Joyce DiDonato finds mysticism and Mahler in her hometown concert with KC Symphony

What an auspicious start to the new year. Hometown favorite Joyce DiDonato will join the Kansas City Symphony conducted by its music director Michael Stern for what promises to be a festive yet moving program Jan. 12 to 14 at Helzberg Hall.

The program will begin with “Transplanted Seeds” by local husband-and-wife composers Chen Yi and Zhou Long. The work is inspired by Yi and Long’s experiences as immigrants to America.

Following that opener, DiDonato, the famed mezzo-soprano who grew up in Prairie Village, will join the orchestra for a vocal version of Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question.”

Composed in 1908 but not performed until 1946. “The Unanswered Question” is a mystical work that DiDonato used to open “Eden,” her program celebrating planet Earth, which she performed on the Harriman-Jewell Series in 2022. Here “The Unanswered Question” will serve as a thoughtful introduction to some of Mahler’s most profound music.

First is “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” (“Songs of a Wayfarer”), Mahler’s setting of his own poetry. The music and poetry were the result of Mahler’s failed love affair with the soprano Johanna Richter. Mahler displays his aching heart in songs like “When My Sweetheart Is Married,” which tells of the Wayfarer’s grief at watching his beloved marry someone else. There’s also “I Have a Gleaming Knife,” where the lover compares the torture of unrequited love to having his heart pierced by a knife.

Before DiDonato continues with one of Mahler’s “Rückert-Lieder,” she’ll sing Joel Thompson’s setting of “The Places We Leave,” a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith. Then she’ll sing “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” (I have been lost to the world), one of Mahler’s songs based on the poetry of Friedrich Rückert. With lyrics that should appeal to all of us daydreamers, it’s the portrait of an artist whose true life is lived in the realm of imagination.

To conclude the concert on a festive New Year’s note, the symphony will perform the overture to Johann Strauss’ comic operetta “Die Fledermaus.” As sparkling as a glass of Dom Perignon, “Fledermaus” has been an audience favorite since it was first performed in Vienna in 1874.

8 p.m. Jan. 12 and 13 and 2 p.m. Jan. 14. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. $29-$115. 816-471-0400 or kcsymphony.org.

Bach Aria Soloists

Shakespeare was way ahead of his time. For example, he created some of the strongest and most enduring female characters in all of literature. Bach Aria Soloists will celebrate several of them with “Women of Note in Words and Song” Jan. 13 at the Polsky Theatre at Midwest Trust Center.

Actors from the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival will perform scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, including “Macbeth,” “As You Like it,” “King Lear,”“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Merry Wives of Windsor” and other plays.

Bach Aria Soloists, made up of violinist and founder Elizabeth Suh Lane, keyboardist Elisa Bickers, cellist Hannah Collins and soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson, will perform music by female composers that will complement Shakespeare’s words. A work by the medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen will be featured, along with music by the baroque composers Barbara Strozzi and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. The concert will be a wonderful opportunity to hear brilliant music by unsung composers. Thanks to Bach Aria Soloists for bringing them to our attention.

8 p.m. Jan. 13. Polsky Theatre, Midwest Trust Center, Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park. $35. bachariasoloists.com.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.