Can You Hear Me Now?

Jeff Kready and Nikki Renée Daniels support vocal performance in Topeka

From Bell Tower - 2023
By Brad Porter

If there’s one person who can speak to vocal performance in Topeka, it is Jeff Kready.

The Broadway star, a 2004 Washburn music major, has probably played every stage within a hundred miles of the capital city. He first performed at White Concert Hall when he was 6 years old and returned to it years later as a Washburn student for his senior recital.

(Jeff Kready, b music ’04 [left], and Nikki Renée Daniels in White Concert Hall. Photo by Jeremy Wangler)

“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” Kready said. “All the hard work, preparation, knowing a repertoire backward and forward, dragging family and friends to attend, and all the support from your fellow students and Washburn faculty, who care so much and get so invested in their students’ success. It was a great experience for me.”

“But, it’s not something that draws 1,200 people,” he noted. “White is an amazing place to sing, but it is this big, cavernous concert hall. There’s kind of no great middle option currently for smaller, more intimate performances.” With a laugh, he added: “It can be a bit deflating to work so hard and then fill a theater to, like, one-tenth capacity.”

So when Kready and his wife, acclaimed actress and concert soloist Nikki Renée Daniels, first heard about the recital hall project, they immediately understood what it would mean for Washburn vocalists and really anybody interested in music performance in Topeka.

“Nikki and I both understood the niche there right away,” Kready said. “Having a new recital hall at Washburn will be such a boon; it will open up so many opportunities for future performers and audiences alike.”

To Kready, it’s just another example of what Topeka is doing right – he is proud of his hometown and how much it embraces music and the arts. His wife and their two girls, Lena, 10, and Louise, 6, have all become very familiar with the city as performers themselves. Last year, they organized "The Kready Holiday Spectacular" at the Topeka Performing Arts Center, where their family led Topeka-area musicians, choral singers and special guests through a number of holiday standards new and old. They didn’t quite know what to expect, but were blown away by the response – the show was a huge success, so much so that they’ll be doing it again this year on Dec. 23.

“Topeka has really adopted us all as a family,” Daniels noted. “We are proud to be a part of anything that will help keep the arts thriving here.”

When Kready and Daniels began considering making a gift to the recital hall project, at least part of the impetus was to set an example for their own girls – to show them it’s important to support the arts not only as performers, but as patrons too.

“Both of our girls are performers, so they’re very immersed in music,” she said. “But the arts are important whether you’re going to be a performer or not, and we want our girls to be shaped not just as singers but as cultural patrons, people who care about art and music and want to preserve it.”

So, Kready and Daniels were happy to make a major gift to the recital hall campaign, and are proud to be a part of the effort not just for Washburn’s sake, but for the sake of Topeka and music-lovers everywhere.

“After talking about it, it just seemed like a no-brainer that we want to be a part of bringing a recital hall to Washburn,” Kready noted. “For projects like this, you need all kinds of donations, not only big gifts but grassroots support from the whole community, everybody coming together to help get it done and get it across the finish line. This was such a formative place for me, that if I can help preserve that for the next generation, of course I’m going to try to do that any way I can.”

“Plus,” he added. “This will be one more great place to sing in Topeka.”