Music

The National Endowment for the Arts has pulled $85,000 in funding for the Art as Mentorship nonprofit and its Celebrate AMERI'KANA Music and Arts Festival, which is scheduled for July.

From small-town Missouri to sold-out shows across the country, honestav is amassing a loyal fan base of listeners who see their own struggles reflected in his raw, unfiltered songs about addiction, mental health and getting better.

The bells will be ringing in Lawrence this week. The country’s top carillon players are flying in this week to play the carillon at the University of Kansas.

Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit often go home sooner when they have access to music therapy. UMKC is one of only a few institutions nationwide that offers training to students in music therapy for premature babies.

Indie rock band Hembree got its start in Kansas City, and will always call the town home — even after moving to Los Angeles and releasing their latest album "Better Days." The group returns to town this Saturday, June 14 to play Boulevardia.

Out of the 7,500 musicians who entered NPR's Tiny Desk Contest this year, these Kansas City musicians stood out for their world-class songwriting and engaging performances. You may even get to see them perform around town soon.

Just like the classical masters before them, Kansas City composers use local landscapes as inspiration for their work. And, as temperatures warm up, local musicians find new, open-air venues for their performances.

After years of rejection, Overland Park native Shelby Floyd felt her dreams come true as she won the HBO Max reality competition show "Second Chance Stage." The singer-songwriter taps into the highs and lows of her journey in her first single "Sad Girl Spring."

Kansas City artist Paris Williams has been writing songs since he was 13. His music is a blend of the rap and R&B he listened to with his parents, and the indie, pop and punk his classmates listened to growing up in Muskegon, Michigan. You can hear him perform later this month at Manor Fest.

Buying a new band or orchestra instrument could get a lot more expensive. Kansas City business owners who import musical instruments have been hit hard by on-again, off-again tariffs with Europe and China, and the path forward remains unclear.

On Wednesday, April 30, the Count Basie Orchestra will celebrate 90 years swinging at the Kansas City Music Hall. "Everybody in the orchestra will be featured. And we'll just be doing what Mr. Basie began in 1935," director Scotty Barnhart told Up To Date.

Gospel Music Hall of Fame leaders hope to expand the museum from one building to a plaza, according to the first draft of a proposed master plan. Last year, former Missouri Gov. Mike Parson approved $2 million to go toward developing the museum.