2020 – 2021 Season
2020—2021 Season at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capital Hill
The 21st Century Consort, award-winning contemporary music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution for over four decades, embarks on its new video season at the beautiful St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill. Artistic Director Christopher Kendall presents a season of new music and high drama featuring artists Paul Cigan, Lisa Emenheiser, Dan Foster, Lee Hinkle, Alexandra Osborne, Sara Stern, and Rachel Young.
301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003
CLICK THE MAP FOR DIRECTIONS
METRORAIL: Capitol South (two blocks), or Union Station and Eastern Market (15-minute walk)
PARKING: On Saturdays, most adjacent blocks have unrestricted parking, with two exceptions: on the east side of 3rd Street from Independence Avenue to A Street, a two-hour restriction runs 7:00am to 9:30pm; on the west side of 3rd Street from Independence Avenue to East Capitol Street, there is metered parking at $2.30 per hour.
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NYC: Fire And Ice
Saturday November 092002
- Ellington/Strayhorn
- Take the A Train
- Steve Reich
- NY Counterpoint
- Evan Chambers
- Firehouse Reel
- Jon Deak
- Mose the Fireman
- Donald Sur
- Epistrophe
- Charles Wuorinen
- NY Notes
-
Popcycle
Saturday February 082003
- William Bolcom
- Violin Sonata
- George Rochberg
- Electrikaliedoscope
- Mark Kuss
- Ten American Folksongs
- Paul Schoenfield
- Four Music Videos
-
Cries And Whispers
Saturday March 152003
- Curt Cacioppo
- Three Piano Pieces
- Anton Webern
- Four Pieces
- Sebastian Currier
- Whispers
- George Crumb
- Four Nocturnes
- Daniel Kellogg
- Divinum Mysterium
-
About The Bard
Saturday April 262003
- Ned Rorem
- After Reading Shakespeare
- Malcolm Peyton
- Four Songs from Shakespeare
- Scott Wheeler
- Illyrian Rounds
- James Primosch
- The Tempest
-
What Goes Round
Saturday November 012003
(celebrating the Hirshhorn's "Gyroscope" Exhibition)- Hayes/Jones
- Gyroscope
- David Froom
- Circling
- Luciano Berio
- Circles
- Luciano Berio
- Sequenza
- Jacob Druckman
- Come Round
-
Keys To The Future
Saturday December 132003
- Richard Wernick
- Sonata
- James Primosch
- Fantasia-Sonata
-
Dylan
Saturday February 072004
- Daniel Kellogg
- And the Dust Shall Sing Like a Bird
- John Corigliano
- Mr. Tambourine Man: Poems of Bob Dylan
- Yumiko Matsuoka/Bob Dylan
- Blowin’ in the Wind
- Elizabeth Lutyens
- Valediction (Dylan Thomas, 1953)
- Charles Wuorinen
- A Winter’s Tale
-
No Place To Hyde
Saturday March 132004
- Robert Gibson
- Of Points Fixed and Fluid
- Arthur Levering
- Clarion/Shadowing
- Bela Bartok
- Contrasts
- Jon Deak
- Hyde and Jekyll
-
Running Backwards
Saturday April 172004
- David Froom
- Trio
- Paul Schoenfield
- Partita
- Sebastian Currier
- Variations on “Time and Time Again”
- Nicholas Maw
- Ghost Dances
-
Washington National Cathedral Series
Tuesday June 292004
2004 Crumb Birthday Celebration "The Cosmos According to Crumb" (Crumb and His Antecedents)- Anton Webern
- Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano
- George Crumb
- Voice of the Whale
- George Crumb
- Sonata for Solo Cello
- Claude Debussy
- String Quartet
-
Washington National Cathedral Series
Tuesday June 292004
2004 Crumb Birthday Celebration "The Cosmos According to Crumb" (Crumb and His Antecedents)- Anton Webern
- Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano
- George Crumb
- Voice of the Whale
- George Crumb
- Sonata for Solo Cello
- Claude Debussy
- String Quartet
-
Washington National Cathedral Series
Tuesday July 062004
2004 Crumb Birthday Celebration "The Cosmos According to Crumb" (Crumb and His Antecedents)- Bela Bartok
- Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm (Mikrokosmos Vol. 6)
- George Crumb
