Kansas City Symphony’s ‘Celebration at the Station’ Pivots to Broadcast

As the old saying goes, the show must go on. That even applies during stay-at-home orders spurred by a pandemic.

“Celebration at the Station,” the Midwest’s largest free Memorial Day weekend concert, will shift from an outdoor concert to a broadcast allowing viewers to enjoy safely from home.

This year’s 17th annual show will be a medley of the Kansas City Symphony’s ‘best of’ performances from over the years. In prior years, it attracted up to 50,000 people in and around Union Station and the National World War I Museum and Memorial.

“While we cannot gather in a large group in person, by sharing our music we’re reminded that we are still bonded together, still hopeful, and still supporting our heroes of past and present,” said symphony Executive Director Danny Beckley in a statement.

This year’s show, entitled “Best of Bank of America Celebration at the Station by the Kansas City Symphony,” is a collaboration between the Bank of America and Kansas City PBS. 

It will air May 24 at 7 p.m. and again on May 25 at 8:30 p.m. on KCPT, Channel 19. The show will also be available on YouTube TV through the PBS channel.

The show will include the following:

Hometown favorites: Performances by Bobby Watson, The Elders and Jim Birdsall reciting a poem by John Musgrave.

Special guests: Performances by MusiCorps and Oleta Adams, John Brancy, Capathia Jenkins and Jim Birdsall.

Honoring troops: Favorites such as “Danny Boy,” “Taps,” “Armed Forces Salute,” “WWI Medley” and more.

Orchestral showstoppers: Kansas City Symphony performing hits like “Sing Sing Sing,” “Hands Across the Sea,” “Saint Bailey’s Rag” and, of course, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”