78th season of music at the gallery · 2019-12-31 · as a composer, conductor, singer, pianist,...

MUSIC AT THE GALLERY78TH SEASON OF

national gallery of art | september – december 2019

COLLECTION. COLLECTIVE. ENSEMBLE. ASSEMBLE.

WELCOME 3

THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH SEASON of Sunday concerts at the National Gallery of Art celebrates the remarkable ability of art and music to instigate peaceful and positive social change, on a personal, communal, and global level. This fall, thought- provoking performances mark the thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall; bring us words from the youth of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians — a community that has lived on our continent for thousands of years; surprise us with a new interpre-tation of a classic work by Duke Ellington; and explore the music of composer Julius Eastman, whose work is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

Throughout the season, we’ll hear the many voices of one instrument — the violin. On seven occasions, different women will play the instrument in a unique style, from Bach to contemporary improvisations, and from klezmer to jazz and fiddling. In the spring, we’ll reflect on human migration and immigration. We’ll take a look back one hundred years to prohibition and the Jazz Age, and what the era meant for artists and musicians the world over, and how greater international connectivity fostered a worldwide community of cultural exchange. We’ll also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

In today’s divisive and digital world, opportunities to connect to those around us feel rarer. Even though modern technology enables us to be in touch with people all over the world 24 / 7, the only true way to break down barriers and gain a deeper understanding of each other is to gather together in one space to experience just what music and art are all about.

So, let’s come together!

Danielle DeSwert Hahn, Head of Music Programs, National Gallery of Art

4 SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBERThe United States Army Band

“Pershing’s Own”

Moonstruck: Celebrating a New Century of American Music for Pierrot Ensemble

15 | Sunday | 3:30 West Building, West Garden Court

Celebrating By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs

Inspired by the seminal 1912 work Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg, dozens of chamber pieces have since been composed for this flexible and colorful instrumentation; some might even call it the 20th-century chamber ensemble. This program celebrates one hundred years of great music for this now classic instrumentation, focusing on cutting-edge, 21st-century works and featuring Shulamit Ran’s 2004 composition Under the Sun’s Gaze: Concerto da Camera III, David Clay Mettens’s Without Air (2017), Jennifer Higdon’s Zaka (2003), and Sebastian Currier’s Flow (2012).

top U.S. Army Band, photo by MSG Chris Branahan bottom Mau Quiros, photo by Pavel Korbut

SEPTEMBER 5

Mau Quiros

19 | Thursday | 12:10 East Building Auditorium

Presented in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

Born in Costa Rica, Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Mau Quiros won a contest at age seventeen, writing a work for Costa Rica’s National Symphony Orchestra. As a performer, Quiros played with the Big Band of Costa Rica before receiving a full scholar-ship to the Florida International University School of Music in Miami. He has composed

for, performed with, and produced record-ings for a diverse range of artists and organizations, from the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland to Ben Folds and Graham Nash. He has played the most prestigious jazz venues worldwide, including the Monterey, Costa Rica, and Montreal festivals. As musical director and keyboardist of Migguel Anggelo and the Immigrants, Quiros was part of a recent, ten-city concert tour of Russia as a cultural attaché for the U.S. Department of State.

6 SEPTEMBER

Wild Up

A Portrait: Julius Eastman


Based in Los Angeles, the modern music collective Wild Up is an adventurous chamber orchestra made up of musicians committed to creating visceral, thought- provoking happenings. Wild Up believes that music is a catalyst for shared experiences, and that a concert venue is a place to challenge, excite, and ignite a community of listeners. Julius Eastman was an artist who enjoyed a brief period of prominence as a composer, conductor, singer, pianist, and choreographer in New York in the 1970s and early 1980s, yet he died homeless and in relative obscurity. The recent rediscovery of his work is helping to complete his legacy and to give him his rightful place in the canon of American contemporary music. In their Washington, DC debut, Wild Up will perform the composer’s Joy Boy and Femenine.

Sound Sketch New York Opera Society

Challenging Convention: Spanish Modernism in Art and Music of the 1930s

27 | Friday | 12:10 West Building, West Garden Court

Singers from the New York Opera Society perform works by Rodrigo, Llorca, and others — music that intertwines with Spanish art from the Gallery’s collection.