- Macrokosmos Volume IV: Celestial Mechanics
- Olivier Messiaen
- Quartet for the End of Time
-
Washington National Cathedral Series
Tuesday July 132004
2004 Crumb Birthday Celebration "The Cosmos According to Crumb" (Crumb and His Antecedents)- George Crumb
- Ancient Voices of Children
- Gustav Mahler (Stein)
- Symphony No. 4 in G Major
-
Washington National Cathedral Series
Tuesday July 202004
2004 Crumb Birthday Celebration "The Cosmos According to Crumb" (Crumb and His Antecedents)- Claude Debussy
- La Cathédrale engloutie (Preludes, Book I, No. 10)
- Charles Ives
- Trio
- George Crumb
- Makrokosmos Vol. III: Music for Summer Evening
-
Slow Boat To The Universe
Saturday October 162004
- Lawrence Moss
- A New Dawn
- James Fry
- Three Chinese Folk Songs
- Gustav Mahler
- Das Lied Von Der Erhde (arr. Schoenberg)
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Flute Of The Moon
Saturday October 162004
- Randall Woolf
- Quicksilver
- Fred Cohen
- That Which Binds Us
- Lowell Liebermann
- Flute Sonata
- Sebastian Currier
- Night Time
- Joseph Schwantner
- Wild Angles of the Open Hills
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Homage
Saturday January 222005
- Nicholas Maw
- Narrations
- Stephen Jaffe
- Homage to the Breath
- Arthur Benjamin
- Le Tombeau de Ravel
- Paul Schoenfield
- Camp Songs
-
Time For Three Plus One
Sunday March 132005
Music by Paul Schoenfield and Time for Three -
Expanding Universe
Saturday April 162005
- Robert Gibson
- Four Haiku
- Igor Stravinsky
- Three Japanese Lyrics
- Toru Takamitsu
- Between Tides
- Kenji Bunch
- Paraphraseology
- Joseph Schwantner
- Sparrows
-
Visual Music
Thursday June 302005
A series of four summer programs in connection with the Hirshhorn Museum's exhibition "Visual Music," including premieres by Thomas Albert, Christopher Patton and Bruce MacCombie and works by Messiaen, Schoenberg and others. -
Homage
Saturday November 052005
- Arthur Benjamin
- Le Tombeau de Ravel
- Paul Schoenfield
- Camp
- Nicholas Maw
- Personnae #VI
- Stephen Jaffe
- Homage to the Breath
-
4 Hands, 18 Feet
Saturday December 102005
- Kari Henrik Juusela
- Natai Boogie
- Joan Tower
- Stepping Stones
- Witold Lutoslawski
- Pagannini Variations
- Frances Poulenc
- Sonata for Two Pianos
- John Adams
- Hallelujah Junction
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Time And Memory: Celebrating The Hirshhorn’s Hiroshi Sugimoto Exhibition
Saturday February 112006
- Scott Wheeler
- Dream Palace (world premiere)
- John Cage
- Cheap imitation, String Quartet
- David Froom
- Down to a Sunless Sea
-
Near Myth
Saturday April 292006
- Louis Ballard
- Four American Indian Piano Preludes
- Richard Wernick
- In Praise of Zephyrus
- Jon Deak
- Rapunzel
- Harrison Birtwistle
- Ring a Dumb Carillon
- Thomas Flaherty
- When Time Was Young
-
American Retrospeculative
Saturday October 212006
- Cage, John
- Suite for Toy Piano in Five Movements
- Froom, David
- Amichai Songs (Premiere)
- Ives, Charles &Amp; Others
- Song-set: Charles Ives and his Sources
- Varese, Edgard
- Poeme Electronique
-
Sound Objects
Sunday December 032006
- Morrill, Dexter
- Fantasy Quintet for Piano/Electronic Sounds
- Patton, Christopher
- Eleven-ninety-nine
- Primosch, James
- From A Book of Hours
- Schoenfield, Paul
- Elegy, Rag and Boogie
- Wernick, Richard
- Sonata for Cello and Piano
-
Error Of The Moon
Saturday February 032007
- Moravec, Paul
- Tempest Fantasy
- Wernick, Adam
- Hymns, Sighs & Shadows
- Botti, Susan
- Talaio: Desdemona
-
Games People Play
Saturday April 072007
- Albert, Thomas
- Illuminations (Premiere)
- Alexander, Peter
- Headlock
- Bolcom, William
- 2nd Sonata for Violin and Piano
- Bolling, Claude
- Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio
- Fry, James
- A Little Cartoon Music (Premiere)
- Horne, David
- Spike
- Krash, Jessica
