Siebert leaves NY Philharmonic

Renée Siebert, the Richmond-bred flutist, is retiring from the New York Philharmonic after 36 years with the orchestra, Anthony Tommasini reports in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/arts/music/12phil.html?ref=music

Siebert began her study of the flute in Richmond, subsequently attending the North Carolina School of the Arts (now UNC School of the Arts) and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Julius Baker, then principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic.

While performing in the philharmonic, Siebert has also been active as a solo and chamber musician, recording artist and teacher, most recently at Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL.

University of Virginia-based composer Judith Shatin's 1991 flute concerto, "Ruah," is one of a number of contemporary works for flute that Siebert has introduced.

'Rings' on the rocks

The debt-ridden Los Angeles Opera, which obtained a $14-million loan from the city last December, now anticipates ticket sales coming in $1 million to $1.5 million below projections for its performances of Achim Freyer's action-heroic staging of Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Some tickets are being discounted by nearly 50 percent, the Los Angeles Times' David Ng reports:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/los_angeles_opera/

The Metropolitan Opera, also running in the red (though not as deeply as LA), has to cough up an extra $1 million-plus to shore up its stage to support the 45-ton weight of Robert Lepage's new set for a "Ring" cycle to be launched in September. "[S]pending on the cycle could exceed $16 million," Daniel J. Wakin reports in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/arts/music/08met.html?ref=arts

As this news breaks, Jaime Weinman, writing for the Canadian magazine Maclean's, dusts off and endorses one of the most pointed critiques of Wagner's reconstitution of music drama, as realized in the "Ring." The critic was Tchaikovsky, writing in 1876:

"Since in the moments of passionate intensity to which people living in a social community are subject nobody would think of striking up a song, arias are to be rejected; and since as a rule two people do not speak to one another at the same time, but rather one will let the other speak out first, there can be no duets either. Similarly, since people in a crowd do not generally all utter the same words together at the same time, a chorus must also be out of the question . . .

"Wagner exclusively recognizes the form of the recitative. All his music . . . is entrusted exclusively to the orchestra. The characters sing mainly just completely colourless successions of tones which are tailored to the symphony being performed by the invisible orchestra."

Weinman's full essay:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/08/canadian-director-threatens-to-crush-metropolitan-opera-stage/

Duo's Schumann on air, in recital

Violinist Karen Johnson, who is concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony, and University of Richmond-based pianist Joanne Kong will sample the chamber program they have been touring with this spring to mark the Robert Schumann bicentennial on the composer's 200th birthday, June 8, from 2 to 3 p.m. on WCVE (88.9-FM) and its affiliates, and online at:

http://ideastations.org/radio/stream/hd1

Johnson and Kong will present the complete program of works by Schumann and Elgar at 7 p.m. June 9 at St. James's Episcopal Church in Richmond. (See June calendar for details.)

Mozart for microbes

A German sewage plant is piping Mozart into its treatment operation. "[V]ibrations of the music . . . penetrate everything – including the water, the sewage and the cells. It creates a certain resonance that stimulates the microbes and helps them to work better. We're still in the test phase, but I've already noticed that the sewage breakdown is more efficient," Anton Stucki, the plant's chief operator, tells The Guardian's Kate Connolly:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/02/sewage-mozart-germany

Imagine what Scriabin might do for them.

Modlin Center 2010-11

Recitals by pianist Yefim Bronfman and soprano Amanda Pabyan, an all-Mozart program by pianist Inon Barnatan and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a concert by guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad and their kin, a holiday season program by The King’s Singers, and violinist Robert McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra playing Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons" alongside "The American Four Seasons," a new violin concerto by Philip Glass, highlight classical-music programming in the 2010-11 season of the Modlin Arts Center at the University of Richmond.

The contemporary music sextet eighth blackbird, in its seventh year in residence at UR, will present two programs testing Igor Stravinsky’s assertion, "Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all." The ensemble also will participate in UR’s Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, a program of chamber works by Arnold Schoenberg, and the premiere of a commissioned work by the Chinese-born composer Chen Yi, to be performed with UR’s Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale.

The Shanghai Quartet will present two programs, playing Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with clarinetist Michel Lethiec and Lei Liang’s Quintet for pipa and string quartet with pipa (Chinese lute) player Wu Man. The Shanghai, Wu Man and Lei Liang will give UR’s Neumann Lecture on Music, "Music in a Global Society." Chen Yi will speak to the Jepson Leadership Forum on "A Journey of Creativity and Building an East-West Cultural Exchange."

