Westport Center for the Arts’ Brown Bag Concert Series continues Feb. 16 with a free performance by the Kansas City Baroque Consortium entitled “Music and Love – Wings of the Soul.” The consortium includes David Hays on Baroque violin, Trilla Ray-Carter on Baroque cello,  and Nicholas Good on harpsichord. They will present works by J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Giovanni Paolo Cima, and Francesco Maria Veracini. The Brown Bag concerts are free (donations accepted) and held in the sanctuary at Westport Presbyterian Church, 201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111 at noon.

David Hayes is a graduate of Indiana University and Northwestern University, a professor of violin at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri,  and serves as concertmaster of the Springfield Symphony. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and many others, and was a finalist at the Banff International String Quartet Competition as a founding member of the Fry Street Quartet. As a member of the Hawthorne Trio, he has performed throughout the United States, in Poland, the Czech Republic and England. He has recorded on the Lyrichord, Musical Arts Society and MSR Classics labels. His CD “Lullaby and Nocturne” with Peter Collins, piano, was released in 2013. On baroque violin, David toured and recorded with Minneapolis-based Minstrelsy! for nine seasons and has appeared with Temple of Apollo, the Lyra Concert, the Newberry Consort, and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, and has participates regularly in projects with the Kansas City Baroque Consortium.

Trilla Ray-Carter is the founder and director of the Kansas City Baroque Consortium, established in 2009, and formed as a non-profit in 2016, KC Baroque is celebrating its 15th year as Kansas City’s only professional period ensemble. Ray-Carter is also an active performer throughout the greater Kansas City region as both a modern cellist and a period baroque specialist. She has performed and taught for summer festivals in Italy, the former Yugoslavia, and Germany. Before returning to the Midwest, she worked in Los Angeles as a studio musician, and locally, she has served as principal cellist of the Liberty Symphony, the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City. She has held teaching positions at Cottey College, KCK Community College, and William Jewell College. In 2007 and 2008, she participated in the International Baroque Institute in Cambridge, MA. where she worked with leading baroque specialists Phoebe Carrai, Elizabeth Blumentstock, Jed Wentz and Gonzalo Ruiz. Chosen to participate in Artist Inc. KC, an artist entrepreneurial training program, Ray-Carter earned a Peer Recognition Award for her project development and design for establishing KC Baroque as a non-profit performing arts organization.

Nicholas Good has performed as a harpsichord recitalist, continuo player, and soloist with ensembles including Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Kansas City Symphony, Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, La Musique Nomade, and the Sunflower Festival Orchestra of Topeka. His harpsichord teachers include Ed Parmentier of the University of Michigan and George Hunter of the University of Illinois. He has performed in harpsichord master classes in Italy, Netherlands and Norway with Arthur Haas, Ketil Haugsand, Menno von Delft and Francesco Cera. His harpsichord recordings include a program of suites and variations by Dieterich Buxtehude, and a CD of the keyboard music of Georg Böhm. After a career as a CPA and software engineer, he returned to school at the University of Kansas where he earned Master and Doctoral degrees in organ performance. He currently serves as organist and choir director at Christ Church Anglican in Overland Park, KS.

Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.