- Her and Him (Premiere)
-
Imaginary Landscapes
Saturday October 272007
- Ives, Charles
- Patriotic Songs
- Three Landscape Songs
- Krash, Jessica
- Undisclosed Locations
- Four Lives Cut Short
- Behrman, David
- Protest, 1917-2004
- Ran, Shulamit
- Mirage
- Cage, John
- In a Landscape
- Kellogg, Daniel
- Grand Canyon Hymns
-
A Child’s Christmas In Wales
Saturday December 082007
- Thomas, Dylan
- A Child’s Christmas in Wales
- Warlock, Peter
- Balulalow
- Crumb, George
- A Little Suite for Christmas
- Frederico’s Little Songs for children
- Schoenfield, Paul
- Slovakian Children’s Songs
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Swan To Stone
Saturday February 232008
- Moss, Lawrence
- The Swan
- Deak, Jon
- The Ugly Duckling
- Albert, Stephen
- TreeStone
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Music Of Color And Light
Saturday April 052008
- Chambers, Evan
- Rothko-Tobey Continuum
- Larsen, Libby
- By a Departing Light
- Wourinen, Charles
- Iridule
- Maccombie, Bruce
- Color and Time
- Froom, David
- Lightscapes
- Primosch, James
- Dark the Star (Premiere)
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October Surprise
Saturday October 252008
- Moe, Eric
- Three Ways to Relieve Tension
- Deak, Jon
- Lucy and the Count
- Kuss, Mark
- Fear (Premiere)
- Gruber, Hk
- Frankenstein
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Natural Affinities
Saturday December 062008
- Copland, Aaron
- Fantasy
- Saariaho, Kaija
- Petals
- Tower, Joan
- And They’re Off/Holding a Daisy/Big Sky
- Thomas, Augusta Read
- a circle around the sun/ Moon Jig
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Recalling Valentines
Saturday February 212009
- Druckman, Jacob
- Valentine
- Maw, Nicholas
- Voice of Love
- David Froom
- Aubade
- Thomas, Augusta Read
- Love Twitters
- Richard Wernick
- Poison Tree
- Krash, Jessica
- Valentine
-
Recalling Valentines
Saturday February 212009
- Druckman, Jacob
- Valentine
- Maw, Nicholas
- Voice of Love
- David Froom
- Aubade
- Thomas, Augusta Read
- Love Twitters
- Richard Wernick
- Poison Tree
- Krash, Jessica
- Valentine
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Music Of Magic And Light
Saturday April 042009
- Hesketh, Kenneth
- Aphorisms
- Froom, David
- Three Love Songs on Poetry of Sue Standing
- Feldman, Morton
- Projection I
- Four Songs to e.e. cummings
- Druckman, Jacob
- Glint
- Saariaho, Kaijo
- Changing Light
- Welcher, Dan
- Spirit Realms
- Doppmann, William
- Spring Songs
-
Nicholas
Saturday October 242009
A tribute to the late composer Nicholas Maw, soprano Lucy Shelton, baritone William Sharp, and Consort members perform Maw's intensely lyrical music.- Nicholas Maw
- Head of Orpheus
- Ghost Dances
- Roman Canticle
- La Vita Nuova
-
Currier and Ives
Saturday December 052009
The Consort performs the work of two New England composers who, a century apart, have contributed to the American Musical landscape.- Sebastian Currier
- Scarlatti Cadences
- Brainstorm
- Verge
- Charles Ives
- Piano Trio
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Flora and Fauna
Saturday March 132010
Four fantastical forays into the plant and animal life of our minds.- Kaija Saariaho
- Six Japanese Gardens
- Scott Wheeler
- Dragon Mountain
- Evan Chambers
- The Barnacle and the Nautilus
- Robert Parris
- The Book of Imaginary Beings
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Characters
Saturday May 082010
The universal language of music plays with the language of letters, their form, meaning, and creation. Tonight includes the world premiere of Thomas Albert’s setting of Amy Young's poetry, with projection design by Wendall Harrington.- Mark Kuss
- My Favorite Things
- Unsuk Chin
- Acrostic Wordplay—Seven Scenes from Fairy Tales
- Steve Reich
- Typing Music
- Thomas Albert
- Characters
-
As American As . . .