UR-based pianist-harpsichordist Joanne Kong will play one of the first performances of Michael Colgrass’ "Side by Side," the first concerto written for one performer playing both keyboard instruments, with the Richmond Symphony and its new music director, Steven Smith. (The work was commissioned for Kong by the Richmond Symphony, Esprit Orchestra and Boston Modern Orchestra.)

The Modlin Center’s Great Performances series also will feature dance programs by Diavolo, MOMIX, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and tap-dancer Savion Glover; theater productions by the Reduced Shakespeare Company and Walnut Street Theatre; and concerts by Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, comedian David Sedaris, the KODO Drummers of Japan, the Irish folk band Danú, the folk-bluegrass bands Cherryholmes and Dailey & Vincent, and the Afro-Cuban jazz band Tempo Libre.

Ticket subscriptions are available for five or more events. For subscription information or to obtain a season brochure, call the Modlin Center box office at (804) 289-8980, or visit www.modlin.richmond.edu

Single tickets will begin going on sale on Aug. 23.

The Modlin Center’s Great Performances series and UR Music Department program schedule:


GREAT PERFORMANCES
at 7:30 p.m. unless listed otherwise

Sept. 15 (Camp Concert Hall) – eighth blackbird in "Powerful." John Corigliano: "Mr. Tambourine Man" (soprano TBA); Frederic Rzewski: "Coming Together."

Sept. 16-17 (Jepson Theatre) – Diavolo, modern dance troupe.

Sept. 26 (Camp Concert Hall) – Cherryholmes, folk-bluegrass band.

Sept. 28-30 (Jepson Theatre) – MOMIX, modern dance troupe, in "Botanica."

Oct. 1 (Camp Concert Hall) – Shanghai Quartet with Michel Lethiec, clarinet. Brahms: Clarinet Quintet; other works TBA.

Oct. 5 (Landmark Theater) – David Sedaris, comedian.

Oct. 6-7 (Jepson Theatre) – Reduced Shakespeare Company in "The Complete World of Sports (abridged)."

Oct. 15 (Camp Concert Hall) – Cyro Baptista, percussion, in "Villa-Lobos/Vira Loucus."

Oct. 19 (Jepson Theatre) – Tempo Libre, Afro-Cuban jazz band.

Oct. 27 (Camp Concert Hall) – SFJAZZ Collective.

Nov. 7 (Camp Concert Hall) – Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Kenneth Sillito directing, with Inon Barnatan, piano. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414; Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271; Cassation No. 1 in G major, K. 63; Divertimento in D major, K. 136.

Nov. 10 (Camp Concert Hall) – Dailey & Vincent, bluegrass band.

Nov. 15 (Camp Concert Hall) – Robert McDuffie, violin, with Venice Baroque Orchestra in "The Seasons Project." Vivaldi: "The Four Seasons;" Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2 ("The American Four Seasons").

Nov. 30 (Cannon Memorial Chapel) – The King’s Singers in holiday program.

Dec. 3 (Camp Concert Hall) – Danú, Irish folk band, in "Christmas Ireland: An Nollaig in Éirinn."

Jan. 14-15 (Jepson Theatre) – Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.

Jan. 31-Feb. 1 (Jepson Theatre) – Merce Cunningham Dance Company in "The Legacy Tour."

Feb. 14-15 (Camp Concert Hall) – Savion Glover, tap dancer, in "SoLo iN TiME."

Feb. 18 (Camp Concert Hall) – Amanda Pabyan, soprano. Program TBA.

Feb. 27 (Camp Concert Hall) – Shanghai Quartet with Wu Man, pipa. Lei Liang: Quintet for pipa and string quartet; other works TBA.

March 4-6 (7:30 p.m.); March 5 (2 p.m.) (Jepson Theatre) – Cirque Éloize, modern-dance-circus acrobatic troupe, in "ID."

March 14 (Camp Concert Hall) – eighth blackbird in "Powerless." Philippe Hurel: ". . . à mesure;" György Ligeti: Etudes; Philip Glass: "Music in Similar Motion;" other works TBA.

March 15 (Jepson Theatre) – Walnut Steet Theatre in Tennessee Williams’ "The Glass Menagerie."

March 17 (Landmark Theater) – KODO Drummers of Japan.

March 21 (Camp Concert Hall) – Yefim Bronfman, piano. Esa-Pekka Salonen: new work TBA; Schumann: Humoreske in B flat major, Op. 20; Haydn: Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI/50; Chopin: 12 études, Op. 10.

April 3 (Camp Concert Hall) – Sérgio & Odair Assad, guitars, with Christiane Karam, vocals; Clarice Assad, piano & vocals; and Jamey Haddad, percussion, in "De Volta As Raizes (Back to Our Roots)."


