You.

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of There's Just Something About Kansas City.

And I have to admit, we're in a different venue than we normally are, and I am way out over my skis today because of this young lady sitting right beside me.

Of course, of course.

It's Joyce DiDonato, Mr. Sweeney, lady and great.

Lady.

Multi Grammy awards.

She's also international opera star.

And I just can't tell you, Joyce, how great it is that I'm sitting here next to you, knowing everything I know about you and the fact that you are just Joyce from Kansas.

So I just love that from privilege.

I'm freaking out because I watched you growing up and it was like, what did the Royals do tonight?

What's Frank got to say about it?

You were such a part of our family growing up, so I'm very excited to to be here.

And I love that you're doing this for Kansas City.

I love that we're getting this kind of snapshot about this amazing, vibrant city that I sort of feel is like finding herself again.

Yeah.

It has.

It's gone through some transitions, even says, I've been here, I've known since 1981, and it has gone through its ups and its ups and downs.

But right now it is phenomenal the the trajectory that this city is on in this part of the state.

I flew in the other day, and I was kind of a little bit jet lagged and I was flying.

I was getting off the plane and I walked in.

I was like, yeah.

And then I went, this is the new airport.

And I knew it was coming and I knew it had been open, but I hadn't sort of put the pieces of the puzzle together.

And I was so proud walking through there.

How often do you get back to KC?

Do you know about last time I was here?

was April, for a slaughtering of the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees.

And, I come back at least once a year.

Okay?

And I've been really always trying to make sure that I, come and sing once a year if I can.

And it's a little tricky because I always wish I had more time around my stops over here, but, But I love it.

And it's always, you know, I get the updates from my family, and I feel like I keep in close touch.

was everybody in the family musical, or was it just you, or was it.

There were several siblings also that were it was a huge musical family, and we had, you know, my brother Paul was in the basement with his friends listening to AcDc and and purple and loving, you know, all of that.

Yeah.

So that was coming from the basement, along with a few other things.

And then, you know, the middle floor was where our piano was.

And my two older sisters both went to college to as a piano performance.

I feel like I was sort of playing the piano before I was almost walking, because I was over there going, what's this do?

And that was there was always this kind of live music happening throughout the house as well.

and my father was working in the office with Dr., you know, playing classical AC yeah, absolutely.

We need that back.

Yeah.

And upstairs, my sister's had her LP and it was Fleetwood Mac and Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel and so we had sort of and cocktail hour on Sunday was big band.

So we had Glenn Miller going right in the middle.

And so there were all these layers constant.

The language of music was always there.

And then my father, you know, on Wednesday nights and on Sunday and especially around Easter and Christmas, it was all about the choir and it had a huge impact on me because it was it's how I experienced sort of the basis of faith and liturgy was through the musical world of it.

and then I went into high school at Bishop age, and my place was in the choir and in the theater department.

You knew that I knew early on.

And that's what you at that point now you're only, you know, 15 years old at that point, 14, 15 years old.

Did you, did you know that was going to be your trajectory for life or you just really enjoyed it?

It was almost like an extracurricular activity, or was it something you had a real passion for it?

I had a real passion, and I knew it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be a part of my life.

I guess what I was certain of at 1617 is that I would be a high school music teacher, a choral teacher, like your sister, like, well, she did, yeah, but like Mr. Wolfe, who was my teacher at Bishop my age, because it was the choir experience there.

It just comes Pletely opened up my worldview.

You know, we were singing in other languages.

We were singing music from two and three centuries before.

We were singing about love and joy and sorrow and death and all of this.

And it was just, it was, a real instrument for me to sort of, during those adolescent years, try to at least feel like I wasn't going off the axis of the earth, that as a human being, I was tethered to something.

There was a bigger human condition at play.

I mean, and I'm putting, you know, a 54 year old sure, look on that.

But it was I think there was something so, profound about that experience that it tethered me into the world when I didn't really know where else my place was.

