CONCERT SCHEDULE: September - December, 2004

All concerts are free but require tickets (see ticket information). All programs and dates are subject to change without notice.

SEPTEMBER 2004

BOOK DISCUSSION AND SIGNING with JACK GOTTLIEB
“Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs
and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley,
Broadway, and Hollywood,”
Monday, September 20, 2004 at 6:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

Drawing on the Library’s rich collections of musical scores, sound recordings and Hebraica, this publication reveals how the American Jewish community - robust in achievement far beyond its modest size - has influenced American musical traditions. The book is the product of a lifetime of research into the influence of Jewish music on popular culture, underscored in Gottlieb’s public performances, including “From Shtetl to Stage Door,” and “Sing Along, the Jewish Influence on Tin Pan Alley.”

NEA National Heritage Fellow
ANJANI AMBEGAOKAR -- North Indian Kathak Dance
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Anjani Ambegaokar -- 2004 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship awardee -- will perform North Indian Kathak dance. Ambegaokar came to the United States in 1967 from her native India and has since become the most well known dancer, choreographer, and educator of Kathak in the nation. Kathak, a popular but very complex form of North Indian dance with a 4,000-year history, tells stories of ancient mythology incorporating fast tempo barefoot rhythms with ankle bells and distinctive, graceful hand gestures and facial expressions. This performance is sponsored by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

OCTOBER 2004

I MUSICI DE MONTRÉAL
Yuli Turovsky, Artistic Director
Tuesday, October 5, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

"a total experience, whose arch and sincere emotions left an ineradicable impression”

Canada’s internationally renowned chamber orchestra gives a fresh reading of Tchaikovsky’s popular Serenade for Strings, op. 48, and performances of Britten’s Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge and three Jewish pieces by Bloch with maestro Turovsky as cello soloist, plus the Washington premiere of Coup d’Archet by Canadian composer Denis Gougeon.

NADEEM DLAIKAN -- Arabic Music
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Born in the village of Alai in Lebanon and now a member of the music community of Arab Detroit, Nadeem Dlaikan, maker and virtuoso player of the nay, a single-reed wind instrument, received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002. This concert is part of the Homegrown: The Music of America series and is presented by the American Folklife Center.

PANOCHA QUARTET
Wednesday, October 20. 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

"a reading of supple phrasing and the most complex, delicate half-shades”

Acclaimed interpreters of the Bohemian masters in the Czech string quartet tradition perform music whose spirit is in their bloodstream and which is imbued with an idiomatic sense of joy and fantasy.

Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, op. 33, no. 6
Smetana: String Quartet no. 2 in D Minor
Dvorák: String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 51 (“Slavonic”)

JACKY TERRASSON TRIO
Friday, October 22, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“A truly masterful jazz pianist. . .creating a beautiful blend of melody and spontaneity.”

A winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the Paris-based French-American pianist leads his trio, praised for its “rhythmic elasticity, harmonic richness, and melodic elan,” in unexpected and fresh interpretations of standards and original works that bear the influence of Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Jacques Brel, and Edith Piaf.

Presented in cooperation with the Embassy of France.

“MR. PRESIDENT” -- Election Singers
Judith Clurman, Conductor
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“Once ev’ry four years . . . when election appears . . .
  we go down  to the polls . . .”
      -- from Mr. President, a musical by Irving Berlin

A delightful evening of works from the Library’s collections of Berlin, Gershwin, and campaign songs, and the premiere of a new choral cycle based on Presidential speeches, Mr. President, written for this concert by prominent American composers--Adler, Babbitt, Brown, Cabaniss, Hagen, Heggie, Moravec, Schwartz, Shatin, and others.

Founder’s Day Concert
GEORGE CRUMB ENSEMBLE -- 75th Birthday Tour
Friday, October 29, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

A retrospective concert of works by Musical America’s “2004 Composer of the Year” spanning 55 years of his creative output, including Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik on Theolonius Monk’s ‘Round Midnight. The composer himself is the percussionist, joined by soprano Tony Arnold, pianist Robert Shannon, and guitarist David Starobin.

George Crumb “invites listeners . . . to enter a private
world of marvels.”

NOVEMBER 2004

KOPELMAN QUARTET
Wednesday, November 3, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“ . . .lustrous sound . . .swooping from tender lyricism to bursts of fiery passion.”

Formed in 2002 by four distinguished musicians whose background, style, and musical outlook follow the classic Russian tradition of the Moscow Conservatory, led by the former primarius of the acclaimed Borodin Quartet.

Prokofiev: String Quartet no. 2 (on Kabardinian themes) in F Major, op. 92
Miaskovsky: String Quartet no.13 in A Minor, op. 86
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet no. 3 in E-flat Minor, op. 33

LE CONCERT SPIRITUEL -- Hervé Niquet, Director
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“ . . .absolutely awe-inspiring . ..”

Unparalleled interpreters of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French Grand Motet, the sixteen singers and instrumentalists of the group under its founding director commemorate the 300th death anniversary of Marc-Antoine Charpentier with a performance of his Te Deum and Messe de Monsieur de Mauroy--two crowning achievements of French Baroque music.
Presented in cooperation with the Embassy of France.

AMERICAN INDIAN MUSIC and DANCE TROUPE
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Noted flute player Tom Mauchahty-Ware directs a group from the Kiowa and Comanche nations from Oklahoma in a program of Eagle, Hoop, Fancy, and Grass dances, among others. Co-sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution. This concert is part of the Homegrown: The Music of America series and is presented by the American Folklife Center.

DECEMBER 2004

THOMAS HAMPSON with Craig Rutenberg, Piano
Tuesday, December 7, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

"One of today’s most beautiful voices.”

The first in a series of collaborative educational programs between the Library of Congress and the Hampsong Foundation (www.hampsong.com) established by the internationally acclaimed American baritone for the promotion of the art song in America.

Presented in cooperation with the Vocal Arts Society.

JERRY GRCEVICH TAMBURITZA ORCHESTRA
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Elected to the Tamburitza Hall of Fame, Jerry Grcevich, a master player, composer, and arranger from Pennsylvania, leads an ensemble in an afternoon of tambura music, the intricate and virtuosic string-ensemble music of Eastern Europe. This concert is part of the Homegrown: The Music of America series and is presented by the American Folklife Center.

"IN SWEET JOY" -- Fanfare Consort
Thom Freas, Founder and Artistic Director
Friday, December 10, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“ Sparkles with originality. . . great panache and vitality.”

A musical celebration of the winter season from the Christian and Jewish traditions, highlighted by the Vivaldi Gloria in D Major and settings of the Christmas chorale In dulci jubilo, as well as secular literature--in historically informed performances by a vocal quartet and an ensemble of Baroque strings, winds, trumpet, and basso continuo.

50th Anniversary Season
BEAUX ARTS TRIO
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 8:00pm
Coolidge Auditorium

“ . . . throughout, the sense of discovery was palpable.”

In its current incarnation--pianist Menahem Pressler, the remaining founding member; violinist Daniel Hope; and cellist Antonio Meneses--the chamber music legend continues the tradition of eminent artistry, profound musicianship, comprehensive repertoire, and extensive discography. The program will include a piece commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress.

Stradivari Anniversary
JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET
with Christopher Oldfather, Piano
Friday, December 17, 2004 at 8:00pm

“ An international presence. . .an American institution.”

Stephen Hartke’s Diferencias for violin and piano, a new commission by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, receives its world premiere.

Hartke’s writing is “highly expressive. . .with a sense of austerity and restraint that gives his music a remarkably balanced sound.”

Program TBA