Kansas City Symphony musicians perform in the orchestra’s new Mobile Music Box trailer.
“Even before COVID-19 struck, Kansas City Symphony Executive Director Danny Beckley was preparing initiatives to tackle what he sees as long-term challenges for the Kansas City Symphony,” writes Patrick Neas in Friday’s (10/23) Kansas City Star (MO). “The pandemic has allowed him to accelerate his plans…. Beckley believes the symphony needs to bring music to the people…. Thus Mobile Music Box was born. ‘We had the idea to go into every community in Kansas City, all 150 ZIP codes of the metro area, with an in-person performance,’ Beckley said.… Beckley found a trailer manufacturer in Indiana to build a custom-designed portable stage…. The Kansas City Symphony has given 70 different Mobile Music Box performances since Labor Day. ‘Our typical season is 130 performances a year,’ Beckley said. ‘We’ve done more than half of that the first six weeks of our fall season. We’re really proud of that…. The people we’re reaching are not the same audience you see in the Kauffman Center. They’re people we’ve never seen before.’ … The Mobile Music Box concerts will continue this year as long as the weather allows…. Beckley is working on other projects designed to appeal to Gen X and younger audiences.”