And it was also community.

It's why I mean, this is maybe for another podcast, but getting, you know, we have sports everywhere in this country, which is great, which is great, but it's competitive and a choir is coming together in a team using your total unique voice, but combining it with others.

You take away your voice and it's not the same choir.

So everybody's needed, but you're working together for something bigger and simply for the joy and the exercise of expressing something.

And sharing it.

Okay.

So here comes the, the pass and pass goes this right on half goes this one path comes back up north and the other path goes.

We don't know where, but where did that all come from and when did you change your mind about what your career was going to be.

So it was as as I did five years at Wichita State, and it was sort of the third year that I was taking voice lessons in order to then teach it, you know, to a core group.

And I was finishing my Ed degree, music ed, and I was getting more and more really fascinated with this classical music vocal.

I would my dad would go to the William Jewell programs.

He'd listen to the Met Opera.

it never really caught me by listening to it.

I didn't really get the opera thing.

I didn't understand.

They were like, oh, I don't know what that is.

but as I was studying the mechanism, the technique of what this is meant to do, and then I was starting to sing music that was really profound and dealing with really the human condition in its essence.

It just sort of lit my world on fire.

And I wasn't particularly good, but there was something in me that I was like, I love this.

And I started getting doing a little bit more work with the opera department, sort of on the side with a fantastic opera director, George Gibson, who was just, a just a mensch in the best way.

And I went through, I got my degree, I did my student teaching at Wichita, and I was in two really, really rough schools, high school in the morning and in an elementary school in the afternoon.

And poor and huge challenges.

And I saw these kids and I just thought, they need great teaching.

I think I have to do this.

And I went to my dad and I I'll never forget I said, dad, I said, I'm really torn because I love being on stage, but I think I need to be in the classroom.

But, I love this.

Growing up Catholic, I thought, I love it must not be good.

You got the guilt comes out okay.

You know, where's the lightning bolt?

In the window?

Totally.

Okay.

Totally.

And, you know, he really gave me the key to opening up the rest of my life.

And he said, Joyce, he said there's more than one way to teach people.

There's more than one way to educate and communicate and reach them.

And that was license for me to follow this thing that I loved.

But he sort of gave me a North Star.

Yeah.

That said, you know, go in that direction, but don't forget, like, why you're doing it.

Yeah.

So dad was very, very influential from a very, very early age.

Right?

Yeah, very much so.

You are a mezzo soprano and believe me, now I'm really out over my skis.

Okay, so you did not start as a mezzo soprano, correct?

Because somewhere along the line, you you had to change because you weren't getting to where you wanted to go.

Right?

So yes.

Yeah, I know this isn't right after college, but you're mid 20s somewhere, right?

20 let's say 26.

Okay.

Yeah.

You're starting to get you're starting to apply and do things and sing or whatever.

And people are saying, nuh Yeah.

100%.

I, I mean, I've always sort of gone into the category of mezzo soprano.

That's just the range of what I sing.

But it was, you know, I would do a big competition and I would come in sixth.

So a little bit of encouragement, but like, not that.

Yeah.

And other people, especially the kind of voice that I have which blooms a little bit earlier than some of the bigger voiced, opera folks, other people were starting to pass me by.

And people, the folks I was studying with just I kind of confounded them.

They didn't know what to do with me, and I still am not sure why I stayed at it, but there was this kind of Irish defiance.

I at it, and I kind of stayed with it.

And at 26 through through hard work.

But a lot of luck as well.

A couple things had to happen for me to end up, I got into a really coveted position at the Houston Grand Opera, as a one of the young artists.

And this is after a couple of years of I got to go a different way here.

I've got to do something else in order to get people's attention.

Well, and this frustration of why don't they see it?

Why don't they get it?

Like everything I have inside of me, why?

Why don't they see it?

Or do you see during auditions, whenever you see somebody else saying, I'm better to you, I'm better than that.

I'm better than that.

