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Westport Center for the Arts’ invites you to our 2025-26 Brown Bag Concert Season: Friday, March 20, 2026 at 12pm!The Wires will present a noon-day concert of original cinematic music melding traditional music, classical forms and modern rhythmic string techniques. Inspired by music from around the globe, evoking the sweeping hills of the prairie, the stark chill of frozen winter, and the boundless mystery of both space and our natural world. This concert will primarily feature all new works off our upcoming 4th album, debuting in the summer of 2026.
The Wires are a modern exploration in string sound. Created in Kansas City, Missouri, Laurel Morgan Parks, violin, and Sascha Groschang, cello, have been composing dynamic and cinematic music as best friends since 2009. Their music is inspired by imagery found in the natural world, folk styles and modern string techniques. Following their debut album in 2012, their 2nd album "Wilder" (May 2019) is an imagined journey that includes depths of the oceanic world, the vast expanse of Celtic hills, the coldness of frozen tundra and a discovery of the cosmos. Their holiday album, "Winter" (December 2020) encompasses a cinematic, yet intimate timbre, with the classic sounds of the season. "Winter," their collection of holiday favorites arranged by The Wires along with their original piece, 'Campbell Street,' is published by Mel Bay Publications. For two years, The Wires hosted and curated "Sound Currents" on 91.9 Classical KC – a weekly radio program exploring a broad range of new music. Their online school, "Fiddle Life," (www.fiddlelife.com), teaches adults traditional styles at beginner and intermediate levels. The duo performs at festivals, concert halls, and music venues across the United States and beyond.
Laurel Morgan is a violinist, fiddler, and composer who has been passionately playing for over four decades. She performs in the modern violin–cello duo The Wires and brings a versatile career that spans orchestral, rock, folk, and contemporary styles.
Laurel has toured Asia with the Mantovani String Orchestra and Germany with her band In the Pines, and has performed with artists including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the Eagles, Sarah McLachlan, Disturbed, Amy Grant, and Evanescence.
She is the founder of Drunken Fiddles, a thriving adult music-learning organization with locations across the Midwest and South. In recent years, Laurel has led students on immersive musical journeys to Scotland and Ireland, deepening her own connection to traditional music. Over the past year, she has taken a focused dive into Irish fiddle traditions and can often be found playing in trad sessions wherever her travels take her.
Sascha Groschang, cellist, has performed extensively across Europe, Asia, North and South America. She has appeared at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall numerous times, and gave her solo debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 2009. She has been a soloist and lecturer at the Thailand International Composition Festival, performed for the King of Malaysia with the Kuala Lumpur International Festival Orchestra, and traveled all across China on two tours with the Mantovani Pops Orchestra. She has shared the stage with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, The Eagles, Vince Gill, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Michael Bublé, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Sarah Mclachlan, Idina Menzel, Amy Grant and her recording credits include NBC, Atlantic, and Rhino Records.
In addition to her work with The Wires, Sascha is principal cellist of NewEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, KC's professional new music ensemble dedicated to playing the works of living composers. In 2022, she joined the St. Petersburg String Quartet. Their accolades include a Grammy nomination, "Best Record" honors in both Stereo Review and Gramophone, a five-year residency at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and hundreds of concerts on many of North America, Europe and Asia's most prestigious series and festivals. Since joining, the quartet has played concerts in Ecuador, Peru, Israel, Estonia, Germany, France, Kazakhstan, and the United States. In 2023, she also joined the Fountain City String Quartet, which performs across the midwest with the popular classical and pop-crossover Candlelight Concerts. In 2026, Sascha will travel to South Africa and South America for performances with the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and Quebec City, Canada with Drunken Fiddles.
The Brown Bag concerts are presented free (donations welcomed) and held in the sanctuary at Westport Presbyterian Church, 201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111.
Bring a Lunch, if you wish. Coffee and Cookies provided at a reception following the performance.
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Event Venue
201 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO, United States, Missouri 64111
Tickets
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