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2002-2003 Season Schedule

All concerts started at 8:00 pm unless otherwise noted.

"Summon the Heroes," September 10-13, 2002, is part of a series of public programs marking the anniversary of the September 11 events. In addition to concerts, an exhibition, Witness and Remembrance: September 11 Acquisitions at the Library of Congress, as well as film and video presentations, panel discussions, gallery tours, curatorial talks, and scholarly programs were presented in September and October, 2002. The series is sponsored by the Library's Public Service Collections Directorate.

Date Artist / Event Scheduled Program

September 10, 2002 at Noon

TOM PAXTON

A concert by folk singer and songwriter Tom Paxton, recipient of the ASCAP Foundation 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award in Folk Music, author of such classics as "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound," "Under American Skies," "Peace will come, and let it begin with me," and "The Bravest"--a tribute to the heroes of the New York Police and Fire Department who died on September 11, 2001.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

September 12, 2002 at Noon

VIRGINIA GRAND MILITARY BAND and the LC CHORALE

Loras John Schissel conducts a program of American band music, including Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Summon the Heroes" by John Williams. Geoffrey Simon directs the Library of Congress Chorale in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Stravinsky's choral arrangement of "Star-Spangled Banner."

 

September 13, 2002 SUZANNE VEGA & FRIENDS

A concert by New York songwriter Suzanne Vega and fellow members of the Greenwich Village Songwriter's Exchange featuring their songs from the Vigil Project, a collection honoring the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Included is her own "It Hit Home"--a song expressing "feelings, thoughts and observations from someone trying to make sense out of something seemingly senseless."

September 19, 2002 at Noon MINGO SALDIVAR

2002 NEA Heritage Fellowship awardee with his conjunto from Texas.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

September 27, 2002

SHIRLEY CAESAR and ensemble

"The First Lady of Gospel"

Inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000 and recognized by President George W. Bush at the White House as a Black Music Month's Legend Honoree in May 2001 -- one of but a handful of singers who share the legacy of the legendary Mahalia Jackson and other revered artists of Gospel music.

In conjunction with the Gospel Symposium. Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

September 28, 2002 at 3:30pm

DIXIE HUMMINGBIRDS

"...take you right to the edge and pull you back just in time, always leaving you wanting a little more."

One of the greatest Southern Gospel quartets, the group has been performing continuously for over seventy years and has been an important influence on pop artists from the Temptations and James Brown to Stevie Wonder.

In conjunction with the Gospel Symposium. Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

October 4, 2002 at Noon

SANTIAGO JIMENEZ, JR. and his band

"El Chief of Conjunto Music"

Recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship Award in 2000, Jimenez is one of the major figures in Tex-Mex border music, a singer and accordion virtuoso of the first rank who plays in the traditional style of conjunto --- the accordion-based musical tradition that originated in south Texas in the fifties --- the everyday music of working-class Texas-Mexicans and Mexican norteños.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

October 8, 2002 at Noon

OLD NEW ENGLAND - Contra Dancing from New Hampshire

Contra dancing with 2002 NEA Heritage Fellowship awardee Bob McQuillen and his group, with caller Mary DesRosiers.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

October 17, 2002

LIZ LERMAN DANCE EXCHANGE

Program includes a new piece created by Liz Lerman, "Uneasy Dances," with original music by Andy Teirstein.

October 18, 2002

LOS ANGELES PIANO QUARTET

"...absolutely splendid..."

* Harbison: "November 19, 1828" for piano and string trio
* Turina: Piano Quartet in A Minor, op. 67
* Fauré: Piano Quartet in C Minor, op. 15

October 30, 2002

KRISTJAN JÄRVI'S ABSOLUTE

"The ensemble...makes Schoenberg rock and rock Schoenbergian."

Founder's Day Concert

Playing music of classical and jazz masters, rock arrangements, and contemporary music, this electro-acoustic band challenges the rigid perceptions of what constitutes "serious music." Celebrating the birth anniversary of the visionary Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, founder of the Library's concert series, Absolute brings music by Stravinsky, Michael Daugherty, Jimi Hendrix, and works by the Absolute members.

November 7, 2002 at Noon

PINETOP PERKINS with the BOB MARGOLIN BLUES BAND and WILLIE "BIG EYES" SMITH

"[Pinetop Perkins] is a living repository of blues tradition."

