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The Library of Congress Announces 2023 Concert Series

The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress
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WASHINGTON, DC (CelebrityAccess) – The Library of Congress has announced the Spring 2023 concert series, Series Presents. It will feature world premieres of Library commissions by Danny Elfman and Marcos Balter. The series will present several concerts and more this spring with chamber music, jazz, dance, and film events. Conversations with composers and musicians curated displays and educational offerings will provide opportunities for encounters with the Library’s celebrated music collections.

The majority of the events will be presented live in the historic Coolidge Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Due to an ongoing renovation in the Coolidge, events in February will be presented at the Library’s alternative venues.

All events are free and open to the public. You can register to attend the events on the Concerts from the Library of Congress events website. As of press time, masks are optional in the building.

“We are excited about a blockbuster run of events this spring, including great jazz, new music from a diverse group of composers, and concerts that highlight our incomparable instruments,” said Susan H. Vita, chief of the Library’s Music Division.”

Spring 2023 Programs

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m.: Klangforum Wien – One of Europe’s great contemporary music ensembles.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
301 A Street SE Washington, DC

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m.: Quatuor Van Kuijk
Great Hall, Thomas Jefferson Building
The Paris-based ensemble plays the Library’s Stradivari instruments in the Great Hall of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building. The U.S. premiere of Benjamin Attahir’s Al Dhikrâ will be performed, with Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor.

Saturday, Feb. 11, 8 p.m.: Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki, conductor and harpsichord and Roderick Williams, baritone
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
301 A Street SE Washington, DC

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1 p.m.: Washington Men’s Camerata with Frank Albinder, artistic director
Virtual Performance and Webinar


Friday, March 3, 8 p.m.: Escher Quartet with Jason Vieaux, guitar
The Escher Quartet joins forces with acclaimed guitarist Jason Vieaux for a delightful program of chamber music by Boccherini, Bach, Beethoven and Castelnuovo-Tedesco — plus an excerpt from Pat Metheny’s “Four Paths of Light.”

Friday, March 17, 8 p.m.: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
Trumpeter, composer, and producer, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah perform his latest work, “Axiom,” with his band.

Monday, March 20, 8 p.m.: Ars Nova Copenhagen
Led by conductor Paul Hillier, the 12 voices of Ars Nova Copenhagen link the worlds of Machaut and Gibbons to those of the 20th century and beyond with pieces by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Per Nørgård, Gavin Bryars, and Caroline Shaw.

Tuesday, March 21, 8 p.m.: Stephen Hough, piano
Sir Stephen Hough presents a recital with music from the mysterious and mystical realms of Mompou and Scriabin to the evocative imagery of Liszt and Debussy plus Hough’s own Partita.

Monday, Wednesday, March 27, 8 p.m.: Richard O’Neill, viola, and Jeremy Denk, piano
Longtime chamber partners, O’Neill and Denk are an adventurous duo bringing a program of landmark works for the viola. O’Neill will play the 1690 Tuscan-Medici viola, on loan to the Library from the Tuscan Corporation, one of only a handful of Stradivari violas in existence.

Friday, March 31, 8 p.m.: Immanuel Wilkins Quartet
Saxophonist, composer, and arranger, Immanuel Wilkins is a vital voice in a new generation of jazz thinkers. Wilkins references John Coltrane and the music of the Baptist and Pentecostal churches of his Philadelphia childhood.

Saturday, April 1, 8 p.m.: Wild Up
Known for their contemporary music experiences, the Los Angeles-based Wild Up ensemble plays music by Felipe Lara, Anthony Braxton, and Jürg Frey alongside several extraordinary works by the maverick composer Julius Eastman.

Friday, April 14, 8 p.m.: Mingus Dynasty Quintet
The Library joins forces with D.C. JazzFest to celebrate the 100th birth year and legacy of the virtuoso bassist, bandleader, and prolific composer Charles Mingus.

Friday, April 21, 8 p.m.: Harlem Quartet with Michael Brown, piano
The Grammy Award-winning Harlem Quartet and Michael Brown perform a program featuring the versatility of the string quartet and piano


Thursday, April 27, 8 p.m.: Takt Trio, Program I
The Takt Trio performs the horn trio of György Ligeti to mark the composer’s 100th anniversary, alongside Marcos Balter’s new chamber piece for horn trio, co-commissioned by the Library’s Irving and Verna Fine Fund, and Hilda Paredes’s “Koan,” commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress.

