KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 29, 2026) — The Kansas City Symphony has announced two separate recording projects that together illuminate the breadth, depth and evolution of American classical music, performed by one of the U.S.’s fastest-growing orchestras and conducted by the Symphony’s two most renowned music directors.  

The first, To Awaken the Sleeper: Works of Joel Thompson, conducted by Kansas City Symphony Music Director Laureate Michael Stern, was released July 24 in the United States and will be released August 7 in the United Kingdom. A second album, led by current Music Director Matthias Pintscher and centered on works by Aaron Copland and Charles Ives, is planned for release later this year. Both recordings will be eligible for the Grammy Awards in respective years. 

Released during the nation’s 250th anniversary year, the albums offer two distinct perspectives on American identity through music: one urgent, contemporary and deeply engaged with the realities of racial injustice, and the other rooted in the expansive, high-fidelity orchestral tradition of one of America’s defining composers. Together, they reflect the Kansas City Symphony’s commitment to artistic excellence and the continued elevation of American symphonic music on national and international stages. 

A Contemporary American Voice: Joel Thompson 

To Awaken the Sleeper is the first commercial recording devoted exclusively to the music of Black composer Joel Thompson. The project brings Thompson’s incisive, emotionally direct musical language together with the Kansas City Symphony under Stern’s baton, with featured collaborators including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the Sphinx Organization’s all-Black vocal ensemble Exigence. Based in Detroit, the Sphinx Organization is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of young Black and Latine classical musicians. 

The album includes Thompson’s landmark choral-orchestral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, a seven-movement piece that includes the final words of unarmed Black men killed by law enforcement. The recording also features additional works by Thompson that give voice to themes of memory, grief, resilience and collective awakening. 

“This recording was a labor of love. During my tenure in Kansas City, the championing of American music and composers was always central to our artistic vision, a point also reflected in our long and successful partnership with Reference Recordings,” Stern said. “I came to know Joel Thompson in 2020, and my musical admiration for him and his music and my artistic kinship with him was immediate. Once I reached out to him soon after hearing Seven Last Words of the Unarmed for the first time, and we made the decision to co-commission To Awaken the Sleeper, it was clear how important it was to bring wider attention to him and his work. 

“Joel’s voice is original and true, and his spirit lives in every note he writes,” he continued. “His music is carefully crafted, deeply felt and beautiful — and urgent for our time. It was an honor to make this project a reality, collaborating with my cherished colleagues in the orchestra, my dear friends and colleagues Joyce DiDonato and Yo-Yo Ma, and the extraordinary Dr. Eugene Roberts and the Exigence Vocal Ensemble. So this disc — my final one as music director of the Kansas City Symphony — is especially meaningful and personal to me.” 

Enduring American Sound: Aaron Copland and Charles Ives 

The second recording marks the first album project of Pintscher’s tenure as music director and offers a complementary portrait of American orchestral expression through music by Copland and Ives. The project propels the Symphony’s recording legacy forward while signaling a new chapter under Pintscher’s artistic leadership. 

The Copland-Ives recording also connects directly to the Symphony’s growing international profile. The orchestra performed Copland’s Third Symphony on its first international tour in 2024, and will play his Suite from Appalachian Spring during its second European tour this August.  

“We chose this project as an opportunity to feature the Kansas City Symphony’s continually developing and broad sound spectrum in the context of great American repertoire, which the KCS has been a long-time champion,” Pintscher shared. “It is my honor, but even more so a thrilling musical experience, to be able capture these pieces in a recording at a truly high moment of the orchestra, and to be able the thrill nationally and internationally.” 

To Awaken the Sleeper: Works of Joel Thompson is available on all major streaming platforms in the United States and will be available August 7 in the United Kingdom. Additional details about the Copland-Ives recording, including the final release date and ordering information, will be announced soon. 

Learn more at kcsymphony.org. For media inquiries, please reach out to Claire Martin at cmartin@kcsymphony.org.  

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About The Kansas City Symphony
In only its 44th season, the Kansas City Symphony has become one of America’s most vibrant major orchestras and has gained international recognition. At its orchestral home of Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Symphony serves the Kansas City metropolitan region of more than 2.2 million people.   

The Symphony’s 80 full-time musicians present a diverse and dynamic range of orchestral and chamber music performances each season under the artistic leadership of music director Matthias Pintscher, an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer who regularly conducts the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. 

In addition to concerts in Helzberg Hall, Symphony musicians perform throughout the region on an innovative portable stage, the Mobile Music Box. The Symphony also serves as the orchestra for the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, adding to the rich cultural experiences that these organizations offer to the community. 

For more information, visit www.kcsymphony.org. 

About Matthias Pintscher
Matthias Pintscher is the music director of the Kansas City Symphony and has recently been extended through the 2033/34 season. He launched his tenure with a highly successful tour with the orchestra to Europe just before opening the 2024/25 season in Kansas City, with concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.  

Pintscher was formerly the music director of Ensemble Intercontemporain for a decade. He is currently in his seventh season as artistic partner of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has held several titled positions, including nine seasons as BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-association, principal conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, music director for the 2020 Ojai Festival and season creative chair with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.  

Pintscher’s compositions are championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, orchestras and conductors, and has been performed by the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris, among many others.  

Pintscher is published by Boosey and Hawkes and Bärenreiter. Recordings of his works can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, Winter & Winter and Alpha Classics.