Category: Wyandotte County

Two free concerts planned Sunday, Dec. 4, and Tuesday, Dec. 13, by KCKCC music department

Two upcoming concerts will celebrate the end of the semester at KCKCC.

The KCKCC Chamber Choir will perform the Winter Choral Concert, “Don’t Give Up,” at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building, Community Christian Church, 4601 Main St. in Kansas City, Missouri. The church is on the Country Club Plaza.

The concert is a vocal showcase of a variety of music expressing the palette of the human condition, joy, sorrow, hope, laughter and beauty.

The concert will feature two guest artists, who both serve on the voice faculty at KCKCC, Lauren Auge, soprano, and Julia Scozzafava, mezzo-soprano. The choir will perform works by Whitacre, Pedersen, Esenvalds, Parker-Shaw, Mealor and a new commission by Michael Engelhardt and Robert T. Gibson.

The second concert is the KCKCC Jazz Showcase at The Blue Room, which is in the American Jazz Museum, 1616 E. 18th St. in Kansas City, Missouri. It is from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Dec. 13. The concert will feature the four student ensembles attending and performing at the National Conference of the Jazz Education Network in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 4-7.

The showcase will feature the Blue Devil Funk Band, Advanced Jazz Combo and two student vocal jazz ensembles – Fusion and The Standard. The event is sponsored by the KCKCC Student Chapter of the Jazz Education Network.

Both concerts are free and open to the public, but donations will be taken for the department’s upcoming travel this spring.

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BPU plans budget review meeting Monday, Dec. 5

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities will review the 2023 proposed budget during an all-day workshop to be held Monday, Dec. 5.

The workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the BPU administration building, 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

The workshop will include budget reviews for all departments and divisions, including the election production; accounting and finance, general management, customer service, information technology, water, electric operations and electric supply divisions.

The final budget will be presented to the BPU board for approval during the Dec. 14 BPU board meeting, according to a BPU spokesman.

The public may access the meeting through the telephone to listen, and if they have access to the internet, they can click on a Zoom meeting to observe the meeting.

To join the Zoom meeting, persons may click on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84523139724.

To join by telephone, call toll-free 1-888-475-4499.

The meeting ID number is 845 2313 9724.

For BPU meeting information, visit https://www.bpu.com/About/MediaNewsReleases/BPUBoardtoReview2023ProposedBudget.aspx.

Zusi, Espinoza and Fontas sign again with Sporting KC

Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza and Andreu Fontas have signed contracts again with Sporting Kansas City, according to an announcement Friday from the club.

One-year contracts went to Zusi and Espinoza, while Fontas received a two-year contract, according to a Sporting KC spokesman.

Sporting KC now has a roster of 26 players heading into 2023 competition, which begins the last weekend of February, a spokesman stated.

Graham Zusi (File Sporting KC photo)

Zusi has spent his 14-year career at Sporting and won four major championships for Kansas City, including the 2013 MLS Cup and three U.S. Open Cup titles. He is Sporting’s all-time appearance leader with 395 matches played in all competitions, including 341 in the MLS regular season and 20 in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

He was the first MLS player in history to play all 14 seasons with one club.


Roger Espinoza (File Sporting photo)

A 13-season veteran at Sporting, Espinoza is one of the league’s longest-serving midfielders. He helped lead the club to three U.S. Open Cup championships and nine playoff appearances.

A 2012 MLS All-Star, Espinoza has logged 316 regular season appearances since joining KC in 2008, the third most all-time among one club MLS players behind Zusi and Portland midfielder Diego Chara.

Espinoza leads Sporting with 24 appearances in the U.S. Open Cup. Espinoza began his professional career in Kansas City as a 2008 MLS SuperDraft selection out of Ohio State University.

Andreu Fontas (Sporting KC photo)

Fontas, who arrived in Kansas City in 2018, has been a backline staple for Sporting over the last two seasons. The Spanish center back has started in 62 of the club’s 70 MLS matches since 2021, flourishing as one of the league’s best ball-playing defenders.

In the previous two seasons combined, Fontas leads MLS in total passes, successful passes and touches while also leading the team in interceptions and clearances. He has finished back-to-back campaigns ranking in the top 10 of MLS in goals added, an advanced metric that measures a player’s total on-ball contribution in attack and defense.

Fontas earned Sporting’s Defender of the Year award for the second straight season in 2022, finishing the campaign with starts in 31 of 32 appearances across all competitions.

He helped the club reach the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals, starting in all four matches of the tournament run, and bagged goals in consecutive matches for the first time in his professional career by scoring at Austin FC on Aug. 13 and against the Portland Timbers on Aug. 21.

A native of Banyoles, Spain, Fontas developed in FC Barcelona’s famed La Masia youth academy.