UR MUSIC DEPARTMENT EVENTS
free admission
at 7:30 p.m. in Camp Concert Hall unless listed otherwise

Sept. 19 (3 p.m., Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court) – Donald George, tenor, and Lucy Mauro, piano. "The Old Wicked Songs of Heinrich Heine." Schumann: "Dichterliebe;" other works TBA.

Sept. 20 – Emily Riggs, soprano, and David Ballena, piano. Songs by Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino and Xaver Montsalvatge.

Sept. 24 – Family Weekend Concert, with UR Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Women’s Chorale & Schola Cantorum. Program TBA.

Oct. 13 – TimbaSon, Cuban jazz band, with José Lorenzo, vocals; Mike Davison, trumpet; and dancers from Latin Ballet of Virginia.

Oct. 22 – Richmond Symphony, Steven Smith conducting, with Joanne Kong, piano & harpsichord. Michael Colgrass: "Side by Side" Concerto for piano, harpsichord and orchestra; Heather Stebbins: "Traces;" other works TBA. (Free; tickets required)

Oct. 25 (3 p.m.) – Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale, Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing. Program TBA.

Oct. 29 – David Esleck Trio. Jazz program TBA.

Nov. 4-6 (various times) – Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, Benjamin Broening directing, with eighth blackbird., other performers TBA. Programs TBA.

Nov. 14 – UR Wind Ensemble, David Niethamer directing, with guest director TBA. Holst: Suite No. 2 in F major; other works TBA.

Nov. 17 – UR Jazz Combo; Mike Davison & Peter Loman, trumpets; other guest artists TBA. "Cuban Spectacular," multimedia show with music, dance and video.

Nov. 21 – UR Taiko Ensemble; other other ensembles TBA. "World Music Concert," traditional music from Japan, Brazil and India.

Nov. 22 – UR Jazz Ensemble & Combo, Mike Davison directing, with Justo Almario, saxophone & clarinet.

Nov. 29 – UR Chamber Ensembles. Program TBA.

Dec. 1 – UR Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Kordzaia conducting, with winners of 2010 UR Concerto/Vocal Competition. Program TBA.

Dec. 5 (5 and 8 p.m., Cannon Memorial Chapel) – Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale, Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing, in 37th annual Candlelight Service of Lessons and Carols.

Jan. 26 – eighth blackbird; Karin Brown, violin & viola; Emily Riggs, soprano; Paul Hanson & Joanne Kong, pianos; Mike Davison, trumpet; Anastasia Jellison, harp. Schoenberg: String Trio, "Herzewaechse," "Weinachtsmusik," "Nachtwandler;" Schoenberg-Webern: Chamber Symphony, "Five Orchestra Pieces." (Free; tickets required)

Feb. 6 (3 p.m.) – Richard Becker, piano. Program TBA.

Feb. 23 – Thomas Mastroianni, piano. Lecture-recital with excerpts from Liszt’s "Années de Pelerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage").

Feb. 26 (3 p.m.) – Neumann Lecture on Music: Composer Lei Liang, pipa player Wu Man and Shanghai Quartet on "Music in a Global Society."

March 27 (3 p.m.) – Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, pianos. Works by Becker, Stravinsky, Debussy, others.

April 4 – Jepson Leadership Forum: Composer Chen Yi on "A Journey of Creativity and Building an East-West Cultural Exchange." (Free; tickets required)

April 6 – UR Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Kordzaia conducting, with Nicholas Photinos, cello. Schumann: Cello Concerto; other works TBA.

April 8 – Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale, David Pedersen directing, with eighth blackbird. Chen Yi: work TBA (premiere); other works TBA. (Free; tickets required)

April 10 – Mandingo Ambassadors; other artists TBA. "Global Sounds Festival," music from West Africa, Brazil, India, Japan, Cuba and the Middle East.

April 11 – UR Jazz Ensemble & Combo with strings, Mike Davison directing. Program TBA.

April 13 – UR Wind Ensemble, David Niethamer directing. Alfred Reed: "Othello;" other works TBA.

April 20 – UR Chamber Ensembles. Program TBA.

A theater organ's odyssey

by Bill Van Pelt
guest writer

When the Richmond Symphony played Saint-Saëns' "Organ" Symphony on May 15-16 at Richmond CenterStage's Carpenter Theatre, we heard the pipe organ that was built for the former Loew’s Theater in 1927-28 by the Wurlitzer firm of North Tonowanda, NY.

Or did we? In one very important way, we did not.

As an organ designed to accompany silent movies, and to fill an auditorium with robust sound, the Carpenter Theatre's organ installation has few peers.