In some cases, yes.

I always look at it very objectively, like I can do that better, but I don't have that.

Yeah, okay.

And I would always look like without.

Without.

I thought the more information I have the more I can learn, the more I can improve.

So I never shied away from like that's not like I don't do that.

Well okay.

I need to work on that.

But I do that really well.

I'm going to do that even more.

That kind of thing.

Sure.

Sure.

And it's, it's frightening and it's exhilarating.

and it's frightening.

And then and then it then it exploded.

Then everything for probably at least the next decade or so just really was.

You performed in every with every great symphony orchestra, with every great opera company, in every great venue in the entire world.

So I'm going to ask you a question.

What's your favorite venue you have ever done and operate?

Okay, this is no lie.

I love the Kauffman Center, okay?

And it is really one of the best acoustics in the world.

I can kind of say that, right?

and I love coming home here, and I love that.

and it's also nerve wracking, but I love it.

Yeah.

Because you're home.

Yeah.

They're, you know, there are a few places that are so historic and so, filled with ghosts, but good ghosts of the past.

Carnegie Hall was one of those, the Teatro Colon in Argentina is one of those that you just it's one of those you walk on and you feel everybody that's come before you and you feel the part of the kind of legacy you are a part of.

the concert Gabo and Amsterdam is that I'm I'm, you know, you're standing on the stage where Mahler debuted and conducted some of his symphonies in that space.

And it is, you know, they these feel like temples in a way.

And they are they are.

You're right.

They are.

And you, you just have the sense of, oh, now it's my turn and tomorrow it will be somebody else's turn.

But tonight I have a responsibility, right?

And those are the places I really, I love to be.

Yeah.

That's, That's incredible.

And and, London.

Yeah.

Huge as well.

Huge.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There are, you know, now, I mean, because I've been around a while now, and, you know, I've sung in London a lot, in Vienna a lot.

And, you know, those places that are filled with music all the time, New York, you know, they it's all the time I've started now, making sure I put in my calendar some off the beaten track places.

And in particular, this last year I was in like K2, VK in Poland, I was in Riga in Latvia.

These places that don't always get, you know, that they have three choices on a Friday night about what they want to hear.

And I'm loving singing for these audiences that are so appreciative of something really special coming to them.

Right.

and they're starved for it too.

Yeah.

They want it, they want it and they appreciate it.

They don't take it for granted.

You know, I love London, I love Vienna, but there is a little bit of Paris, you know, like, oh, yeah, who is it tonight?

You know, and it's fine.

And, and, and I love singing there and, and I have a relationship with the audiences that I love.

But there is something exhilarating about singing for people that don't have it all the time.

Yeah.

And you are an activist for all practical purposes.

And, you take that to heart.

I know you, you did, in, in War and Peace after the Paris attacks.

you did that, and that probably touched your heart very much to be able to do that there.

And, you know, in that kind of, situation and one of the last performances there, I mean, then the last performance you ended up talking to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Yes.

After that concert was, what was she like?

And what was that like for you to meet her?

Well, this was a three year project that I did, and it was the first one that I sort of produced and curated.

I was meant to do an entirely different, very operatic program.

And this terrorist attack in 1515 happened in Iran, and it was one of several that had been going on.

And I just thought, when is it going to be enough?

Like, and I my work, my, instrument, the material I work with goes back centuries and it's been singing about the same thing that I was reading in op eds, or that people were protesting about, you know, war.

When is it going to be enough?

Or I want revenge, I want revenge, I want my do or I give up.

I can't take it anymore.

I mean, all these emotions that are around these things, it's been happening for centuries.

And I thought I want to use this music that is that I believe comes from some kind of higher place, you know, Mozart, Handel, Gluck, you know, they were connected to something.

I don't profess to know what it is, but I know it's something bigger than than myself.

And so I put together this program to really go to start in at the time, I think it was 2016 that we launched it or 17.