Saturday October 232010
Norman Rockwell introduced unlikely heroes in his one-frame vignettes about America that celebrate ordinary people, love of country and the value of family. The Consort salutes the exhibition with musical apple pie and adventure.
- Samuel Barber
- Dover Beach
- Jordan Kuspa
- Fantastic Stuff: A Suite for Viola
- John Deak
- Wager at the El Dorado Saloon
- William Brehm
- Inaugural Suite
- Mark Kuss
- My Favorite Things
- Aaron Copeland
- Old American Songs / Music from films
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Unruly Landscapes
Saturday December 042010
Photographer John Gossage focused on the the non-heroic landscape of our everyday surroundings, revealing the grace and elegance in places caught between the urban and natural worlds. The exhibition is the point of departure for a musical exploration of horizons near and far.
- Bright Sheng
- The Stream Flows
- David Froom
- Piano Trio “Grenzen”
- Charles Ives
- Thoreau (from Concord Sonata)
- Donald Crockett
- to be sung on the water
- Alan Mandel
- Steps to Mt. Olympus
- Donald Crockett
- Horn Quintet "La Barca"
-
Fable
Friday February 112011
Artist Alexis Rockman depicts the natural world with virtuosity and wit while exploring concerns about the world’s fragile ecosystems. The Consort performs fantastic, ferocious, futuristic music for Rockman’s “A Fable for Tomorrow.”
- Igor Stravinsky
- Rite of Spring
- Paul Schoenfield
- Cowbird Quartet
- Jennifer Furr
- Imaginary Animals
- Bruce MacCombie
- Light Upon the Turning Leaf
- Jacob Druckman
- Lamia
-
Carpe Diem
Saturday April 162011
Taking Time for what it is: nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once, in this music reflecting artist Robert Rauchenberg’‘s works at American Art.
- Joan Panetti
- The Instant Gathers
- John Cage
- The Seasons
- Jordan Kuspa
- Time Crunch
- Paul Moon
- Projections
- Olivier Messiaen
- Quartet for the End of Time
-
The Great American . . .
Saturday November 052011
Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson were the voices of 19th century American transformation. Their poetry and period are points of departure for these compositions of our own time.
(EXHIBITION: THE GREAT AMERICAN HALL OF WONDERS).
- John Harbison
- Songs America Loves to Sing
- William Brehm, Mario Davidovsky, Joan Tower, Richard Markowitz
- A Whitman Sampler
- David Froom
- Emerson Songs
- Miguel Del Aguila
- Clocks
-
. . . Hall of Wonders
Saturday December 032011
Charles Dickens’ marvelous, supernatural Christmas story, in the irresistible setting by American composer Jon Deak, is also an indictment of industrialization. A 19th century, romantic sensibility pervades Dickens’ countryman Nicholas Maw’s lush piano trio.
(EXHIBITION: THE GREAT AMERICAN HALL OF WONDERS)
- Nicholas Maw
- Piano Trio
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge
-
Multiplicity Multiplicity
Saturday February 112012
The concept of making multiple images from one matrix has been integral to printmaking, yet each impression is considered to be an original of art. Consider the musical and visual series of contemporary impressions as explored by these American composers.
- Luke DuBois/Paul Moon
- Multimedia Work
- Mark Kuss
- Power Synth
- Robert Beaser
- Variations
- David Froom
- Colors Passing Through Us
- David Crockett
- Wet Ink
- James Matheson
- Falling
-
Music of Games
Saturday May 052012
“The Art of Video Games” is one of the first exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. Who better to explore and comment on this new realm than SAAM’s Consort in residence?.
- Peter Buffett
- Video Music
- Laura Karpman
- Common Tone
- John Adams
- Road Movies
- Dan Visconti
- The Clear Light
- John Chowning
- Voices
- Paul Schoenfield
- Four Music Videos
-
Election Special: Music for Uncivil Discourse
Saturday October 272012
In honor of the November elections, the Consort circles the American democratic process with Fred Rzewski’s paean to Latin liberty in The People United Will Never be Defeated, Jon Deak’s setting of Orwell in Greetings from 1984, and, to remind us of our own revolution, Peter Maxwell Davies’ over-the-top, semi-staged portrait of George III, Eight Songs for a Mad King.
