Made in the District (MITD) will host a special edition of Burgers and Beats – THE GREY ZONE, a pop-up event dedicated to the celebration of burgers and music discovery. The event will be powered byRooam’s socially connected mobile payment app, a seamless, secure and hassle-free payment solution. By downloading the free app, event attendees can quickly pay for food and drinks directly from their smartphones. The attendees can also take advantage of Rooam’s unique “check out” feature that allows instant check out and the quickest way to pay tabs.
The event will feature music by guest DJ Brenmar, Austin Millz from Fool’s Gold Records, J. Robb and Smasha. Additionally, the first 100 attendees to arrive will receive a free burger from Shake Shack, and all other attendees will receive a free fries voucher.
When & Where:
Burgers + Beats – THE GREY ZONE
Sunday, February 12, 2017, 4 – 8 p.m. ET
Eighteenth Street Lounge, 1212 18th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Cost: $20 + ($2.09 service charge fee)
For tickets and more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/burgers-and-beats-special-edition-the-grey-zone-tickets-31086062249
WHO:
DJ Brenmar, based in New York by way of Chicago, represents a strange musical paradox. In 2015, Brenmar signed with A-Trak’s Brooklyn-based Fool’s Gold Records. Brenmar had an explosive 2016, with a new mix series and a record label under his belt. His music has always sat at an intersection of hip hop and dance music by marrying the gloss of commercial hip hop and r&b with the urban grittiness of underground styles like Chicago Ghetto House, UK Bass and Jersey Club. In 2016, Brenmar released two singles, “She Already Know it” and “Like a Boss” on Fool’s Gold Records. He launched his own music label “High End Times,” which has released records by UniiQU3 and Austin Millz as well as the “Grey Zone” monthly dj mix series, which has been racking up plays on SoundCloud all year.
Austin Millz, based in Harlem, New York, has always been passionate about music and the process of creating it. Layering soul samples over hard-hitting drums with riffs on the saxophone and piano, Austin has stacked up an arsenal of beats and has prepared to debut his talents to the world. In February 2012, Millz released his debut solo project, Earned, consisting of 17 instrumental tracks produced over the course of a year. Austin has placed productions with Jim Jones, Maybach Music Group, G.O.O.D. Music, Wale, Troy Ave and Hit-Boy. In late 2016, Millz unleashed his new single “Cyclone” featuring rapper Tungi Ige and revealed his signing to Fool’s Gold Records.
Jay Roberts, popularly known as J. Robb has always had a love of music. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, J. Robb discovered FL Studio 9 in 2011 where he began developing his music skills. J. Robb’s single, “Euphoria,” has brought him a wealth of attention in the consumer and industry scenes. His SoundCloud presence alone has garnered him over 200,000,000 listens and has already been featured on outlets such as BBC1xrtra, Soulection, Beats1 Radio, Vice, Earmilk, Nest HQ and more. J. Robb is preparing for his latest project which will release in Spring 2017 and is working on booking more shows. J. Robb is influenced by artists who exude high octane energy in their live performances. He looks up to a wide range of artists from J. Dilla and Madlib to Pharrell Williams.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces a free celebration of the 20th anniversary of Millennium Stage to thank the audiences, artists, donors, staff, ushers, fellows, and more who have made this one-of-a-kind venture a continued, resounding success. The March 19event, utilizing both the north and south stages, will feature performances by Celtic rock band Scythian and New Orleans funk band Big Sam’s Funky Nation in a massive party overtaking the Center’s Grand Foyer.
Founded in 1997 by former Kennedy Center Board Chair James A. Johnson, the Millennium Stage remains the only venue in the world to offer a free performance every day of the year that is also streamed live on the web, fulfilling the Center’s mission of making the performing arts available to everyone. It has proven to be a perfect representation of the diverse and multifaceted performing arts offered by the Kennedy Center, with such past performers as Gladys Knight, Christoph Eschenbach, Aaron Goldman, Manzari Brothers, Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin, India.Arie, Circo Para Todos, Phil Wiggins, Smokey Robinson, and Kailash Kher & Kailasa.
In the past two decades, more than three million audience members from the D.C. area, across the U.S., and around the world have attended a Millennium Stage performance, with countless others experiencing these shows via the live stream. This special event is part of JFKC: A Centennial Celebration of John F. Kennedy, the Kennedy Center’s yearlong programming initiative marking the 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s birth and legacy, inspired by five ideals frequently attributed to America’s 35th President:Courage, Freedom, Justice, Service, and Gratitude. JFKC programming continues through the end of 2017.