John Eberson, the architect of the Richmond Loew's Theater and some 500 other movie palaces, knew from vast experience how to optimize placement of the organ's pipes for maximum connection with the audience in its seats. Marcus Loew chose Eberson as architect because of his track record, the same reason he chose Wurlitzer to supply an enormously efficient pipe organ of modest size and expense that could shake the building and its audience, or whisper to them.

Enormous efficiency from minimal resources characterizes the morph of the traditional, classically built concert-hall or church pipe organ into the theater pipe organ. Each pipe of a theater organ plays many times louder than its traditional counterpart in a church or concert organ is designed to play.

A theater organ of relatively few pipes produces a gigantic volume of sound. Theater operators and architects both liked this characteristic: The architect could devote less space to accommodate the organ pipes than would be required for a church or concert hall organ; and the theater operators had lower tuning expenses because fewer pipes require less maintenance and time spent tuning.

As well, the expense of paying several musicians of a pit orchestra to accompany a silent film was replaced by the expense of a single musician, an organist, who could marshall via the theater pipe organ a wide variety of effects, from doorbells and bird whistles to thunderclaps and the drone of a flotilla of airplanes, and a deafening cataclysm when necessary, beyond what the pit orchestra could possibly muster.

The key to controlling and making musical use of the colossal onslaught of organ tone emerging from the pipes was to enclose the pipes in a sound-inert box, sometimes made of concrete, with very thick and tight-fitting shutters on the front of the box to allow tone to emerge by slight and finely incremental opening and closing of the shutters via a control at the organist’s feet called the swell pedal. Most Wurlitzers have at least two such pedals controlling multiple sets of shades which enclose specific groups of pipes.

* * *

The Carpenter Center organ has 13 ranks of pipes divided into two groups, eight ranks on the left side of the proscenium and five ranks on the right, each group contained within a plaster-on-masonry chamber covered on the front with swell shutters. The organ chambers are located directly behind acoustically transparent curtains that the audience sees in an arched opening located behind and above a short balustrade on each side of the stage.

The original and very thick and tight-fitting organ shutters are now replaced at the Carpenter Theatre organ by ones that are not as sound-insulating and would be suitable for a less powerful church organ. So, this theater organ plays too loudly despite all of the other methods of controlling its volume at the disposal of the organist, such as drawing fewer stops and playing a minimal number of pipes.

Last month, organist Michael Simpson did all that was possible to make the organ sufficiently quiet for its role in the lovely second movement of the Saint-Saëns symphony, but it was still slightly too loud, thanks in part to the very effective placement of the pipes in the auditorium. If the original Wurlitzer shutters or similarly effective ones were in place, the organ would more likely balance the orchestra in quiet passages, and many more pipes could be used in louder passages to make a more satisfyingly full and complex sound without becoming so loud that the orchestra is overwhelmed.

The original Wurlitzer shutters were lost in the long journey that the organ took shortly after Loew's Theater closed in 1979. The organ was removed and given to the American Film Institute Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington. It was never installed in the very small theater; the console sat as an ornament near the box office. (The AFI Theatre was replaced in 2005 by the Family Theater, occupying some of the same space and largely rebuilt.)

The organ pipes and substantial mechanism – windchests, reservoirs and other parts – somehow passed to an owner in Texas, and the organ, or most of it, eventually landed in the warehouse of a pipe-organ parts broker in McMinnville, TN.

* * *

In 1983, while the Loew's organ console was still on display at the AFI Theatre and the rest of it was presumed stored, Richmonders restored and reopened the old Loew's as the Carpenter Center, and the theater became the home of the Richmond Symphony.

Some organ enthusiasts, led by the late theater organist Bill Floyd, arranged for a donation to the Carpenter Center of a collection of organ parts from which they intended, as volunteers, to build a 25-rank organ to occupy the original organ chambers. That project took many more years than the volunteers anticipated and the organ was never played; but most of it had been installed in 1990 when the McMinnville organ broker, Roy Davis, offered to sell the 13-rank Loew's organ in his warehouse to the Carpenter Center for $25,000 and all of the parts of the 25-rank organ the volunteers were building.

Thus, the original Loew's organ returned to Richmond and was first played in 1991, but without its original swell shades. The insufficient shades that now enclose the organ are ones the volunteers had acquired from other sources for their project.

Fortunately, the work of restoring the pipes, windchests, reservoirs, windlines, and major parts of the Wurlitzer located in the chambers behind the leftover swell shades was entrusted to a firm of professional organ-builders owned by William Barger and Charles Nix of McDonald, TN, near Chattanooga. They charged a modest $75,000 for their work. The money for purchase of the Wurlitzer and the restoration was raised by The Muses, a support group for the arts center.