Saturday, April 29, 2 p.m.: Takt Trio, Program II
As a bonus matinée concert, the Takt Trio performs the Brahms horn trio alongside the classic 20th-century work it inspired: György Ligeti’s horn trio, itself an homage to Brahms.

Thursday, May 4, 8 p.m.: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Chad Hoopes, violin
An evening with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra honors the legacy of conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Chad Hoopes performs Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, and a new Library of Congress commission from acclaimed film and concert composer Danny Elfman.

Friday, May 5, 2 p.m.: Symposium: New Musical Discoveries from the Era of Madame Pompadour (1745-1764)
Room 119, Thomas Jefferson Building
Susan H. Vita, chief, Music Division, Library of Congress
Mathias Auclair, director, Music Department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Sylvie Bouissou, director of research, National Center of Scientific Research (CHRS)
Ryan Brown, artistic director, and founder, of Opera Lafayette

The Library in collaboration with Opera Lafayette presents French and American scholars involved with the rediscovery, completion, and premieres of two significant 18th-century opéra-ballets: Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Io” and Pierre de la Garde’s “Léandre et Héro.”

Wednesday, May 10, 7 p.m.: Anna Sokolow, Alex North, and the Reimagined Roots of Anti-Fascist Dance
The Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble presents a lecture by artistic director Samantha Géracht that introduces performances of two newly restored works by American choreographer Anna Sokolow.

Friday, May 12, 8 p.m.: Cecile McLorin Salvant Quintet
Three-time Grammy winner and MacArthur Fellow, Salvant presents music from a recent project. “Ghost Song” is a mix of seven original songs and five covers on ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning themes.

Friday, May 19, 8 p.m.: Signum Quartet
Germany’s Signum Quartet plays Franz Schubert’s masterpiece, “Death and the Maiden,” with works by Joseph Haydn, Priaulx Rainier, and Matthijs van Dijk.

Saturday, May 20, 10:30 a.m.: Mo Willems: SLOPERA
The New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Mo Willems comes to the Library for a reading of his books “Because” and “I Really Like Slop!”


Wednesday, May 24, 7 p.m.: How Do You Measure a Year? Jonathan Larson and the Creation of the Musical “Rent”
Montpelier Room, James Madison Building
In a lecture co-presented with the American Musicological Society, Alex Bádue discusses his research on Jonathan Larson’s “Rent,” based on lyric sketches, letters, and scripts held in the Library’s Jonathan Larson Collection. Bádue focuses on the final year of the composition process, from 1995 to 1996, and establishes a timeline that includes major events in the making of the musical that have not yet been accounted for in the historiography of “Rent” and its original production.

Thursday, June 8, 8 p.m.: Bill Charlap Trio, Jon Faddis, trumpet, and Samara Joy, vocals
The Bill Charlap Trio and two partners perform Strayhorn’s unforgettable songs — and some piano solos.

Friday, June 9, 7 p.m. Screening of “Anatomy of a Murder”
Mary Pickford Theater, James Madison Building
The music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington plays an important role in this film nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Saturday, June 10, 2 p.m.: Screening of “Paris Blues”
Mary Pickford Theater, James Madison Building
“Paris Blues” is a classic love story about American expatriate jazz musicians in Paris, with memorable performances by figures including Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Louis Armstrong.

Saturday, June 10, 4 p.m.: Strayhorn Known and Unknown Symposium
Room 119, Thomas Jefferson Building
David Hajdu, author of “Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn”
Robert G. O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University
Lisa Barg, associate professor, Schulich School of Music of McGill University
A. Alyce Claerbaut, president, Strayhorn Songs, Inc.

Join for the keynote lecture at 4 p.m. by Strayhorn biographer David Hajdu, followed by a panel discussion at 5 p.m. Presented through the generous support of the Revada Foundation of the Logan Family. Part of the Library’s “Salute to Strayhorn” celebration. Register for tickets here.

Saturday, June 10, 8 p.m.: Big Band Evening
Strayhorn Known and Unknown
Loren Schoenberg, conductor, Russell Malone, guitar

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