“All of us at the Kennedy Center are incredibly grateful to our audiences for their enthusiastic support of Millennium Stage. In the past two decades more than 7,000 artists from across the globe have been presented, representing a diverse breadth of genres from established artistic traditions to the latest frontiers of performance,” said Deborah F. Rutter, President of the Kennedy Center. “Jim Johnson had a vision for what accessibility to the arts might look like. What resulted in our beloved Millennium Stage 20 years ago was brilliant and ahead of its time.”
The night will kick-off at 5:00 p.m. with a happy hour in the Grand Foyer, featuring half price beer and house wine. The first 1,000 guests at the happy hour will receive a special commemorative Millennium Stage 20th Anniversary t-shirt. Performances begin at 6:00 p.m. with Scythian, a band that plays roots music from Celtic, Eastern European, and Appalachian traditions with a thunderous energy that beckons crowds into a barn-dance, rock concert experience. Immediately following, at 7:00 p.m., the party will continue with Big Sam’s Funky Nation, a group of world-class musicians that are a driving force of urban funk, melding funk, rock & roll, Hip Hop, and jazz, gluing everything together with a brassy influence. For more information, visit tkc.co/mstage.
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| NEWS from the LIBRARY of CONGRESS |
| March 23, 2017
Press contact: Bryonna Head, Office of Communications (202) 707-3073, bhea@loc.gov
Library to Host Series of Disco Events Line-up includes Gloria Gaynor, Tim Gunn
The Library of Congress is presenting a series of disco-themed events to celebrate and memorialize the era of the mid-1970s and early 1980s that changed American art, fashion, language and sound. “Bibliodiscotheque” will include two months of programs such as film screenings, lectures and a symposium followed by a disco party featuring Gloria Gaynor. “The disco era has left a lasting mark on our culture,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “The music, the clothes, those fantastic disco balls – they are a part of Americana that new generations are still discovering and embracing. I am so thrilled to announce these events and the incredible line-up of guests we will have at the Library in the coming months as we celebrate the era of disco and share related items from the Library’s collections.” Nearly 40 years have passed since the heyday of platform shoes and dazzling disco balls, but disco is recognized as a phenomenon that redefined cultural norms across the United States. “Lest anyone think that disco was an aberrant moment in the ’70’s. Disco culture is inextricable from the history of 20th century fashion,” said Emmy award-winning fashion icon, Tim Gunn. “Its representation in the Library of Congress not only legitimizes the genre, but fully validates it.” The Library of Congress holds significant collection materials in various formats that showcase the American disco experience. These items will be on display for the duration of this series. Programming includes screenings of disco-influenced films as well as lectures and panel discussions presented by cultural experts, such as author, producer and fashion icon Tim Gunn, who will present a lecture on the influence of disco fashion followed by a book signing. The series will conclude with a symposium featuring the disco singing sensation Gloria Gaynor, followed by an evening extravaganza with a live performance. Gaynor will discuss and sign her new book, “We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration, and the Power of Song.” The book’s title harkens back to her 1978 classic “I Will Survive” which was selected for preservation in 2016 for the National Recording Registry. In “We Will Survive,” Gaynor shares 40 inspirational, true stories about survivors of all kinds — individuals who have found comfort, hope, and courage through the power of that song. “I am thrilled that the Library of Congress has found my role in American music worthy to be commemorated by the inclusion of my recording of “I Will Survive” in the National Recording Registry,” said Gaynor. “I look forward with great anticipation to my concert at the Library of Congress “Bibliodiscotheque.” Events are free and open to the public. Free tickets are required for admission to all activities. Tickets will be available beginning at 10:00 a.m. on March 30at this website. A limited number of press credentials will also be available for reservation. The deadline to reserve credentials for lectures, the symposium, and the dance party is Friday, April 28. Some of the events will be live-streamed on the Library’s Facebook page at facebook.com/libraryofcongress and its YouTube channel at youtube.com/LibraryOfCongress. All programs will take place at the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., or at its James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., both in Washington, D.C. The excitement can be followed on Twitter at @librarycongress and #LCDisco.
The Library’s programming will include: Symposium*
Saturday, May 6 Presented in association with the Library of Congress Music and Prints & Photographs Divisions, and Veterans History Project, with additional support from The Recording Academy.
1 p.m. “The Craft of Making Disco Balls”
1:30 p.m. “Two Perspectives on Beyoncé’s African Dance References”
2 p.m. “Disco: The Bill Bernstein Photographs”
2:30 p.m. “Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture”
3 p.m. Panel Discussion
4 p.m. “Gloria Gaynor on “I Will Survive”
5 p.m. (Whittall Pavilion) Free, tickets available, visit www.loc.gov/concerts/disco for more information. |
Four seasons become eight when the National Chamber Ensemble presents The Four Seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla on Saturday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Rosslyn Spectrum. Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette is the special guest host for the evening.