The parts outside the organ chamber, including the console that we see whenever someone plays the organ, were rebuilt and cosmetically restored by remaining members of the volunteer crew led by Fred Berger of Richmond and Nick Pitt. Berger, a telephone company engineer (now retired), and his compatriots logged some 25,000 volunteer hours in bringing an organ to the Carpenter Center and in restoring the Wurlitzer.

Before work commenced on the most recent renovation of the Carpenter Theatre, the Barger and Nix firm removed all of the pipes to safe storage and covered the windchests and other large parts to protect them from damage and dirt contamination, then reinstalled and tonally regulated the organ in the renovated hall.

* * *

Considering the long journey taken by the Loew's organ, its survival is remarkable and its important parts are either original to the Richmond Loew's theater or are identical Wurlitzer parts from another organ or organ. (The 13-rank Style 240 was very popular, Wurlitzer having built many of them among the approximately 2,200 theater organs the firm produced between 1914 and 1931.)

All of the pipes are believed to be original, but a few pieces of mechanism may be from other organs. One of these parts, the windchest in the right chamber, is probably from another organ because it is prepared to receive one more rank of pipes – the Style 240 was not so prepared. When Barger and Nix restored the windchest, they restored this unused portion as well, with the plan that, someday, one more colorful rank of pipes would be added to further extend the tonal pallette of the organ. Those preparations for an additional set of pipes are also reflected in the console as rebuilt by Fred Berger – the stops to control them are already present and wired-up.

Organ experts who have seen the work done by Barger and Nix and by Berger and his crew have found it highly craftsworthy, and nearly two decades of use have proven it to be reliable. Organists who have played the organ find it a thrilling theater organ with great presence in the auditorium.

Now, it could be even better, especially for playing repertoire for organ and symphony orchestra, if we could just put the correct swell shutters on the organ. Maybe another set of pipes, too.

Bill Van Pelt produces recordings of classical pipe-organ music on his Raven CD label, founded in 1978, and served as executive director of the Organ Historical Society from 1982 to 2006. He was recording engineer for the Richmond Symphony from 1971 to 1978, and director of media relations at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1972 to 1982.

June calendar

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.

SCOUTING REPORT

* Not-quite doldrums: With the fall-to-spring season winding down, it’s time to check the oil and kick the tires for summer-festival road trips. The prime Richmond attraction is Centenary United Methodist Church’s summertime showcase of early music, with Stanley M. Baker conducting the Festival Choir and period-instruments orchestra in works of Samuel Wesley, nephew of Methodist patriarch John Wesley, on June 27. . . . On the road, the Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival, June 1-4 at St. George’s Episcopal Church (with a bit of klezmer music on opening night); the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival (you know who plus Barber, Mahler, Schumann and folk singer-instrumentalist John McCutcheon), June 13-20 at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg; and the Washington Early Music Festival (French-accented this year), June 4-26 at various D.C. venues (who could resist the June 13 program, "Au Naturel" by The Suspicious Cheese Lords?) . . . Tickets are scarce for pianist André Watts playing Beethoven’s "Emperor" Concerto with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, June 5 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., and cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing Osvaldo Golijov’s "Azul" with Jeffrey Kahane and the National Symphony, June 29 at Washington’s Kennedy Center; but still available for percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s performances of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s "Magma" with Neeme Järvi and the National Symphony, June 10-12 at the Kennedy Center, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein playing Beethoven, Britten, Chopin and De Falla, June 15 at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington. . . . Pianist Soheil Nasseri plays Chopin, Schumann and Beethoven alongside music by contemporary Iranian composers, June 6 at Strathmore. . . . Actors Derek Jacobi and Richard Clifford, countertenor David Daniels and baritone Robert McDonald join the Folger Consort in readings from Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" with incidental music by Matthew Locke, plus arias by Handel, June 11 at Strathmore.


June 1 (7 p.m.)
St. George’s Episcopal Church, 905 Princess Anne St., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Bayla Keyes & Peter Zazofsky, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
Paul Glenn, double-bass
Carol Wincenc, flute
Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Kathleen Reynolds, bassoon
William Scharnberg, French horn
Michele Levin, piano
Christina Crowder, accordion
Nielsen: "Serenata in vano"
Beethoven: Serenade, Op. 25, for flute, violin and viola
klezmer selections TBA
Dvořák: Trio in F minor, Op. 65
$25
(540) 374-5040
http://www.fredfest.org/

