Christy L'Esperance
Community Engagement Specialist & On-Air Host, Classical KCKansas City native Christy L’Esperance (pronounced “LESS-per-ahns") started listening to classical music on the Snoopy radio she got for her 4th birthday. Today, as Classical KC’s Community Engagement Specialist and On-Air Host, she enjoys classical music through much better speakers.
The years between were filled with the adventures of earning a degree in piano performance and pedagogy, working as a classical announcer for Iowa Public Radio and as a classical announcer/producer for Northern Public Radio in Illinois, teaching piano and music composition, performing frequently as an accompanist, and raising a ginormous family with her husband.
You can reach Christy at clesperance@ClassicalKC.org. She would love to hear about the ways you keep music in your life.
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Pianists Mikhail Voskresensky and Stanislav Ioudenitch join Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance for an extended conversation about Mikhail's life and music ahead of his performance in Kansas City. Mikhail shares the story of his harrowing escape during a Nazi attack when he was six years old, and how that experience helped motivate his choice to leave Russia in protest of their 2022 invasion of Ukraine. -
Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance speaks with six time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald about the blurred lines between modern opera and the American musical theater, embracing each performance opportunity and her appearance in Kansas City. We'll hear Audra's rich soprano in works by Leonard Bernstein, John Adams, George Gershwin and more.
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At the cross section of classical piano, environmental activism, arts education and the remote South Pacific island of Rapa Nui — also known as Easter Island — you’ll find the award-winning pianist and humanitarian Mahani Teave. Christy L'Esperance talks with Teave about her work and coming to Kansas City to perform. We'll hear her play traditional melodies from Rapa Nui as well as solo piano works by Bach, Liszt, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.
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Violist Victor Diaz and violinist Jose Ramirez stopped by the Classical KC studio to play Colombian music and to talk about life as international music students in Kansas City.
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"The Sacred Veil" is a collaboration between composer Eric Whitacre and lyric poet Charles Anthony Silvestri that will make its local debut with newly formed chamber choir Sonus. Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance, Silvestri, and Sonus founder Kolby Van Camp discuss the work, the cancer journey of Silvestri's wife, and the thin veil between life and death that touches all of our lives.
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In a fusion of art, live music and narration, works by ground-breaking female artists and composers throughout history will weave together for one fierce evening. Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance speaks with Bach Aria Soloists' Elizabeth Suh Lane and art curator Aimee Marceau DeGalan about the collaborative event.
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This weekend, Opus 76 will join the Kansas City Symphony and Kansas City Ballet for a performance that challenges preconceived notions about the artform — and involves a fair number of cacti.
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After the death of her son, Tyler Clementi, Jane Clementi founded an organization dedicated to addressing teen bullying and suicide. Through that work, a song cycle was created in Tyler's honor. Hear Christy L'Esperance's conversation with Anthony Edwards, Music Director at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, about this choral tribute.
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This week on the Kansas City Local Feature, we get to know Classical KC's new Community Engagement Specialist and On-Air Host, Christy L'Esperance. We'll learn about her background as a pianist, her large family, and enjoy her quirky sense of humor. Christy has curated a varied program of music that includes works by Maurice Ravel, Anna Clyne, Henry Purcell and Sergei Prokofiev.
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Nicholas Dold, founder of Kansas City Young Chamber Musicians, is adding "chamber music kid" to the typical "band kid" and "orchestra kid" identities. Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance spoke with teenaged members of a chamber trio about music, emotions, and small group collaboration.
