We Remember our Fallen, We Celebrate our Freedom

KANSAS CITY, Mo. | April 17, 2024 — It’s Kansas City’s favorite Memorial Day tradition and the perfect way to kick-off summer! Join the Kansas City Symphony and Kansas City PBS for the twentieth Bank of America Celebration at the Station. The Symphony’s free concert event takes place on Sunday, May 26, 2024 on the South Plaza of Union Station Kansas City and the North Lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial – both near Pershing Road and Main Street, just south of Downtown Kansas City, Mo.

The festivities begin at 5 p.m. and include more than 20 food trucks, live pre-concert entertainment on the main stage, plus various vendors and booths in the Veterans Place, sponsored by Kansas City National Security Campus – managed by Honeywell FM&T.

Then, starting at 8 p.m., Music Director Michael Stern leads the Kansas City Symphony performing iconic patriotic works by John Williams, Aaron Copland and John Phillip Sousa, plus crowd favorites Armed Forces Salute and the 1812 Overture with live cannons. The grand finale features a stunning fireworks display accompanied by your Kansas City Symphony. This year’s concert marks the final under the direction of Music Director Michael Stern. Don’t miss this special event as we mark the end of an era.

Can’t make it to the event? Watch live on Kansas City PBS, Channel 19.1.

The Kansas City Symphony is privileged to again partner with Union Station and the National WWI Museum and Memorial, who each will have their own Memorial Day Weekend activities and special exhibitions within their venues. We also thank the City of Kansas City, Missouri and its Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and many other community supporters.

Paid parking for the event is available in multiple surface lots and garages around the event site, including Union Station’s West Yards garage. Attendees may also park anywhere along Downtown KC’s streetcar route and ride the streetcar directly to Union Station.

Your safety is always our priority

As always, the Kansas City Symphony and our partners are making detailed safety plans for the event site, which involve local law enforcement and multiple federal agencies.

For the latest event information, be sure to visit CelebrationAtTheStation.org.

About the Kansas City Symphony
Founded in 1982 by R. Crosby Kemper Jr. and a group of passionate music lovers, the Kansas City Symphony has rocketed to become one of the top 25 orchestras in the United States. During our 42-week season, we perform a huge range of orchestral and chamber music in our performance home, Helzberg Hall, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The musicians of the Symphony also perform throughout the Kansas City metro region on our portable stage, the Mobile Music Box, and we serve as the orchestra for the Kansas City Ballet and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Michael Stern, the Symphony’s music director, is finishing a 19-year tenure marked by artistic ascent, critical acclaim, and national recognition for the orchestra. Starting in July 2024, we will welcome conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher as his successor. Matthias regularly conducts many of the world’s best orchestras and opera companies and ranks as one of the world’s foremost composers of orchestral music.

Your Symphony includes 80 full-time musicians from around the world who call Kansas City home. Frequently joining them onstage is the 160-voice Symphony Chorus led by Charles Bruffy. Every season, dozens of soloists perform with us — instrumentalists, singer/songwriters, tribute rock bands, even aerial artists. We also accompany your favorite films, playing the soundtrack live as the movie is projected on Helzberg Hall’s giant screen. Between our concerts at the Kauffman Center, performances on the Mobile Music Box, and community events like Bank of America Celebration at the Station, the Symphony aspires to serve all of Kansas City through music. We belong to you, and to your neighbors, and all the people you see throughout the community.

Music connects us: it has the unique ability to draw us closer to our inner selves and also closer to one another, transcending our differences. Every Symphony concert will take you on an emotional journey — a journey that’s deeply personal but also a journey that we all experience together as one. We are your Kansas City Symphony. Visit kcsymphony.org for more information.