June 1 (7:30 p.m.)
June 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Plácido Domingo & Patrick Fournillier conducting
Thomas: "Hamlet"
Liam Bonner/Michael Chioldi (Hamlet)
Diana Damrau (Ophelia)
Samuel Ramey (Claudius)
Elizabeth Bishop (Gertrude)
John Tessier (Laertes)
Leo An (Polonius)
José Ortega (Marcellus)
Thaddeus Strassberger, stage director
in French, English captions
$50-$300
(800) 876-7372
http://www.dc-opera.org/

June 3 (7 p.m.)
St. George’s Episcopal Church, 905 Princess Anne St., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Bayla Keyes & Peter Zazofsky, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Michele Levin, piano
Rossini: Quartet No. 1 in F major
Haydn: "The Seven Last Words of Christ"
narrator TBA
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
$25
(540) 374-5040
http://www.fredfest.org/

June 3 (7 p.m.)
June 4 (1:30 p.m.)
June 5 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Iván Fischer conducting
Rimsky-Korsakov: "Scheherazade"”
Stravinsky: "The Rite of Spring"
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 4 (7 p.m.)
St. George’s Episcopal Church, 905 Princess Anne St., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Bayla Keyes & Peter Zazofsky, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
Paul Glenn, double-bass
Carol Wincenc, flute
Michele Levin, piano
C.P.E. Bach: Quartet in G major
Prokofiev: Sonata in C major, Op. 56, for two violins
Handel-Halvorsen: Passacaglia for violin and double-bass
Dohnányi: Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1
$25
(540) 374-5040
http://www.fredfest.org/

June 4 (8 p.m.)
All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church, 2300 Cathedral Ave. NW, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Orpheus
Philip Cave, director & tenor
Roger Isaacs, countertenor
Michael McCarthy, bass
Kevin Payne, therobo
Scott Detra, organ
"Motets and Airs by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and his contemporaries"
$20
(202) 232-4244
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 5 (8 p.m.)
St. Columba's Episcopal Church, 4201 Albemarle St., Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
The Vivaldi Project
"The French-Italian Connection," works by Vivaldi, Lully, Campra, Muffat
$20
(202) 363-4119
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 5 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Barber: Adagio for strings
Bartók: "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta"
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor")
André Watts, piano
$30-$90 (waiting list)
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org/

June 6 (4 p.m.)
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 520 N. Boulevard, Richmond
Richmond Choral Society
Markus J. Compton directing
"A Sentimental Journey," music by Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, others
$10
(804) 967-9878
http://www.richmondchoralsociety.org/

June 6 (2 p.m.)
Chandler Hall, Diehl Arts Center, Old Dominion University, Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Fellows of John Duffy Composers Institute
vocal, instrumental works TBA (premieres)
Free
(757) 282-2800
http://www.virginiaartsfest.com/

June 6 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Walter Gieseking: Quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn
Szymanowski: "Myths" for violin and piano
Schubert: String Quartet in C major, D. 956
$35
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 6 (4 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Soheil Nasseri, piano
Chopin: Waltz in A flat major, Op. 30, No. 1
Chopin: Ballade in G minor, Op. 23
Schumann: Humoresque in B flat major, Op. 20
Hormoz Farhat: "Persian Bagatelles" (premiere)
Javad Maroufi: "Jila"
Javad Maroufi: "Khabhaye Talaei" ("Golden Dreams")
Ruhollah Khaleghi: "Ey Iran"
Beethoven: Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 ("Appassionata")
$15-$35
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

June 8 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Municipal Band
Steve Layman directing
"A New Season of Old Favorites," works by Sousa, Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, others
Free
(434) 979-1333
http://www.theparamount.net/

June 9 (7 p.m.)
St. James's Episcopal Church, 1205 W. Franklin St., Richmond
Karen Johnson, violin
Joanne Kong, piano
Schumann: Sonata in a minor, Op. 105
Schumann: Sonata "Frei aber einsam" (excerpts)
Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 131 (third movement)
Schumann: Fantasy, Op. 17 for piano
Elgar: "Chanson de Nuit"
Elgar: "Chanson de Matin"
donation requested
(804) 359-1779
http://doers.org/pages/musiccalendar.htm

June 10 (7 p.m.)
June 11 (8 p.m.)
June 12 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi conducting
Grieg: "Lyric Suite"
Erkki-Sven Tüür: "Magma"
Evelyn Glennie, percussion
Bernstein: "Candide" Overture & Suite
Duke Ellington: "Harlem"
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 10 (8 p.m.)
Christ Church on Capitol Hill, 620 G St. SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Harmonious Blacksmith
Linda Tsatsanis, soprano
Justin Godoy, recorder
Josh Lee, viola da gamba
John Lenti, lute
Joseph Gascho, harpsichord
"L'Amour et la Mort: Love and Death in 17th-century French Music"
$20
(202) 547-9300
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 10 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Barber: "Knoxville, Summer of 1915"
Janice Chamdler-Etemé, soprano
Brahms: "A German Requiem"
Janice Chandler-Etemé, soprano
Stephen Powell, baritone
The Washington Chorus
Julian Wachner directing
Morgan State University Choir
Eric Conway directing
$25-$80
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org/