Victory Hall Opera

Heartstrings


Celebrating Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth- Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

From the cozy hearth to the chair left vacant by the slain Civil War soldier, the Victorian parlor resounded with songs that pull at the heartstrings. Victory Hall Opera’s extraordi-nary troupe gathers around the piano to transport you back to mid-19th-century life with tunes of domestic tranquility, Wagnerian heroics, church hymns, spirituals, and songs about proper Victorian etiquette. The program includes works by Amy Beach, Brahms, Chopin, Stephen Foster, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, George F. Root, Schumann, and others, and features mezzo-soprano Brenda Patterson, tenor Will Ferguson, baritone Carlton Ford, and pianists Renate Rohlfing and Timothy McReynolds.

above Carlton Ford, photo by Shannon Langman right Wild Up, photo ©Stephanie Berger

8 OCTOBER

Rachel Barton Pine, violin Jory Vinikour, harpsichord

J. S. Bach Masterpieces for Violin and Harpsichord


This concert is first in a series of perfor-mances by female violinists, showcasing the brilliance and stylistic versatility of the instrument from jazz, bluegrass, and baroque to contemporary classical programs.

In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading inter-preter of great classical and contemporary works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. Pine and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour perform an all-Bach program of sonatas and partitas for violin and harpsi-chord. Works include Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord in B Minor and E Major, Partita for Solo Violin in D Minor, and Ouvertüre nach Französischer Art in B Minor.

OCTOBER

OCTOBER 9

Brandon Ridenour with Cuatrombon and Cordeone

Vamos Juntos


Celebrating the 50th anniversary of John Lennon’s 1969 song “Come Together,” Vamos Juntos is a gathering of virtuoso musicians from Venezuela, Portugal, Greece, and the United States, playing a diversified program of newly arranged music. Come together and hear this intriguing ensemble cleverly fuse together Brazilian folk tunes with music from Bach to the Beatles. Featuring Brandon Ridenour, trumpet, Achilles Liarmakopoulos, trombone, Cordeone, accordion / voice, Jorge Glem, cuatro, and Bam Bam Rodriguez, bass.

Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee, pianists


Husband and wife piano duo Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee perform solo and duo works, including a world premiere of a new work composed for them by Marc- André Hamelin, as well as Chorale Preludes by Bach-Ferruccio Busoni, Fantasy on Themes from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro by Liszt-Busoni, selections from Goyescas by Enrique Granados, and Sinfonietta, op. 49, by Nikolai Kapustin.

left Rachel Barton Pine and Jory Vinikour, photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco. top right Brandon Ridenour, photo by Jiyang Chen. bottom right Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee, photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

10 OCTOBER

Slavic Soul Party!

Far East Suite


Slavic Soul Party! (SSP) reimagines Duke Ellington’s iconic Far East Suite as an Eastern European brass band discovering an exotic American sound, reversing the “exotic tinge,” and reveling in this subtle, funky, and brilliant music. Ellington’s suite (created with Billy Strayhorn) was inspired by a 1963 State Department tour that was cut short — they didn’t make it to the “Far East” — and serves as a perfect foil for SSP’s blend of East European, Romani, and American sounds. Critics call it “a pretty heavenly match” (TimeOut New York), and say “parts of SSP’s reinterpretation sounds like a Bulgarian wedding, others like a gypsy jazz funeral in New Orleans. And yet . . . it all sounds like Duke Ellington” (Wall Street Journal ).

Gaelynn Lea

29 | Tuesday | 12:10 West Building Lecture Hall

Presented in honor of Disability Employment Awareness Month

This concert is part of a series of perfor-mances by female violinists, showcasing the brilliance and stylistic versatility of the instrument.

Gaelynn Lea won NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016, and she’s been on the road ever since playing her unique mix of haunting original songs and traditional fiddle tunes. In addition to recording and performing nationally, she also conducts speaking engagements about disability rights, finding inner freedom, and access- ibility in the arts. In recent years, she has used her music as a platform to advocate for people with disabilities and to promote positive social change.