Recipient of the 1999 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Award for Traditional Artist, the legendary piano icon in his late eighties is possibly the last of the great boogie and blues piano men whose style of playing has influenced three generations of performers.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

November 8, 2002 at Noon VETERANS DAY CONCERT with THE CAPITOL SYMPHONIC WINDS, Loras John Schissel, Director

In honor of Veterans Day, the Library of Congress presents a concert of Sousa marches and other popular patriotic works.

November 13, 2002 at Noon CELLICION TRADITIONAL ZUNI DANCERS
from Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico

Cosponsored by the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

November 15, 2002

BRENTANO STRING QUARTET

"If you didn't know they were American you might have guessed it, from their technical brilliance and strong attack."

Contrapuncti from J. S. Bach's Art of Fugue will be paired with a short companion piece commissioned from a diverse group of living American composers, including Steven Mackey, Wynton Marsalis, and Charles Wuorinen.

November 21, 2002

RODGERS RARITIES - Aaron Gandy, Musical Director

Sylvia McNair heads a distinguished cast in a centennial tribute to an American icon, featuring unknown and lesser-known songs in the Library's Richard Rodgers Collection. Visit the Collection at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu002002.3.

A co-production with the Smithsonian Institution under the auspices of the Irving Caesar Lifetime Trust.

December 2, 2002

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG - Michael Barrett and Steven Blier, Artistic Directors

"...exquisitely paced production seized perfection immediately..."

America's "Killer B" composers--Samuel Barber, Amy Beach, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, and Paul Bowles--wrote songs full of the hopes, joys, and struggles of twentieth-century Americans from the working class stiff to the patrician blue blood, reminders of how much this country has to sing about.

December 18, 2002

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET with the Avalon String Quartet

Stradivari Anniversary Concert

Ruth Crawford Seeger's String Quartet is "stunningly original... an undisputed masterpiece of 20th century avant garde music."

* Seeger: String Quartet
* Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartet, op.18, no. 1

February 12, 2003

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET with Gilbert Kalish, Piano

* Beethoven: String Quartet, Hess 34 (arrangement of Piano Sonata, op. 14, no. 1)
* Shapey: "Millennium Designs" for Violin and Piano (McKim commission)
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartet op. 18, no. 3

Pre-concert presentation by Pozzi Escot and Robert Cogan of the New England Conservatory at 6:30 pm in the Whittall Pavilion.

February 14, 2003

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET

 

Ralph Shapey is "a towering master, a composer of flinty, astringent and utterly original works."

* Shapey: Quartet no. 10 ("Quartet d'Amore") (Washington Premiere)
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartets op. 18, nos. 2 & 4

February 21, 2003

MOZARTEAN PLAYERS, with Judith Malafronte, Mezzo-soprano

"...leading American exponents of classical instruments... full-blooded and vigorous playing."

An evening of keyboard trios by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (on period instruments); Mozart lieder; and selected Scottish songs by Haydn and Beethoven, including "The Glancing of Her Apron" and "Oh! Thou Art the Lad of My Heart, Willy."

February 26, 2003

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET - with Christopher Oldfather, Piano

* Schuller: Duologue for violin and piano (McKim commission)
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartets, op. 18, nos. 5 & 6

A Master Class with students from the Levine School of Music will take place on Thursday, February 27 at 7 pm at the Levine School.

February 28, 2003

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET

"[Gunther Schuller] is not just a composer but a complete man of music."

* Schuller: Quartet no. 4 (Washington Premiere)
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartets, op. 59, nos. 1 & 2

March 15, 2003

PHYLLIS BRYN-JULSON, Soprano and SOUTHWEST CHAMBER MUSIC

"...marvelous ability to project melodic shape in the most fearsome, jagged vocal line..."

The Washington premiere of Richard Felciano's An American Decameron, a song cycle based on Studs Terkel's Working and Coming of Age -- "...glimpses of the American panorama from street level...unusual and affecting..."

Commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress (rescheduled from October 20, 2001)

March 21, 2003

TRIO FONTENAY

Event cancelled.

March 28, 2003 at Noon

THE JEWELS & THE ORIOLES

"Yet another drizzle failed to dampen spirits when the Orioles, the pioneering R & B group, took the stage with their rousing doo-wop harmonies"

Doo-wop legends the Jewels ("Opportunity") and the Orioles ("It's Too Soon to Know")-who have been delighting audiences for over four decades with their spirited stylings-come to the Coolidge for a noontime soul-fest.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

April 2, 2003 at Noon

LEONARDO'S WORKSHOP: the Invention, Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci

This interactive and multimedia presentation featuring Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, The Washington Revels, Oran Sandel and Mark Jaster is a celebration of the invention, art and science of Leonardo da Vinci. Part of the Library's initiative to provide relevant, stimulating curriculum-based programs for Washington metropolitan area K-12 students, the noontime presentation is designed to engage all audiences.