June 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU alumni concert
works by Bach, Debussy, Simon Sargon, Joseph Turrin, Alexander Goesdicke, others
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

June 11 (8 p.m.)
St. Peter's Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, 313 2nd St SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Carmina/Illuminare
"A Festival of Praise"
anon: "The Mass of Tournai"
Peter Abelard: "Planctus virginum Israel"
works by Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Lhéritier
$20
(202) 547-1430
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 11 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Folger Consort
Handel: arias TBA
David Daniels, countertenor
Matthew Locke: "The Tempest" incidental music, with readings from Shakespeare’s play
Derek Jacobi & Richard Clifford, actors
David Daniels, countertenor
Robert McDonald, baritone
$25-$75
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

June 12 (8 p.m.)
St. Peter's Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, 313 2nd St. SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
The Countertop Ensemble
"Les Douces Memoires: La musique anncienne de France"
Pre-concert talk at 7 p.m.
$20
(202) 547-1430
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 13 (3 p.m.)
Lehman Auditorium, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg
Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival:
Festival Orchestra
Kenneth Nafziger conducting
Bach: "Brandenburg" Concerto No. 2
Joan Griffing, violin
Mary Kay Adams, flute
Sandra Gerster, oboe
David Wick, French horn
Bach: "Brandenburg" Concerto No. 5
Joan Griffing, violin
Mary Kay Adams, flute
Marvin Mills, harpsichord
John McCutcheon: songs, instrumental pieces
John McCutcheon, singer-instrumentalist
$25
(540) 432-4582
www.emu.edu/bach

June 13 (4 p.m.)
La Maison Française (French Embassy), 4101 Reservoir Road NW, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
The Suspicious Cheese Lords
"Au Naturel: Early French Music for Unaccompanied Voices"
$20
(202) 944-6400
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 13 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano
Laura Ward, piano
Cavani String Quartet
works by Handel, Schumann, Chausson, Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, others
$35-$85
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

June 14 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Beethoven Found Philharmonic
Yuval Waldman conducting
Beethoven: “Macbeth” Overture
Beethoven: Oboe Concerto (andante)
H. David Meyers, oboe
Beethoven: "Choral Fantasy"
Aglaia Koras, piano
Aurelia String Quartet
City of Washington Chorus
Robert Shafer directing
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
$75
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 15 (8 p.m.)
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW, Washington
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano
Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2
Britten: Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 65
De Falla: "Suite Populaire Espagnole"
Chopin: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65
$40
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

June 16 (8 p.m.)
Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, 421 Seward Square SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
La Ménéstrandise
"Springtime in Paris," 18th-century works for recorders, oboe, gamba, harpsichord and bass
$20
(202) 546-1000
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 17 (7 p.m.)
June 18 (8 p.m.)
June 19 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Juraj Valcuha conducting
Haydn: Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine")
Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1
Jennifer Koh, violin
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Lehman Auditorium, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg
Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival:
Festival Orchestra
Kenneth Nafziger conducting
Bach: Cantata 211 ("Coffee Cantata")
Anne Gross, soprano
Joel Ross, tenor
James Richardson, bass
Mahler: "Five Rückert Songs"
Heidi Kurtz, mezzo-soprano
Barber: "Knoxville, Summer of 1915"
Anne Gross, soprano
Osvaldo Golijov: "Lullaby and Doina"
$25
(540) 432-4582
www.emu.edu/bach

June 18 (8 p.m.)
St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, 118 3rd St. SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Repast Baroque Ensemble
Amelia Roosevelt, baroque violin
John Mark Rozendaal, viola da gamba
Avi Stein, harpsichord
"La Pantomime," works by Leclair, Mariais, Rameau, Fourquery, Couperin, Morel
$20
(202) 543-0053
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Lehman Auditorium, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg
Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival:
Festival Orchestra
Kenneth Nafziger conducting
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2
Chopin: Variations on "La ci darem la mano"
Lynne Mackey, piano
Barber: "Mutations from Bach"
W.F. Bach: Sinfonia in F major
Schumann: "Konzertstück" for four horns & orchestra
David Wick, Barbara Josenhans, Jay Chadwick & Tara Islas, French horns
$25
(540) 432-4582
www.emu.edu/bach