- Frederick Rzewski
- Selections from The People United Will Never Be Defeated
- Jon Deak
- Greetings from 1984
- Peter Maxwell Davies
- Eight Songs for a Mad King
-
Music for Civil War
Saturday December 012012
Celebrating the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition The Civil War and American Art, the Consort traverses three distinct, multi-media treatments of beloved tunes from the American Civil War, by William Brehm, Charles Ives and Stephen Rush, along with Igor Stravinsky’s music theater masterpiece.
- William Brehm
- Civil War Images and Echoes(Premiere)
- Charles Ives
- The Alcotts from Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord"
- Stephen Rush
- U.S. Grant - a Fluxkit Opera
- Igor Stravinsky
- The Soldier’s Tale
-
A Christmas Carol
Saturday December 152012
Back by popular demand, Jon Deak’s marvelous and theatrical setting of Charles Dickens’ seasonal classic, The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol is joined by another English masterpiece, Benjamin Britten’s incomparable A Ceremony of Carols, to bring the holiday spirit to SAAM.
- Benjamin Britten
- A Ceremony of Carols
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol
-
How it Begins
Saturday February 232013
An epic pairing of two major 20th century works, both settings of surreal texts sung by soprano Lucy Shelton: Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal Pierrot Lunaire, with Mime Mark Jastor as Pierrot, and To Wake the Dead, Stephen Albert’s earthy and decidedly un-surreal music to passages from James Joyce’s Finnigan’s Wake, with Elegy, Bruce MacCombie’s moving tribute to Albert, and ours to MacCombie.
- Arnold Schoenberg
- Pierrot Lunaire
- Bruce MacCombie
- Elegy
- Stephen Albert
- To Wake the Dead
-
Dance the Night Away
Saturday April 202013
Music that takes us from the darkest hours of night to the dancing light of dawn, in a program calculated for challenge and choreographed to move. George Crumb’s staged, classic environmental manifesto (protesting human incursion into the moon’s ecosystem of myth) is companion to dance music from a variety of composers’ for the dance of our imaginations.
- Derek Bermel
- Mulatash Stomp
- Eugene O’Brien
- Algebra of Night
- David Froom
- Dance to the Whistling Wind
- Snorri Sigfus Birgisson
- Dance for Solo Cello
- George Crumb
- Night of the Four Moons
- Donald Crockett
- Dawn Dance (Premiere)
-
New Sounds for a Timeless Space
Monday July 082013
The 21st Century Consort, conducted by Christopher Kendall with guest soprano Mary Mackenzie, guest ensemble the Folger Consort, and members of the Cathedral Choirs perform music of our time, written to be played at the landmark Washington National Cathedral. Music by Stephen Albert (“Cathedral Music”), James Primosch (“Sacred Songs and Meditations”) and Christopher Patton (“From Darkness to Light”) all address the magnificent reaches of space and sound in this soaring space.
- Stephen Albert
- Cathedral Music
- James Primosch
- Sacred Songs and Meditations
- Christopher Patton
- Out of Darkness
-
Like the Dickens
Saturday December 072013
Back by popular demand! The return of Jon Deak’s irresistible, hilarious and moving monodrama and holiday classic, The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol, featuring baritone William Sharp.
- David Biedenbender
- Awakening
- John Cage
- Living Room Music
- David Froom
- Flying High
- Paul Schoenfield
- Beulah
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge or a Christmas Carol
-
Tango Amor
Saturday February 152014
A synchronized celebration of Valentine’s Day and the SAAM exhibition “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art” with a complete performance of Frederick Rzwski’s monumental setting of the iconic Chilean protest song, The Citizens United Will Never Be Defeated, balanced by romantic and Tango-tinged music by Oswaldo Golijov, David Froom and Paul Schoenfield.
- Frederick Rzwski
- The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
- Oswaldo Golijov
- Omaramor
- David Froom
- Two Yeats Songs
- Paul Schoenfield
- Dark Eyes
-
Just Folk
Saturday April 262014
The Consort closes the season as it began, celebrating two Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibitions in one concert: 20th century American Realism from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection with works by Edward Hopper and others, and the upcoming, colorful, socially-minded folk art of Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget, in a program inspired by the artist’s explorations and reflections of American society.