April 3, 2003

PIFFARO, THE RENAISSANCE BAND

"colorful and secure instrumental style… technical perfection delivered with verve."

The elegant sounds of the official, professional wind bands of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods as well as the rustic entertainments of the peasantry are performed on shawms, sackbuts, dulcians, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, and percussion.

April 4, 2003

KANSAS CITY CHORALE - Charles Bruffy, Artistic Director & Conductor

"...a sublime pleasure...beauty of choral tone, at once warm and pure."

A program of American choral repertoire including traditional Shaker and Sacred Harp songs, works of William Billings and Stephen Foster, Randall Thompson's Alleluia, and new works by Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, and other living American composers.
April 8 and 9, 2003

BEAUX ARTS TRIO

"Masterful...the sense of discovery was palpable."

* McKim commission: TBA
* Beethoven: Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2
* Lieberman: Trio no.2, op. 77 (2001)
* Mendelssohn: Trio no. 1 in D Minor, op. 49

April 23, 2003 at noon JOE DERRANE, Button Accordion

Joe Derrane, from Randolph, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the greatest Irish button accordion players who ever lived. Derrane will be performing with a group of stellar Irish musicians, including pianist John McCann and sean nos singer Bridget Fitzgerald.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

April 23, 2003

DAVITT MORONEY, Harpsichord

"Affectionate, stylish, catchy, sophisticated and virtuosic, a feast of a lifetime."

* J. S. Bach: The Six French Suites, BWV 812-817
April 30, 2003 JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET - with William Purvis, French Horn

"Richard Wernick is a modern troubadour whose compositions are as timely as the newspapers and newscasts."

* Wernick: Horn Quintet (World Premiere) Commissioned by the Verna & Irving Fine Fund in the Library of Congress.
* Beethoven cycle (Part I): String Quartets op. 74 & op. 59, no. 3

Lecture-demonstration with Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood and the Juilliard on Thursday, May 1, at 7 pm in the Coolidge Auditorium.

May 1, 2003 at noon MAY DAY MORRIS ALE Morris dance teams from the Washington, D.C. area and a visiting team from England will perform traditional Morris dances to celebrate the first day of May. Informal dancing will take place on the plaza both before and after the 12-1 p.m. program, when AFC Folklife Specialist Jennifer Cutting will host singer/collector Tony Barrand and invited Morris teams performing dances from different regions of England. Tony Barrand will punctuate the dancing with songs celebrating the coming of May. The audience will be encouraged to join in the singing, and to learn some simple dances that will be enjoyable to adults and children alike.
May 2, 2003 JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET "[Elliott Carter] is America's great musical poet."

* Carter: String Quartet no. 5
* Beethoven cycle (Part II): String Quartets opp. 95 & 127

May 3, 2003

TURTLE ISLAND STRING QUARTET

" classical musicians with a rock 'n' roll sensibility and the improvisational freedom of jazz."

Formed in 1986, this group (its name derived from Native American mythology) has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings that fuse the classical quartet esthetic with twentieth-century American popular styles including jazz, Hendrix, Zappa, R&B, and bluegrass.
May 9, 2003

JAMES CARTER'S "CHASIN' THE GYPSY" BAND

"A roaring virtuoso...with a showman's wit, bravado, and... seductive allure."

James Carter caused a sensation in the mid-'90s with his high-powered free jazz style that ranges from the "slap tongue staccato" of the early 1920s tenors and Dixieland to swing, bop, '50s R&B, and funk-creating a unique sound that causes jazz purists to wince and lovers of its spirit to rejoice.
May 10, 2003

YING STRING QUARTET

"a formidable group of siblings... great intelligence and fervor..."

* Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 76, no. 4 ("Sunrise")
* Chinese-American "dim sum": Works by Chen Yi, Tan Dun, and Bright Sheng
* Dvorák: String Quartet in C Major, op. 61

May 21, 2003 at noon H lau O Kekuhi: Hawaiian mele hula 'aiha'a National Heritage Fellowship award winners Pualani and Nalani Kanaka'ole, from Hilo on the big island of Hawai'i, will be performing mele, a centuries-old art form, weaves music, dance, and poetry together in telling ancient stories. The sisters will be bringing a troupe of singers and dancers to demonstrate authentic mele hula. Hawaii state folklorist John Keoni Fujitani will accompany the Kanaka'oles.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

May 22, 2003
(rescheduled from May 29)
BOB HOPE 100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION An evening of performances and reminiscences in honor of the legendary entertainer.

A co-presentation of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division and the Music Division of the Library of Congress.

June 18, 2003 at noon CHARIVARI, Cajun music Charivari, from Southwestern Louisiana, is one of the premier concert and dance bands in Cajun music today. They take their name from a Cajun wedding custom of raucous merrymaking, which reflects the spirit of their music. Barry Ancelet, a folklorist specializing in Cajun culture, would come with the group.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

July 10, 2003 at noon THE SELDOM SCENE, Bluegrass music The Seldom Scene began as a group of Washington area bluegrass musicians getting together once a week to play for fun. Now, over twenty years later, the "Scene" is widely regarded as one of the nation’s premier, and groundbreaking, bluegrass bands and its members are regarded as legendary figures in the acoustic-music world.

Part of Capitol Roots Concert Series 2003.

July 16, 2003 at noon THE MINNESOTA SCANDINAVIAN ENSEMBLE and BECKY WEIS The Minnesota Scandinavian Ensemble, formed in 1974 by Leroy Larsen, has for thirty years been researching, performing, and recording Scandinavian and Scandinavian American music. Becky Weis, also from Minnesota, is a master of the nyckelharpa and hardingfele, traditional Swedish and Norwegian fiddles.Folklorist Willie Smyth will journey from Washington state to introduce the band.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

August 7, 2003 at noon MARIACHI LOS AMIGOS Mariachi Los Amigos, founded in 1979, is the Washington area’s longest existing mariachi ensemble. As its name implies, it was formed by a group of friends who shared a passion for the lively, extroverted sound of mariachi, and the wide range of music that it incorporates. Mariachi originated as a regional style in several western states of Mexico in the early 1900s, and has since spread throughout the Americas and beyond.

Part of Capitol Roots Concert Series 2003.

August 20, 2003 at noon ROBERT TURNER AND THE SILVER HEART SINGERS Robert Turner and the Silver Heart Singers are an outstanding African American ensemble from the Indianapolis, Indiana, area. Founded forty- two years ago by Turner, they are an area institution, performing constantly in area churches and for special events throughout the city. They come highly recommended by Indiana state folklorist Erin Roth.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

September 11, 2003 at noon A LITTLE BIT OF BLUES Little Bit of Blues combines the warm vocals and piedmont guitar-picking of Warner Williams with Jay Summerour’s soaring harmonica to produce some of the finest blues anywhere. The pair, both area natives, have played together for more than a decade. Their credits include the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife, the National Folk Festival, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, and the nationally broadcast American Roots 4th of July Festival on the Mall.

Part of Capitol Roots Concert Series 2003.

September 18, 2003 at noon TBA: Recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship September's program will feature a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship award. Awardees will be in Washington to receive their awards during the third week of September.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

October 8, 2003 at noon WYLIE AND THE WILD WEST One of the country's finest Cowboy and Western ensembles, Wylie and the Wild West is led by Wylie Gustafson, rancher and champion yodeler from Dusty, Washington. Perennial favorites at the Cowboy Poetry gathering in Elko Nevada, Wylie & the Wild West have earned an international reputation through their recordings and concert appearances. Folklorist Willie Smyth will journey from Washington state to introduce the band.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

November 12, 2003 at noon CHUNA MCINTYRE, Yup'ik song & dance Chuna McIntyre, who was featured at this year's National Book Festival, will bring the Nunumpta Yup'ik (eskimo) singers and dancers to present a program of stories, songs and dances from native Alaska. Born in the tiny village of Eek on the coast of the Bering Sea, McIntyre uses traditional stories learned from his grandmother to create contemporary stories, sounds, and images of Yup'ik culture. Folklorist Suzi Jones will present the group.

Part of Homegrown: The Music of America.

To be announced

A GERSHWIN EVENING WITH DICK HYMAN

"[Dick Hyman is] a man of all seasons in the world of jazz."

The celebrated jazz pianist and long-time admirer and interpreter of Gershwin performs and conducts big-band arrangements of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

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