June 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
18th Street Singers
Benjamin Olinsky directing
"New Beginnings," works by Rachmaninoff, Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, Howard Hanson, others
$15-$20
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 19 (8 p.m.)
St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, 118 3rd St SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Modern Musick
"Salon Parisien: Instrumental Music by Rameau, Boismortier and Corrette"
$20
(202) 543-0053
www.earlymusicdc.org

June 20 (4 p.m.)
St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 2480 Batterson Road, Powhatan
Greater Richmond Children's Choir
Hope Armstrong Erb directing
program TBA
$5
(804) 598-3754
http://www.grcchoir.org/

June 20 (6 p.m.)
The Gardens at Sunday Point, Brandermill, 4602 Millridge Parkway, Midlothian
Richmond Philharmonic
Robert Mirakian conducting
"Just for Fun," light-classical & pops works TBA
Free
(804) 673-7400
http://www.richmondphilharmonic.org/

June 20 (10 a.m.)
Lehman Auditorium, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg
Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Leipzig Service:
Festival Choir & Orchestra
Kenneth Nafziger conducting
Marvin Mills, organ
Bach: Cantata 39, "Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot"
Anne Gross, soprano
Joel Ross, alto
James Richardson, bass
Barber: Adagio for strings
Bach: Sanctus in D major, BWV 238
donation requested
(540) 432-4582
www.emu.edu/bach

June 20 (3 p.m.)
St. Paul's Parish, K Street, 2430 K St. NW, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
BHB
Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano
Howard Bass, lutes
"Airs de Cour," 16th- and 17th-century French songs and solos
$20
(202) 337-2020
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Grace Episcopal Church, 1607 Grace Church Road, Silver Spring, MD
Washington Early Music Festival:
L'Arabesque Baroque
Leslie Nero, violin
Billy Simms, therobo
Douglas Wolters & Cariolana Simon, viols
"An Evening at Versailles: Court Music for the Sun King"
$20
(301) 585-3515
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 22 (12:10 p.m.)
Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Arco Voce
Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano
Elizabeth Field & Nina Falk, violins
Douglas McNames, cello
Steven Silverman, harpsichord
William Sharp, baritone
John Moran, viola da gamba
"Airs du Coeur," works by Monteclair, Leclair, Couperin, Guillemain, Jacquet de la Guerre
$20
(202) 347-2635
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 24 (7 p.m.)
June 25 (8 p.m.)
June 26 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Marvin Hamlisch conducting
Jim Owen, Tony Kishman, Tom Teeley, Chris Camilleri & Martin Herman, guest stars
"Classical Mystery Tour," music of The Beatles
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

June 24 (8 p.m.)
St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, 118 3rd St SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Ensemble Gaudior
"Splendors of Versailles," works by Rameau, Couperin, Marais
$20
(202) 543-0053
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 25 (8 p.m.)
St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, 118 3rd St. SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Armonio Nova
Constance Whiteside, director & medieval harp
Marjorie Bunday, alto
Allison Mondel, soprano
Jay White, countertenor
Craig Resta, vielle
Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano
"When Love Was Art: Passionate Music from the Age of Chivalry"
$20
(202) 543-0053
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 26 (8 p.m.)
St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, 118 3rd St. SE, Washington
Washington Early Music Festival:
Stephen Ackert & Keith Reas, organs
Steven Silverman & Atsuko Watanabe, harpsichords
"Four Early Keyboards," program TBA
$20
(202) 543-0053
http://www.earlymusicdc.org/

June 27 (5 p.m.)
Centenary United Methodist Church, 411 E. Grace St., Richmond
Centenary Festival Chorus & Orchestra
Stanley M. Baker conducting
"A Walk with Wesley"
Samuel Wesley: Concerto in D major
Grant Hellmers, organ
Risa Browder, violin
Samuel Wesley: "Funeral Anthem on the Death of the Late Charles Wesley"
Brittany Brooks & Lynn LaBarre, sopranos
Emily Martin, alto
Todd Minnich, tenor
Dustin Faltz, baritone
Samuel Wesley: "Exultate Deo" (orchestral version)
Samuel Wesley: "Ode to Saint Cecilia"
Anne O’Byrne, soprano
Lynn Kotrady, alto
John C. Ford Jr., bass
$15 suggested donation
(804) 648-8319
http://www.centumc.org/

June 29 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane conducting
Ravel: "Alborada del gracioso"
Ravel: "Ma mère l’oye"
Ravel: "Rapsodie espagnole"
Osvaldo Golijov: "Azul"
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
$30-$125 (waiting list)
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org