About 7,000 volunteers and patrons traveled to a pasture on Saturday, June 11, near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas to listen to the Kansas City Symphony perform at the 11th annual Symphony in the Flint Hills.
As the sun began to set Saturday evening the crowd's attention was diverted to the co-stars of the outdoor concert: cows. Volunteer ranchers on horseback herded brown, white and black cattle across the bright green grassy hill behind the Symphony stage.
Beth Harshfield is a board member of Symphony in the Flint Hills, Inc., the non-profit that plans the event. She said that the weather can be a factor, but "recently, it's dried out, and everything has just been in our favor."
The next Symphony In The Flint Hills is scheduled for June 10, 2017 at Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County, Kansas, but there will be a different conductor.
Associate conductor Aram Demirjian told the crowd on Saturday that this was his last concert leading the Kansas City Symphony. Demirjian was recently named the new music director of the Knoxville Symphony, an orchestra based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Hannah Copeland is an announcer and reporter for KCUR 89.3. Reach her on Twitter @hannahecopeland.
