| IF YOU GO |
| For a complete listing of WPAS offerings, visit wpas.org or call 202-785-9727. |
No one is rushing the season of peace on Earth, good will toward men. But after the curtains fall (as soon they must) on holiday concerts, musicals and spectaculars, the symphony orchestras and various musical entertainments throughout the District prepare their 2011 offerings.
Herein are highlights of the Washington Performing Arts Society’s lineup for the second half of their season, one that assures concert-goers of exceptional programming for cold winter nights and beyond.
Known as “the people’s diva,” the beloved and celebrated soprano, Renee Fleming opens the WPAS season at the Kennedy Center on Jan. 8 with a musical recital that has illuminated concert halls and opera stages worldwide, earning her high praise from the critics and public alike.
On Jan. 26, popular violinist Joshua Bell, whose talents and accessibility have earned him mainstream status, performs on the Strathmore stage. Enjoy the artist whom the Boston Herald has noted to be “the greatest American violinist active today.”
February “trumpets” the classic American sound of Chris Botti at Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall on Valentine’s Day, followed the next day by the magnificent mezzo-soprano Joyce DeDonato performing in recital works by Haydn and Rossini, to name a few. Two-time Grammy-winning violinist, Hillary Hahn closes out the month in style performing violin sonatas by Beethoven, Ives and Bach.
March comes in like a lion through the roaring virtuosity of pianist, Evgeny Kissin performing a selection of works by Franz Liszt at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on March 5. For something a bit different, “What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow” is an intelligent series examining the genius of Mozart through three of his greatest works as performed by the Peabody Chamber Players on March 6 in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History. The incomparable Boston Symphony Orchestra arrives in the District on March 19 as part of the WPAS Orchestra Series. Music Director James Levine conducts in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall the Mozart Symphony No. 41 or “Jupiter” and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, or “Rhenish.”
Spring promises new performances that include the musical mastery of conductor Yuri Temirkanov with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and iconic violinist Itzhak Perlman in recital at Strathmore.
