KC Metro Community Orchestras
Are you looking for a community orchestra to practice, perform and have fun with? We have great news! There are so many community orchestras in the Kansas City metro and we are sure there is one that you would fit right in with. We have had a running list that we frequently edit on our Community Resource page for the past couple years along with upcoming workshops and local concerts. To make that list a little easier to access, here it is below (alphabetical order)!..
HERITAGE PHILHARMONIC: The mission of the Heritage Philharmonic is to provide the Jackson County community with excellent, affordable and convenient orchestral music programs by using both professional and volunteer musicians. We celebrate life-long musical skills development for all levels of players.
Rehearsal Location: Blue Springs, MO
Learn More: www.heritagephilharmonic.org
KANSAS CITY CIVIC ORCHESTRA: The Kansas City Civic Orchestra is a community-based orchestra in the Kansas City metropolitan area. For 60 years, our mission has been to bring high quality, free concerts to the local community. Our all-volunteer orchestra is comprised of amateur and professional musicians with one thing in common – a love for music!
Rehearsal Location: Overland Park, KS
Learn More: www.kccivic.org
KANSAS CITY KANSAS COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA: The mission of the Kansas City Kansas Community Orchestra is to provide the opportunity for volunteer musicians to enhance their musical talents by sharing their love of music with the community. The goal of the Orchestra is to cultivate the next generation of musicians while offering the community an outlet to express their talents.
Rehearsal Location: Kansas City, KS
Learn More: www.kckorchestra.com
KANSAS CITY MUSICAL CLUB: Music is very important to every member of the club. Our educations, expertise levels, and appreciations vary -- we are performers, teachers, and listeners. We are amateurs and professionals from many parts of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In addition to listening to and performing music, we actively support the future of high quality (often classical) music -- we hold scholarship auditions each spring and award scholarships to music performance students who attend area universities.
Rehearsal Location: Prairie Village, KS
Learn More: www.kcmusicalclub.org
LEE’S SUMMIT SYMPHONY: Since 2003, the Lee’s Summit Symphony has become an integral part of Eastern Jackson County’s cultural landscape, enriching the community through a quality, passionate Symphony. Each year, the Symphony entertains thousands, including families with school-aged children. Members of the Lee’s Summit Symphony must be high school graduates.
Rehearsal Location: Lee’s Summit, MO
Learn More: www.lssymphony.org
LENEXA COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA: The Lenexa Community Orchestra performs free concerts for the community each summer. The orchestra, which began in 2017 as a program of the Lenexa Arts Council, is made up of volunteer musicians and is led by conductor Richard Ryan.
Rehearsal Location: Lenexa, KS
Learn more: Click Here
MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA OF KANSAS CITY: The Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City, MOOKC, was formed to provide cultural enrichment, create public interest and encourage participation in the greater Kansas City community by presenting musical performances with an emphasis on the Mandolin family of instruments and their history.
Rehearsal Location: Kansas City, MO
Learn More: www.mookc.com
MEDICAL ARTS SYMPHONY: The Medical Arts Symphony began in 1959 when Eleanor Sharp and some of her colleagues at the University of Kansas Medical Center decided to share their avocation of symphonic music with their professions in healthcare. Since its founding, the Symphony has not wavered from its dual mission of providing an opportunity for amateur musicians to perform great works of Western music and enriching the cultural life of Kansas City by presenting free concerts, including premier performances of works by local composers. For thirty years, the orchestra was conducted by Leopold Shopmaker, who was succeeded by Dr. Merton Shatzkin in 1989. John Bell assumed the reins in 2013. Steve Lewis is the current Music Director. Today, the orchestra includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, healthcare students, as well as other musicians from the Kansas City area.
Rehearsal Location: Lawrence, KS
Learn More: www.kcmasymphony.org
NORTHLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Our organization includes a professional/student/community symphony orchestra that perform five concerts per season, as well as two youth ensembles - The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and Metropolitan Youth Sinfonia - that perform three concerts per season. We play a wide variety of quality classic symphonic literature for every music-lover. Our concerts are informal, family friendly and always without charge.
Rehearsal Location: North Kansas City, MO
Learn more: www.northlandsymphony.org
OLATHE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA: Olathe Community Orchestra is comprised of a diverse group of musicians, amateur and professional, brought together by their love of music and desire to play their instruments. Adult musicians do not need to audition. Students under 18 who wish to play with the orchestra must audition for the conductor.
Rehearsal Location: Olathe, KS
Learn More: www.olatheorchestra.org
OMNI ENSEMBLE: The Omni Ensemble is UMKC’s community string orchestra, offering playing and performance opportunities for all members of the UMKC community and the greater Kansas City community. The ensemble is open to non-music majors, members of the community, or music majors playing a secondary instrument. Anyone with at least two years experience playing violin, viola, cello, or bass is eligible to participate.
Rehearsal Location: Near UMKC
Learn More: https://info.umkc.edu/cmda-omni
OVERLAND PARK ORCHESTRA: The Overland Park Orchestra is a volunteer orchestra sponsored in part by the City of Overland Park. Since its inception in 1973, it has played for both children and adults at a variety of venues and performs a regular Halloween concert with a costume parade for children. In recent years, the orchestra has provided music for the American Youth Ballet’s annual production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet and has been a part of the Overland Park Fall Festival and events at the Overland Park Arboretum.
Rehearsal Location: Overland Park, KS
Learn More: www.oporchestra.org
PHILHARMONIA OF GREATER KANSAS CITY: The Mission of the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City is to engage communities by entertaining and educating through music. The Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City performs four concerts a year, all designed to raise awareness and appreciation of well played music. The March concert is always a family concert. This year continues a 30 year history of annual family concerts for The Philharmonia.
Rehearsal Location:
Learn More: www.kcphilharmonia.org
SAINT JOSEPH SYMPHONY: The Saint Joseph Symphony celebrated its birth as a community orchestra on November 30, 1959 with its debut performance at St. Joseph’s fabulous Electric Theater. The orchestra, which now performs in the historic Missouri Theater, evolved into a professional orchestra in the mid 1980s and hosts musicians from St. Joseph, Maryville, Atchison, Kansas City, Lawrence and Leavenworth.
Rehearsal Location: St. Joseph, MO
Learn More: www.saintjosephsymphony.org
SOCIAL SYMPHONY KC: The Social Symphony is a KC-based, community-driven orchestra that started in 2018. We play various events and concerts year-round. While we welcome all walks of life into our symphony we are also simultaneously helping people reconnect with music and community. The SSKC provides a place for us to come together and play again, while making new friends at the same time. We not only play music together, we have several social nights out as well. It’s really all in the name: The Social Symphony.
Rehearsal Location: Downtown Kansas City, MO
Learn More: www.socialsymphonykc.org
WESTWOOD ENSEMBLE: Westwood Ensemble is presently a full orchestra of more than 30 musicians and is continually growing. The ensemble is unique in two regards: 1) We play literature rarely performed by other ensembles. 2) The group is comprised of: youth, adult amateurs, and top professional players. The professionals aid in working with the ensemble members. Many of the members are present or past students of these professionals. There is a $20 audition fee but no other membership fees to play.
Rehearsal Location: Westwood, KS
Learn More: www.westwoodensemble.com
Did we miss any local community orchestras?
LET US KNOW and we would be more than happy to add it!
info@kcstrings.com