Shakespeare Fest joins KC quartet to celebrate Lady Macbeth, other ‘Women of Note’

They may not get top billing like the male characters, but Lady Macbeth, Desdemona and Cordelia are some of Shakespeare’s most vivid creations. It’s about time these passionate, brilliant and witty women got the spotlight.

The Bach Aria Soloists in partnership with Heart of America Shakespeare Festival present “Women of Note in Shakespeare and Song” on Nov. 12 at the Truman Forum Auditorium in the Plaza Library.

The idea came from a conversation between Elizabeth Lane, founder and artistic director of Bach Aria Soloists, and Sidonie Garrett, executive artistic director of the Shakespeare Festival. Lane was telling Garrett about her all-female composer concerts.

“Sidonie immediately said that the Shakespeare Festival performed scenes with only women in them,” Lane said. “So she described some of these scenes to me and their mood, and then I chose the music to go with the scenes. We’re also interspersing music between these scenes.”

Bach Aria Soloists is made up of Lane, violin, Elisa Bickers, harpsichord, Hannah Collins, cello, and Sarah Tannehill Anderson, soprano. The group regularly programs concerts that celebrate women. And celebrations they are, like this Elizabethan romp.

Veterans from Heart of America Shakespeare festival — Cinnamon Schultz, Meredith Wolfe, Ashlee LaPine, Kendra Keller and Elaine Clifford — will bring to life memorable female characters from Shakespeare’s plays, like Mistresses Ford and Page from “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Kate and Bianca from “Taming of the Shrew,” Olivia and Viola from “Twelfth Night” and Ophelia from “Hamlet.”

The concert will open to the ancient strains of Hildegard von Bingen, the medieval abbess, mystic and composer. The Middle Ages are just the starting point for a stimulating musical voyage through various times and places. The program includes a short number that Susan Kander wrote for Bach Aria Soloists, her take on the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”

“So we’re going from von Bingen and the Renaissance to Cecilia McDowall and Susan Kander, two living composers,” Lane said. “And we’re ending with a triumphal movement by French baroque composer Jacquet de la Guerre. It’s a lot of variety.”

The concert is at capacity, but sometimes people cancel their reservations, so check with Heart of America Shakespeare Festival for ticket availability.

7 p.m. Nov. 12. Truman Forum Auditorium, Kansas City Public Library, Plaza branch, 4801 Main St. Free but registration required. kcshakes.org.

Kimberly Marshall at Village Presbyterian

Kimberly Marshall is a VIP in the world of organ music. She is professor of organ at Arizona State University and a visiting professor at Sweden’s Malmö Academy of Music, and in March she was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists, the school’s highest honor.

Marshall will present a recital, “Musical Roads to Freedom,” Nov. 15 at Village Presbyterian Church.

Marshall has been exploring the music of America’s composers of color, so her program will include music by Florence Price, an African American composer whose music has been shamefully neglected for decades. Marshall will also perform an “Elegy” by William Grant Still, known as the “Dean of Afro-American Composers.”

There’s other interesting music on the program, too, like “Annum per Annum,” an example of sacred minimalism by Arvo Pärt, and “Hózhó” by Navajo composer Connor Chee. It will be a delight to hear this offbeat repertoire on Village Presbyterian’s marvelous Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ.

7 p.m. Nov. 15. Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village. Free. villagepres.org.

Kansas City Jazz Orchestra

Deborah Brown is living the jazz life. The Kansas City native sings in jazz festivals and nightclubs all over America and as far afield as Japan and Indonesia. She performs with such varied artists as Michel Legrand, Art Blakey and Sun Ra, and when she’s not on the road, she’s in the recording studio. Brown has recorded 11 albums of her own and has appeared as a guest vocalist on countless others.

Brown will alight in her hometown for a concert with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra conducted by Clint Ashlock on Nov. 10 at Helzberg Hall.

The concert will reflect Brown’s decades-long career as one of our foremost jazz singers. Expect beloved standards and a few surprises, too.

7 p.m. Nov. 10. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. $33.50-$68.50. kcjo.org

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at facebook.com/kcartsbeat.