- Shulamit Ran
- Perfect Storm
- Luciano Berio
- Folk Songs
- Evan Chambers
- Now Winter, Wi' His Cloudy Brow
- Aaron Copland
- Appalachian Spring
-
Aviary
Saturday October 252014
The Consort celebrates the exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art with flights of musical imagination. The program features soprano Carman Pelton singing avian-obsessed music from the late 14th century and the past hundred years, a tribute to birds of all feathers.
- Ars Subtilior
- Bird Pieces
- Oliver Messiaen
- Selected works
- Henri Dutilleux
- Blackbird
- Thomas Albert
- Thirteen Ways
-
A Christmas Carol
Saturday December 062014
The return by popular demand of Jon Deak’s Dickensian classic of the season, with baritone William Sharp in his unforgettable role as Ebenezer Scrooge, preceded by Martin Goldsmith’s reading of another holiday favorite by Dylan Thomas interspersed among George Crumb’s etherial evocation of Giotto’s Christmas frescoes.
- Dylan Thomas
- A Child's Christmas in Wales
- George Crumb
- Little Suite for Christmas
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge or a Christmas Carol
-
New York Nights
Saturday February 212015
Inspired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s extensive collection of New York cityscapes, this program features the world premiere of the complete “Algebra of Night,” Eugene O’Brien’s setting of New York and Night themed poetry sung by mezzo-soprano Deanne Meek. Charles Wuorinen’s epic musical evocation of the metropolis, Charles Wuorinen ode to the city, and a surprise encore follow.
- Eugene O'Brien
- Algebra of Night
- Robert Paterson
- Star Crossing
- Charles Wuorinen
- New York Notes
-
Worlds Away
Saturday April 182015
Reflecting on works from the exhibition The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi and those of other artists who immigrated to America, the consort celebrates their artistic and musical contributions to the cultures of this country and the world. Featuring soprano Lucy Shelton in Unsuk Chin’s “Acrostic Wordplay-Seven Scenes from Fairy Tales” and a variety of works by composers from all corners of the globe.
- Toru Takemitsu
- And Then I Knew 'twas Wind
- Nicholas Maw
- Roman Canticle
- Kamran Ince
- Hammer Music
- Bright Sheng
- My Other Song
- Unsuk Chin
- Acrostic Wordplay - Seven Scenes from Fairy Tales
-
Beyond Beauty
Saturday November 072015
- David Froom
- Fantasy Dances
- Caroline Shaw
- in manus tuas
- Nicholas Maw
- Roman Canticle
- Nicholas Maw
- The Old King's Lament
- Stephen Jaffe
- Homage to the Breath
-
The Passion of Scrooge
Saturday December 052015
- Paul Schoenfield
- Six Improvisations on Hassidic Melodies
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge (William Sharp, Baritone)
-
Crosscurrents
Saturday February 062016
- John Adams
- Hallelujah Junction (Lucy Shelton, soprano)
- Luciano Berio
- Circles
- Eugene O'Brien
- Close Harmony (Lisa Emenheiser and Audrey Andrist)
- Bela Bartok
- Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
-
Icons
Saturday March 122016
- Andrea Clearfield
- Convergence
- George Crumb
- Voice of the Whale
- James Primosch
- Icons
- Joseph Schwantner
- Sparrows (Mary Mackenzie)
-
Imaginary Landscapes
Saturday April 302016
- Paul Schoenfield
- Cafe Music
- John Cage
- Imaginary Landscapes II
- Stephen Albert
- Distant Hills Coming Nigh Part I
- Shulamit Ran
- Mirage
- Stephen Albert
- Distant Hills Coming Nigh Part II
-
Election Special
Saturday October 222016
The Consort’s traditional, topical, election-year program. This time featuring
music of women composers and noted businessman Charles Ives.- Mark Rimple
- Sonata Malcontento
- Andrea Clearfield
- Gaia
- Joan Tower
- Amazon
- Charles Ives
- Majority
- Charles Ives
- Trio
-
Museum Music
Saturday December 172016
A celebration of two museums: the reinstallation of the SAAM Folk Art Galleries,
and the opening of the new national Museum of African American History and
Culture, along with the return of a season favorite, Jon Deak’s “The Passion of
Scrooge.”- Hannah Lash
- Folk Songs
- David Baker
- Heritage: A Tribute to Great Clarinetists
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge or a Christmas Carol
-
Stone Dancing
Saturday February 042017
Inspired by the SAAM exhibition of work by Isamu Noguchi, the great Japanese/
American sculptor and furniture and set designer. Featuring music from ballets
with sets designed by Noguchi.- John Cage
- The Seasons
- Elliott Carter
- Sonata for Cello and Piano
- John Williams
- Air and Simple Gifts
- Toru Takemitsu
- Itinerant
- Arnold Schoenberg
- Five Pieces for Orchestra
-
Color School
Saturday March 252017
A musical reflection of the Washington DC Color School painter Gene Davis,
featuring music by minimalist, synesthetic and Washington DC composers.- Jessica Krash
- Dangerous Curves
- Robert Gibson
- Twelve Poems
- David Froom
- Nightsongs
- John Chowning
- Voices
- Nicolas Maw
- Ghost Dances
-
Lumia
Saturday September 232017
As early as 1919, well before the advent of consumer television and video technology, Thomas Wilfred began experimenting with light as his primary artistic medium, developing the means to control and project colorful, luminous forms that have been compared to the aurora borealis. A luminous program for two pianos with Lisa Emenheiser and Lura Johnson.