General admission tickets are $33 for adults and $17 for students, plus applicable service charges. Tickets are available online at www.nationalchamberensemble.org and at the box office one hour prior to the performance. Group discounts for 10 or more are available by calling (703) 685-7590. For more information, call (703) 685-7590 or visitwww.nationalchamberensemble.org. The theater has free garage parking and is two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro. A wine and cheese reception with the artists follows the concert.
Inspired by landscape paintings by Italian artist Marco Ricci, “The Four Seasons” is one of Antonio Vivaldi’s most famous works. Composed during the Baroque period and published in 1725, each concerto is accompanied by sonnets, written, as most believe, by Vivaldi himself. The sonnets provide a narrative for the music, offering a more complete picture of each season as the composition weaves its way through spring, summer, fall, and winter.
The performance of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” will include a reading of the sonnets by Mr. Fisette, as well as a multimedia presentation accompanying the performance that includes photos, moving images, and Vivaldi’s own words that he wrote into the music. The Ensemble’s Artistic Director Leonid Sushansky, called “a musical storyteller” by The Washington Post, will perform the violin solos with a sextet that includes two violins, viola, cello, double bass, and harpsichord.
In contrast, Astor Piazzolla’s “Las Quatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)” is inspired by the rhythms of the Argentinian tango. Once of Argentina’s greatest cultural exports, Piazzolla fused jazz and tango with classical forms and 20th century harmonies, creating the musical genre of nuevo tango.
Conceived as four discrete pieces, and written nearly 240 years after Vivaldi’s work of the (almost) same name, “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” begins with summer and concludes with spring. Originally scored for Piazzolla’s Quinteto of violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass, and bandoneón (a type of concertina), the Ensemble will perform the composition as a trio featuring Natasha Dukan on piano, Sean Neidlinger on cello, and Leonid Sushansky on violin. Images of Buenos Aires throughout the seasons accompany the musical performance.
The 2016-17 NCE season concludes on May 13 with Music of Our Time, celebrating classical music from film and theater, and an appearance by Bowen McCauley Dance.
About Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre
Located at 1611 N. Kent Street, Arlington VA
Parking: Free garage parking, entrance on Arlington Ridge Road
Metro: Blue/Orange/Silver – Rosslyn Station
As the world grapples with the most severe global refugee crisis since World War II, musicians convened by conductors John Devlin and Lidiya Yankovskaya, herself a refugee who found asylum in the United States, are coming together to provide a voice to refugees in the country.
At 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 10, Yankovskaya and instrumentalists whose friends and families have fled to the U.S. to escape violence and persecution will perform a special concert for residents in the nation’s capital and surrounding areas. The performance will take place in The Fillmore Silver Spring and will feature a full symphony orchestra and soloists—including award-winning soprano Zhanna Alkhazova—performing works by refugee composers, such as Iranian composer Gity Razaz, Béla Bartók, and Irving Berlin, as well as music that involves refugee themes written by Verdi and Puccini, among others. The concert will showcase, through music, the positive impact that those who have come to this country seeking safety and a better life have had on American culture and society. It is one of three fundraising events that the Refugee Orchestra Project is organizing this spring.
“I organized the Refugee Orchestra Project as a way to demonstrate, through music, the critical role that these individuals play in our cultural landscape,” said Refugee Orchestra Project Conductor and Artistic Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. “In light of the negative rhetoric we regularly read and hear in the news today, I felt it important for all of us to once again be reminded of the essential role that refugees play in making American culture vibrant and strong.”
Devlin and the D.C.-based Gourmet Symphony will support this endeavor by recruiting local musicians to participate in the concert, as well as food vendors who will provide product and services to encourage donations for the cause.
“Gourmet Symphony was thrilled when the Refugee Orchestra Project representatives reached out to us about a possible collaboration around this worthy cause,” said John Devlin, co-founder and Artistic Director of Gourmet Symphony. “As artistic leaders in the nation’s capital, we feel that it is our responsibility to play an active role in our community and in matters of national importance. The concert will also allow us to engage culinary partners who are passionate about this cause. Our common goal is to offer a sense of connectedness and hope through the music and fellowship shared in this performance.”
Admission to the concert is free, donations are suggested. Guests who make a donation of at least $50 will receive premium seating and a gourmet gift box including snack bites from Gourmet Symphony’s culinary partners at Beuchert’s Saloon and Mike Isabella Concepts, among others—this will be capped at 100. Proceeds from donations will go toward the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees in support of those seeking asylum in the U.S. and abroad.