Sound Sketch Jacqueline Pollauf, harp

Lamentations, Prayers, and Meditations in Contemporary Art and Music

25 | Friday | 12:10 East Building Library

This program of 20th-century works for the harp is inspired by three 20th-century American works of art in the Gallery’s collection, which are not currently on view: Benton Spruance’s Lamentation, Albert Urban’s Prayer, and Felrath Hines’s Medita-tion. Harpist Jacqueline Pollauf performs The Crown of Ariadne by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, Hindemith’s well-known Harp Sonata, and the world premiere of Harper’s Ferry, composed for Pollauf by Scottish composer Nicky Hind. The program concludes with Israeli composer Sergiu Natra’s Prayer, a work of great longing.

left Jacqueline Pollauf, photo by Roy Cox. top right Gaelynn Lea, photo by Richard Carter. bottom right Slavic Soul Party, photo by Jason Schaltz

12 NOVEMBER

Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller

Parlour Game


This concert is part of a series of performances by female violinists, showcasing the brilliance and stylistic versatility of the instrument.

In their latest endeavor, Parlour Game, violinist Jenny Scheinman and drummer Allison Miller dig into the rootsier elements of jazz, along with the formidable pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr. The repertoire explores swing, go-go, backbeats, and ballads. Scheinman and Miller are both artists with eclectic backgrounds, having collaborated with such diverse musicians as Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Ron Miles, Nels Cline, Jason Moran, Lucinda Williams, Natalie Merchant, Toshi Reagon, and Renee Rosnes. In Parlour Game, they explore the classic format of the piano quartet and strive for excellence in simplicity — the perfect groove and a melody that sticks.

Gewandhaus Woodwind Quintet


Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the finale to the year of German-American friendship, Wunderbar Together. Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Winners from Washington Performing Arts 48th Annual Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition

16 | Saturday | 3:00 West Building, West Garden Court

Come hear winners of the 48th Annual Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition, featuring students in grades K-12 who study violin, viola, cello, or bass in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. This competition is a staple program of Washington Performing Arts that allows the organization to provide opportunities to budding musicians.

NOVEMBER

NOVEMBER 13

Curtis on Tour Curtis Winds and Strings


A unique chamber ensemble of winds and strings performs expansive works by Beethoven and Penderecki in this concert featuring Curtis on Tour, the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music. Curtis alumni Benjamin Schmid, one of today’s most versatile violinists, and Gabriel Kovach, principal horn of the Phoenix Symphony, lead the ensemble in this tour performance.

left Parlour Game, photo by Servin Lainez. top right Gewandhaus Woodwind Quintet, photo © Gewandhaus, Jens Gerber. bottom right Gabriel Kovach of Curtis on Tour, photo by Jared Platt

NOVEMBER 15

Cherokee Chamber Singers

Si Otsedoha (We’re Still Here)


Presented in honor of Native American Heritage Month

The Cherokee Chamber Singers are the premier performing ensemble from Cherokee High School in Cherokee, North Carolina, and are under the direction of Michael Yannette. Representing both their school and the Cherokee community, their unique and varied programs offer audiences not only a traditional and modern glimpse of Native American music, but also perfor-mances of choral, classical, musical theater, and pop/rock genres. They have toured throughout the United States, including performances at Carnegie Hall, the Smith- sonian Institution, and Disney World Orlando. The singers are proud to present William Britelle’s Si Otsedoha. This work reflects the thoughts and feelings of the Cherokee Chamber Singers and their fellow students from the Cherokee Central Schools about what it means to be Cherokee in the past, present, and future.

top left Cherokee Chamber Singers, photo by Michael Yannette. bottom left Atlantic Reed Consort, photo by David Hobby Photography

Sound Sketch Atlantic Reed Consort

Reflecting Pool: Music that Mirrors Art on the Mezzanine

22 | Friday | 12:10 East Building Mezzanine

This performance explores the connection between two separate yet always intertwined art forms, the visual arts and music. Discuss-ing works from the National Gallery of Art’s East Gallery Mezzanine floor, the Atlantic Reed Consort takes you on a virtual tour, sonically mirroring the collection’s post- impressionist, abstract expressionist, minimalist, and modern artists. Program includes works by Richard Strauss, Louis Andriessen, and Marc Mellits, and a commis-sioned premiere by Ben Robichaux.

Winners from Washington Performing Arts 5th Annual Misbin Family Memorial Chamber Music Competition


The Misbin Family Memorial Chamber Music Competition is jointly sponsored by Wash-ington Performing Arts and Levine Music and generously supported by Dr. Robert Misbin. This annual competition is open to student and adult instrumental chamber music ensembles in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The winners of the 2019 competition will delight listeners with their varying age groups and instrumental make-up. Presented in collaboration with Washington Performing Arts.

