The National Symphony Orchestra continues its Star Wars series this season with Return of the Jedi, in three performances on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 7 p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday, January 23 and 24, 2019 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. NSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the Orchestra in John Williams’s memorable score to accompany the film as it’s shown on the big screen above the Orchestra.
Acclaimed Broadway actress and Grammy Award®–winning singer Brandy joins the NSO for her first ever collaboration with an orchestra. Brandy and the NSO, led by Steven Reineke, will explore the unlikely connections between R&B and symphony as she revisits personal favorites from across her own career and from artists and works that have inspired her. Two performances take place: Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26, 2019 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
The NSO concludes its Star Wars live score series with The Force Awakens(February 21–23, 2019). Other 2018–2019 NSO Pops performances include An Evening with Leslie Odom, Jr. (May 1–3, 2019) and 50 Years Over the Rainbow: A Judy Garland Celebration (June 28–29, 2019).
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets (Star Wars: $34–$149; Brandy: $39–$139) are available at the Kennedy Center Box Office, online at kennedy-center.org, and via phone through Instant Charge, (202) 467-4700; toll-free at (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-related customer service inquires, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.
Renée Fleming VOICES: Nellie McKay
The always-unpredictable singer-songwriter Nellie McKay is impossible to categorize, from doing Brecht on Broadway to tributes to the likes of Doris Day and Joan Rivers. Part cabaret, part sparkly pop, her music is as tuneful and clever as the best of the Great American Songbook.
Tickets: $25–35
Washington Performing Arts presents Leon Fleisher & Friends: A 90th Birthday Celebration
Join us as we fête pianist and pedagogue Leon Fleisher on the occasion of his 90th birthday, where he will perform solo and duo works, featuring pianists Katherine Jacobson and Fleisher’s protégé, Jonathan Biss. The evening includes surprise guests who will share their birthday greetings with the master, and a Q&A with Washington Post chief classical music critic Anne Midgette. The program features selections by Bach, Kirchner, Schubert, Ravel, and Dvořák.
Tickets: $65
NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp’s All-Star Tribute to John Coltrane featuring Jason Moran
In this momentous concert, Shepp celebrates the boundless impact and talent of his friend and mentor. He’s joined by pianist and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran and other contemporary greats, including Amir ElSaffar, Darryl Hall, and Nasheet Waits
Tickets: $20–59
PJ Morton
Grammy Award®–winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist PJ Morton brings his brand of love and soul to the Kennedy Center for one night only. Known for his work with Maroon 5 and as music director for Solange’s A Seat at the Table, Morton and his band perform hits from his critically acclaimed album Gumbo and his soul-stirring discography.
Tickets: $49–69
Washington Bach Consort will continue to offer their original Downtown Cantata Series at the Church of the Epiphany on the first Tuesday of each month during their season.
Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170
Washington Bach Consort will continue to offer their original Downtown Cantata Series at the Church of the Epiphany on the first Tuesday of each month during their season.
Tuesday, March 5, 12:10pm
Trio Sonata no. 3 in D Minor, BWV 527
Nicholas Quardokus, organist
Early Music Seminar: Tastes of the Mediterranean
Led by Robert Eisenstein, this lively seminar offers a sneak peek at the upcoming concert Tastes of the Mediterranean: Music of 16th-Century Spain and Italy. Wine reception included.
Location: Folger Haskell Center
Hours: 6pm
Tickets: $20
Info: www.folger.edu/events or (202) 544-7077
Cellist Amanda Gookin takes a major step forward in her mission to make classical music an active force for political good with her Forward Music Project on March 29 at 9:00 p.m. inside Dupont Underground. Praised for “Gookin’s focus and ferocity—coupled with expert technical work” (The Strad), Forward Music Project is presented by National Sawdust Projects—the producing arm of National Sawdust. As part of DIRECT CURRENT’s initiative to take Kennedy Center artists and programming out into the world beyond the traditional concert hall, Forward Music Project reaches new Washington-area audiences at Dupont Underground, a reclaimed 75,000-square-foot art exhibition and performance space built inside the only underground station in D.C.’s old streetcar system.
Forward Music Project commissions seven original multimedia works for cello by some of today’s most forward-thinking composers: Leila Adu, Angélica Negrón,Amanda Feery, Allison Loggins-Hull, Nathalie Joachim, Jessica Meyer, andMorgan Krauss. Pushing the boundaries of traditional writing for cello, Gookin’s performance incorporates singing, chanting, staging effects, and projection art in collaboration with video and projections designer S. Katy Tucker (NSO Pops: West Side Story, the Ring Cycle). The stylistically contrasting compositions focus on the first-person perspectives of women, highlighting issues from the LGBTQ+ community and reproductive rights to harassment and human trafficking.
Ticket Information
Amanda Gookin’s Forward Music Project will be performed on Friday, March 29 at 9 p.m. at Dupont Underground. Tickets ($20) are available at the Kennedy Center Box Office, on the Kennedy Center website, and via phone through Instant Charge, (202) 467-4700; toll-free at (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-related customer service inquires, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540