In the heat of all this chaos and conflict, and to really threw out two hours in the concert hall, go into a place of light deliberately.

And it was really an extraordinary, journey.

And I delivered and we went on four continents.

We went North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.

But I knew I wanted to end in the belly of the beast in DC.

And we went to the Kennedy Center, and it was our last concert.

And Justice Ginsburg came to the concert hall, and the next morning we did was one of her last time.

Yes.

So I thought, and she, she met me walking in as we were going to do the talk in the morning.

And she was very soft spoken.

You had to work very hard to to catch every word because she didn't waste any syllable.

And so I was leaning over and she said, thank you for last night.

For two hours, I forgot about all the briefs sitting on my desk.

That is wonderful.

And that's what it's all about, isn't that is the bottom line for everything that you do?

That is it.

You make people transform, you know, transform from being out here and having all these problems to, yeah, And you also express yourself different ways.

You have song play.

He won a Grammy for song play, but singing jazz and Latin and.

Yeah, you're doing all that sort of thing.

So, you know, you're not just in that one venue.

Use your voice in many, many different ways.

So I mean, regulations on song, thank you.

Which was just incredible.

Yeah.

That's very much a tribute to like my house.

Yeah.

All these different styles of music, you know, that's it's really.

Yeah.

That's what I was born into and I was out there.

Game seven 2014.

You weren't a jinx, okay?

You want to jinx?

Okay.

You sang the national anthem before game seven when they played the Giants, and you could have gotten Madison Bumgarner to stay in the dugout somehow or whatever, but he then he came back out and there was like, last game.

Okay, well, what was that?

What was that being back here and then to sing.

And you love baseball.

To be able to sing here in Kansas City.

The it was just about the most freaking great day of my life.

And it was not even a childhood dream because, I don't know, I just like, who dreamed that it was the coolest thing I mean, I the other thing besides music in my family was the radio and the Royals game.

Sure, every summer and we would get peanuts and listen on the radio.

Matthews Danny.

Matthews, APS.

Amen.

I'll never forget it.

I think it was 1977.

It was the first time we went to a Royals game, all nine of us, which was a big deal.

We were in the last row away up there.

Dennis Leonard was pitching and he was that big.

And we were like, oh, and there was Amos Otis, Cookie Rojas, Darryl Porter ready, Freddie Patek I mean, my sister and I shared a room, and the first thing we would do is get the newspaper in the summer and quiz each other on the box scores.

You know what it how McCray do?

Oh, he went, you know, three for four and well, who was the third baseman?

Oh, yeah.

I forget that guy's name.

Yeah.

What time are you here?

it was five.

I mean, I forget what that kid's name was.

It.

It was just.

That was my first year just getting started.

Yeah.

George Brett was.

He was he was, you know, I mean, yeah, I just I remember all of it.

And Amos Otis was my favorite player.

so his was the jersey that I wore.

I wore his number for the World Series.

I don't know why he was, but he was a John Mayberry that stretch from first base.

You know, I think John's a great guy, too.

Just a good guy.

Tell him I said hi.

I will Hunter Gardner, Joyce and Frank white.

I mean, just yeah, all of it.

And so it was, you know, I'm I'm a fair weather weather Chiefs fan I'll be honest.

Like I love it.

I'm glad when they're doing well.

But like I'm a royals girl.

Yeah.

And it just so when that happened and they were playing so well and it was such a good team that whole thing and, and I just, I loved singing the anthem.

I was nervous, but the best part was being where you have sung in your life, where you've done your operas and you're nervous at the seventh game of the World Series?

Of course I was, but it was arriving at the at the theater, at the stadium before anybody else was there, because you had to get there early for a sound check.

And it was that, you know, they were doing the lawn.

Oh, yeah, all that.

It it was quiet, but you knew that something.

And it was a steady crescendo, the opening and watching them take batting practice and being out on the field with knowing it was coming, and then you start to see them coming.

It was exhilarating and it didn't turn out well, but it turned out well.

