Sam Wisman
Production Director - 91.9 Classical KC / Backup Announcer - KCUR 89.3Sam started listening to jazz on his local NPR affiliate when he was just 13 years old, and his life as a musician and radio guy continues to intertwine. Son of a merchant and a classical musician, he came to Kansas City to attend the UMKC Conservatory. During school, he shelved a lot of records and played “drop the needle” at The Marr Sound Archives, working with KCUR’s own Fish Fry host Chuck Haddix. After graduating Cum Laude with a degree in Percussion Performance, Sam became a versatile fixture in Kansas City’s music scene. He hosted Jazz Afternoon on 90.1 FM KKFI for over 10 years, and currently hosts Jazz Across America - Kansas City on San Diego's KSDS Jazz 88.3. Sam lives with his family in Roeland Park, and has yet to measure the volume of his kids with a decibel meter — but he has thought about it.
Email him at samwisman@classicalkc.org.
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UMKC Conservatory faculty, students and Wind Ensemble perform in this episode featuring Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata, Klughardt’s Wind Quintet and Holst’s First Suite. -
This eight note sequence has become ubiquitous everywhere from concert halls to weddings to punk rock clubs. -
In this episode, UMKC Conservatory alum Seyoung Park takes us on a pianistic journey through Robert Schumann’s dualities and emotional confessions of forbidden love. Plus Conservatory faculty members Joe Genualdi and Tom Rosenkranz perform very personal music by Ludwig van Beethoven. -
While struggling to write his second piano concerto, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff sought the help of a hypnotherapist. The work that emerged has become an audience favorite, and thanks to a singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Rachmaninoff would land on the pop charts 75 years later. -
Behind every seamless concert or conference is a team of union stagehands whose work begins long before the spotlight hits the stage. Learn more about these Kansas City crew members whose work goes well beyond just raising the curtain. -
Assistant Conductor Samuel Hollister makes his SLSO classical debut leading the orchestra in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s exhilarating Third Symphony and an imaginative work that gazes skyward by composer and environmentalist Gabriella Smith. Gabriela Montero takes on Prokofiev’s emotionally turbulent Third Piano Concerto in her SLSO debut. -
UMKC Conservatory faculty Joseph Genualdi and Sean Chen perform Gabriel Fauré's Violin Sonata No.1, and Alon Goldstein joins the Conservatory Orchestra for a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.3. -
Iconic British composer Sir Edward Elgar is known for his marvelous “Enigma Variations,” but he also composed symphonies and a variety of other music. His second symphony from 1911, is a thought-provoking expression of the end of the Edwardian era and the full measure of the new 20th Century. -
Jan Lisiecki performs one of Mozart’s spellbinding piano concertos at the center of a deeply spiritual program. Returning to the SLSO podium, Hannu Lintu leads the orchestra through Wagner’s shimmering melodies, Samy Moussa’s visionary expression of timelessness and paradise in Elysium, and the mysticism and wonder of Respighi’s Church Windows. -
The UMKC Graduate Fellowship String Quartet performs Leoš Janáček’s "Kreutzer Sonata," a fierce and emotionally charged work inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s controversial psychological drama. And Igor Stravinsky’s once scandalous "The Rite of Spring," is brought vividly to life by the UMKC Conservatory Orchestra.
