Kansas City Symphony announces plans for new venue in the South Plaza

Exterior rendering. // image courtesy the Kansas City Symphony

Live music in Kansas City is getting some serious infrastructure investment as of late. Riverside’s Morton Amphitheater was announced in October 2024, and opens its inaugural season this summer with an absolutely packed lineup of shows featuring Rod Stewart, Kesha, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Pitbull, and more.

Now comes the announcement this morning that the Kansas City Symphony is developing plans for “a new live music venue in Kansas City’s South Plaza district.” Set to be located at 4901 Main St. in South Plaza, the as-yet-unnamed venue is targeted to open in 2028 and will have a maximum capacity of 4600.

The idea is that, while “Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center will remain the definitive orchestral home of the Kansas City Symphony, the new venue will dramatically expand the Symphony’s reach.”

Most notably, the Symphony’s new space “will host touring artists across genres and support a limited number of Symphony performances that benefit from amplified or enhanced production formats.”

Interior rendering. // image courtesy the Kansas City Symphony

What that means is Populous and McCownGordon—the project’s respective design and construction build leads—will create the space from the ground up to support the live performance of films with orchestra, “which regularly rank among the Symphony’s most in-demand offerings.”

As anyone who’s ever attended a live score presentation at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall, you know that the space is great for orchestral performances, but not so much for seeing the film itself, so this is great news for anyone who’s ever wanted a more integrated audio-visual experience.

The Symphony will own the new venue itself and will contract with Music and Event Management, Inc., a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, to operate it.

The plan is that the new venue “will host over 100 annual events, the broad majority being popular artist acts plus a few dozen Symphony performances” with this expansion allowing “the Symphony to maintain its robust 100+ concert season at the Kauffman Center while simultaneously pioneering new musical experiences tailored for Helzberg Hall.”

“This is a transformational moment for the future of music in Kansas City and for the Symphony,” said Linda Gill Taylor, Chair of the Symphony’s Board of Directors. “The new venue grows what the Symphony brings to Kansas City, and at the same time enables the Symphony to strengthen its core orchestral foundation at the Kauffman Center. Having multiple venues creates exciting possibilities for different music experiences that will thrill audiences. The positive impact this project will have on the Symphony and our city is significant.”