The next season, which was, well, the national anthem turned out great.

It was not that it was.

It was not.

That was great.

Okay, so athletes have superstitions.

Know the opera singers have.

Sure.

But I decidedly don't.

Oh, you don't know.

So you have a superstition to not have a superstition.

Oh, you realize that?

You're right, you're right.

No soup.

No, I got a warm up with a certain.

No.

Okay.

Because I it's such a precarious thing that I do.

I mean, we travel all the time.

We're always in different hotels and different warm up rooms and different scenarios.

If I was sort of obsessed with this kind of rigidity, I have to keep myself really, like, fluid.

And then that's where my I guess that's my superstition of like, yeah, whatever.

It's all good.

Yeah, whatever.

I can make it work and try to pretend you're not nurse.

Well, sort of the pretend you don't have a superstition.

And so what you're trying to do is he just.

I like I like feeling like no matter what the situation is, I can, I can I'll be okay.

Okay.

That's kind of where I put the frame of mind I put myself.

And it is interesting because we opened with this.

yeah.

I'm just Joyce from Kansas, and it's to me, it is fascinating.

You have taken this city in this area around the world with you, as you.

I'm Joyce from Kansas, and everybody probably looks at you and all because a lot of these singers come from Paris or they come from Genoa or they come from Argentina.

I said, yeah, but you come from Prairie Village.

Can't this I mean, what do you what do you tell people about this city, Prairie village, growing up here and getting to be.

I brag about it all the time.

I mean, it's very funny because the way it comes to me is sometimes in interviews, people like, oh, but you're from this privilege.

What is this village?

You are from?

it's like it's not really a village, but okay, it's not really a prairie.

You have ze cows here.

All right.

So it's not really come down to running in the streets.

I really like it.

I brag about things like the restaurant scene, the Art Institute.

Yes.

I mean, one of my best friends who runs an orchestra that I work with a lot is a huge art snob.

I mean, he is an art historian.

He's Italians from Naples.

And he came and we did our first concert here, and he comes to the to the concert.

He goes, Joyce, my Joyce, what is this museum you have here?

Well, why are you never telling me about.

This is fantastic.

It's fantastic.

I'm like, I know Julio, I tell you that all the time.

Like you don't.

He didn't believe me.

So it's this sort of thing, like you have to come.

You have to experience it yourself and it takes you by surprise.

I will still get like conductors.

Like, where did you learn the German?

The German you sing is very good.

You're from Kansas.

How is this possible?

I'm like, well, we have a good education.

I went to Bishop mirage.

Thank you very much.

So I, I, I wear it very proudly.

I mean, and I think a lot of times people ask me about it.

And the way I describe it is, you know, we don't take ourselves too seriously, but we take our work seriously.

We work hard and and I think in general, we do it with great humility because we realize everybody is a part of the team.

Everybody's a part of making it happen.

And so when it's my turn to produce, I mean, I had better do it at the highest level.

But I'm equally as important as, you know, the stage manager or the whatever lighting guy or whatever.

Yes.

And there is one other thing you do take with take with you and take Kansas with you.

is after every recital at the end for your encore, for the recitals, you sing some good, you, over withering.

Oh, well, I do, and they love it.

And they all know it.

Yeah.

And it the reason I love singing it is that it connects to their childhood.

It's somehow I see all the people go, oh, and it takes them back.

Yeah.

That's phenomenal.

Yeah.

Well, we say there's, listen, with some more of the rainbow.

thanks for the ones that's been sentenced.

There is no place like home.

I know the reason.

I don't know why I'm losing it right now, to tell you the truth, but it's just, Thank you.

Just thank you.

And you are such a great representative worldwide, internationally for, this area in Kansas City and, you know, where you were born and raised.

We just want to be for it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And thank you for everything.

I mean, I, I grew up, you know, listening always with total class and integrity.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Joyce DiDonato.

It's just something.

If I can just sit,