DECEMBER 17

Alicia Svigals, klezmer fiddle, and Uli Geissendoerfer, piano With special guest William Schimmel, accordion

Beregovski Suite: Reimagining a Long-Lost Klezmer Archive


This concert is part of a series of performances by female violinists, showcasing the brilliance and stylistic versatility of the instrument.

Twenty years ago, violinist Alicia Svigals, the world’s foremost klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, released her groundbreaking album Fidl, the first contemporary recording of the deep and ecstatic klezmer fiddle music that had been beloved across Jewish Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. In 2018, she paired up with Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer on Beregovski Suite, a project that brings to life long-lost melodies from the early 20th-century fieldwork of Moshe Beregovski and reimagines them for the 21st century. They are joined by William Schim-mel, the world’s foremost classical and new music accordionist.

Caroling in the Rotunda

7 | Saturday | 1:30 | 2:30 West Building Rotunda

The Gallery maintains a long-standing tradition of welcoming groups from the community to sing holiday carols in the decorated Rotunda.

JACK Quartet

Modern Medieval


JACK Quartet plays an extraordinary program that follows a musical thread from medieval plainsong through to the present day, drawing sonic similarities from wildly divergent works and echoing the timeless-ness of the space surrounding them. The program includes older works by Thomas Morley, Solage, and Rodericus paired with newer works by Chaya Czernowin, Marcos Balter, and John Zorn.

Caroling in the Rotunda

14 | Saturday | 1:30 | 2:30 West Building Rotunda

The Gallery maintains a long-standing tradition of welcoming groups from the community to sing holiday carols in the decorated Rotunda.

left Alicia Svigals, photo by Kyle Ober. top right JACK Quartet, photo by Beowulf Sheehan

DECEMBER

18 DECEMBER

East of the River

Solstice: Darkness Is Your Candle


World music supergroup East of the River offers a very different type of holiday concert with this mesmerizing performance. Focused on the winter solstice, family, and new begin- nings, Solstice: Darkness Is Your Candle explores music of the Mediterranean, Balkans, Armenia, and the Middle East, presenting the earliest songs of those extraordinary cultures. Taking its name from the work of the Persian poet Rumi, the performance explores a lunar atmosphere in the first half of the program and then shifts into rebirth and daylight to create a unique and unforgettable musical journey for the New Year.

Inscape Chamber Orchestra DC Youth Orchestra


Inscape Chamber Orchestra presents rare chamber orchestra works of Respighi and Stravinsky, and is joined by twenty-four select members of the DC Youth Orchestra for a combined performance of Beethoven’s Second Symphony.

Calmus Vocal Ensemble

Carols from around the World


When the summer heat shimmers above the vastness of the Australian bushland, when sleigh bells ring joyfully through the snow-covered forest of Estonia, when people in Mexico portray the pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph, and families in Denmark dance around the Christmas tree, then it is Christ-mastime and the whole world celebrates and sings. Calmus Vocal Ensemble, first-prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competi-tion, performs an international selection of the most beautiful Christmas carols from all over the world, including Denmark, Germany, England, France, Ireland, Croatia, North America, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain, as well as “Silent Night” in several languages. Founded in 1999, this German a cappella quintet embodies the rich choral tradition of its hometown of Leipzig, the city so closely associated with Bach and Mendelssohn. Whether singing music by those German masters or other works in its diverse repertoire, Calmus captivates both audiences and critics with its charming stage presence, flawless technique, and entertaining presentation.

top right East of the River, photo by Ran Biran. middle right Inscape Chamber Orchestra, photo by Jennifer White-Johnson. bottom right Calmus Vocal Ensemble, photo by Marco Borggreve

The seventy-eighth season of The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts at the National Gallery of Art is open to the public, free of charge. Admittance is on a first-come basis thirty minutes before the concert begins. For further information, call (202) 842-6941 or visit nga.gov / music.

Concerts resume on January 5, 2020.

cover Ben Shahn, Silent Music (detail), 1950, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

78th season of music at the gallery · 2019-12-31 · as a composer, conductor, singer, pianist,...

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