City Comes to Country: Symphony performs in the Flint Hills
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
People from the city who wanted to enjoy the wide open spaces and awe-inspiring vistas of the rolling Flint Hills of Kansas got their fill Saturday at Symphony in the Flint Hills.
An 80-member orchestra and a 100-member chorus from Kansas City performed at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City.
Now in its 10th year of existence, the 11,000 acre national park is the former Spring Hill/Z Bar Ranch located two miles north of U.S.-50 on K-177.
The event attracted more than 6,500 people and was served by more than 500 volunteers from throughout Kansas and other parts of the country.
Local volunteers included Aaron Allen, Harry and Margie Bennett, Dick and Patty McLinden, and Jim and Joan Donahue.
Although the concert was an evening performance, the event was an all-day affair.
At ranch headquarters, an art auction was held and house tours were conducted. Living history programs included information on quilting, blacksmithing, heritage cooking, and roping.
The concert site itself was one mile into the prairie from the headquarters. Motorized transportation was provided on a one-lane gravel road, but many chose to walk the Wildflower Trail to the site, which was located on a hill overlooking the vast prairie.
A virtual tent city had been erected to provide places for relaxation, food and drink, and educational seminars on prairie plants, Flint Hills geology, history of cowboys and ranching, prairie birds, and modern-day ranching.
While children flew kites which danced high in the sky, many took covered wagon rides across the lush, grass-covered hills.
Long lines formed to obtain a barbecue dinner and buy large cookies. Beer and wine also were available along with bottled and free water.
At 6 p.m., the Kansas City Symphony and Kansas City Symphony Chorus joined forces with the eight-member Paul Winter Consort to perform "Grasslands: Prairie Voices," composed by Eugene Friesen.
The music wasn't what one normally would expect from an orchestra. Built around the familiar anthem, "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow," and interspersed with narration, it was primitive and folksy, celebrating the life of the prairie from its creation to the present.
The performance, as excellent as it was, was dwarfed by the magnificent beauty of the natural surroundings. As the concert drew to a close, a couple of cowboys brought a herd of cattle into view on a distant hillside, where they grazed contentedly.
By the time people had returned to their cars, the sun had set on another day in the beautiful Flint Hills.
Vickie Kraus of Marion, whose husband is a cattleman, attended the concert.
"I was so thrilled to think that I get to live in this kind of environment every day," she said.
Preceding the concert, Governor Kathleen Sebelius, honorary chairman of the event and chairman of the Kansas Park Trust, addressed the crowd.
"What a wonderful way to enjoy this area of Kansas and to introduce it to other Kansans and the whole world," she said.
She credited former governor Mike Hayden and former Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker with helping to make the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve a reality.
Symphony in the Flint Hills, Inc., envisions the 2006 event to be the first in an annual series of concerts to be held in different locations throughout the Flint Hills. The 2007 concert is expected to be held in Wabaunsee County.