As much as Jonathan Larsen’s unprecedented Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent impacted popular culture, it also transformed the lives of the actors that embodied a group of young friends trying to forge a life for themselves in New York’s bohemian East Village. 20 years after Rent’s Broadway debut, original cast members Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp reunite at the Music Center at Strathmore on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 8 p.m. to commemorate this cultural touchstone and 20 years of friendship. The concert of duets and solos will include originals, reimagined Broadway classics, and favorites from Rent. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.
Throughout the set, the duo will share stories about their careers, including what it was like working on one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history. Rent has proved a thread throughout their careers that has periodically brought the two back together—prior to the 20thanniversary concert tour, both reprised their Rent roles during the national tour in 2009.
Tony-nominated Adam Pascal recently returned to Broadway’s Nederlander Theater, where Rent lived for years, in the new musical Disaster! Since his days playing Roger in Rent, Pascal has starred in Aida, Chicago, and Memphis. He is currently playing Shakespeare in the national tour of Something Rotten!
After originating the role of Mark in Rent, Anthony Rapp went on to originate another character in If/Then alongside previous Rent co-star Idina Menzel, which debuted at Washington, D.C.’s National Theatre. He wrote the book Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, about the demands of life in the theater during his mother’s battle with cancer, which he later adapted into a one-man show. It was recently announced that Rapp will star as “astromycologist” Lt. Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access, the first series developed specifically for this platform and the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise (2005). Stamets is also the first openly gay character conceived for the Star Trek franchise.
PAUL D. MILLER aka DJ SPOOKY: REBIRTH OF A NATION
Tuesday, May 23, 2017, 8 p.m.
By Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Featuring Sound Impact
Eisenhower Theater–from $19
Conceived as a reimagining of director D.W. Griffith’s infamously racist 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation, DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation is a culturally significant project that examines how “…exploitation and political corruption still haunt the world to this day, but in radically different forms.” Today, more than a century since the release of The Birth of a Nation, the project continues to be presented internationally, engaging audiences in themes of civil rights and freedom, seen through the lens of DJ Spooky’s unique art of remixing. Dr. King once said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”—one of the drivers behind Miller’s work is influenced by this. “I try to give people thought tools for mindfulness, or for thinking about the patterns we inhabit as not fixed of locked down, but changeable. It’s the beauty of that, which makes life worth living.” The Kennedy Center debut of Rebirth of a Nation is a multimedia performance featuring a string quartet from D.C.-based music ensemble Sound Impact. Two violins, a viola, and a cello will accompany three screen video projections, controlled live on stage by DJ Spooky.
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT HONORING JOHN F. KENNEDY
Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 8 p.m.
National Symphony Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Concert Hall–from $79
Program:
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
William Grant Still: Poem for Orchestra
Mason Bates: Passage
John Williams: Cello Concerto
Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from On The Town
This performance features Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor at Large Yo-Yo Ma and is led by young American conductor Joshua Weilerstein in his Kennedy Center debut.
The National Symphony Orchestra performs the world premiere of Mason Bates’s Passage, an NSO commission created especially for JFK’s 100th. Passage examines the theme of American exploration through the visionary words of Walt Whitman and President John F. Kennedy. Composed for renowned mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and the NSO, the work imaginatively sets Whitman’s “Passage to India” alongside recorded fragments of JFK’s moonshot speech given in 1961. Two iconic American voices—that of poet and President—come together on a journey to the ever-expanding human frontier.
HUBBLE CANTATA
Thursday, May 25, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Paola Prestini, composer
Royce Vavrek, librettist
Concert Hall–from $15
The Hubble Cantata, brought to life by Metropolitan opera star Nathan Gunn (with soprano to be announced), music director Julian Wachner, a 20-piece instrumental ensemble, and a 100-person choir from The Washington Chorus, is an unprecedented live experience. The program pushes the boundaries of art and science as it takes audiences on a journey of wonder and exploration, seeking parallels between human life on Earth and the stars in the heavens. Framed by the birth, life, and death of a star—and connected to a narrative of a couple experiencing loss—the hour-long, space-inspired cantata features a cutting-edge virtual reality film (Fistful of Stars) by Eliza McNitt, music by composer Paola Prestini, and libretto by Royce Vavrek. Through his narration, New York Times best-selling author and eminent astrophysicist Dr. Mario Livio explains the larger celestial implications at stake, placing the characters’ story within the grand scheme of the cosmos.
In a final gesture, this family-friendly performance incorporates virtual reality cardboard headsets, simulating an immersive voyage through the universe, expertly created by The Endless Collective, a leading VR FX firm, with a 360-degree soundscape developed by Arup, the global leaders in acoustic and sound design. This mesmerizing live experience, co-produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust, Beth Morrison Projects and Arup, reflects Livio’s poignant themes and the powerful realization that humans discovered, explore, and continue to expand the understanding of the universe, and man’s place in it.
