure, but is a heart-wrenching story of faith and love. Handel’s dramatic genius is on full display setting some of the most sublime arias and thrilling choruses in his whole repertory. And we have world-class Baroque performers in to help this come to life.

9) Our final project of the season is a performance of an early-Baroque funeral work by Heinrich Schütz. We’ll perform this at St. Fidelis Basilica in Victoria—one of the “Seven Wonders of Kansas.”

Each ticket for a main stage event will cost $20, and each ticket for a chamber music event will cost $10. Season passes start at $100.

Visit http://www.adastramusicfestival.org/ for more information on this year’s events and prices.