About Ad Astra

There is genuinely nothing like the Ad Astra Music Festival. Serving the Greater Western Kansas Region for the past 7 years, Ad Astra engages students and community members, alongside award-winning artists from across the country, to explore various human experiences through music. In a small town setting where you’d least expect it, Ad Astra brings to life reframed classical and contemporary programs with a consistently high artistic caliber difficult to find even in metropolitan areas, while enabling the future of classical music by ensuring 50% of our programs are works by new and emerging composers.

Audiences have come to expect fresh, new music alongside vibrant performances of history’s richest musical works of art. From opera and chamber music performances the Deines Cultural Center, to sunset services at the picturesque Basilica of St. Fidelis, to live jazz at Granny Mae’s barn, each season offers concerts for every Kansan to enjoy, Ad Astra prides itself on programming new music from a diverse set of composers, including commissions from 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Michael Gilbertson and Moira Smiley, Matthew Aucoin, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Kate Soper. We’re dedicated to making this festival of and for the people of Russell as we annually collaborate with local visual artists, poets, and musicians to design meaningful creative experiences. 

2020

• 2 weekends

• 4 concerts

• 19 composers

• 68% of concert time devoted to music by women or composers of color

• 39 professional musicians paid

• 16 high school singers

• Over 4,300 virtual audience members

• 2 commissioned visual art works, all by women or local artists

• 3 commissioned musical works, all by women composers or composers of color

2019

• 1 month

• 9 concerts

• 27 composers/arrangers

  • including 15 women composers

  • and including 15 living composers

• 66 artists in residence

• 758 attendees

• 164 contributing individuals and organizations

We are a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization funded primarily through grants and the generous donations of local businesses and community members. 

Help Ad Astra continue to foster world-class music in Russell by making a donation!