- John Corigliano
- Kaleidoscope
- Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Symphonic Dances
- Claude Debussy
- Blanc et Noir
- William Bolcom
- Garden of Eden
- Witold Lutoslawski
- Paganini Variations
-
Howling at the Moon
Saturday November 042017
Mexican artist influenced by Picasso; shared common interests with younger American artists including Jackson Pollock and Adolph Gottlieb, who were drawn to indigenous art, mythical themes, and increasingly non-representational imagery, and who grappled with the anxieties of World War II. Tamayo’s fierce and symbolic animal paintings and artworks evoking celestial themes from the 1940s are a special focus of the exhibition. Featuring Soprano Lucy Shelton.
- Mario Lavista
- Cuaderno de Viaje
- Shulamit Ran
- Moon Songs
- Missy Mazzoli
- Magic with Everyday Objects
- Gheorghe Costinescu
- Nine Portraits from the Wild
- Gabriela Ortiz
- Vitrales de Ambar
-
An Evening of Carols
Saturday December 162017
The Consort undertakes the performance and filming by videographer Paul H. Moon of Jon Deak’s redemptive tale at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill (301 A St., SE.)
Be sure to note this change of venue in your schedule!
The holiday masterpiece, featuring William Sharp, is paired with Benjamin Britten’s beloved work for harp and children’s choir featuring voices from the Washington National Cathedral children’s choirs.
- Benjamin Britten
- A Ceremony of Carols
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol
-
Lenny’s Legacy
Saturday February 172018
SAAM’s contribution to the city-wide Bernstein Centennial celebration, with repertoire including the Clarinet Sonata and other works by Bernstein along with Foss, Rorem and other leading composer/performers. Soprano Alice Teyssier will make her Consort debut.
- Lukas Foss
- For Lenny
- Leonard Bernstein
- Clarinet Sonata
- Lukas Foss
- Time Cycle
- Charles Ives
- The Unanswered Question
- Ned Rorem
- The Unquestioned Answer
- Kate Soper
- The Crito (after Plato)
- Leonard Bernstein
- Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
-
Memory Lane
Saturday April 212018
The exhibition “Do Ho Suh: Almost Home” highlights the artist’s physical manifestation of memory, reckoning with ideas of personal history, cultural traditions, and belief systems in the contemporary world. Two new works will be presented, and soprano Bora Yoon will be heard in selections from Sarah Kirkland Snider’s unforgettable mega-cycle.
- Chen Yi
- Tunes from My Home
- Sarah Kirkland Snider
- Songs from the Unremembered
- Bora Yoon
- New multi-media work with videographer Paul Moon
- Paul Schoenfield
- Gloria’s Century (Premiere)
-
“Sites Unheard”
Saturday October 202018
A sly musical take on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition of artist Trevor Paglen, who makes the invisible world visible via photography and video, journalism, geo-politics, and astronautical engineering, documenting the infrastructures of American surveillance. The Consort surveils music by a select database of extant American composers.
- Annie Gosfield
- Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites
- Frederik Rzewski
- Winnsboro Cottonmill Blues
- Gemma Peacocke
- Lumen
- Robert Paterson
- Star Crossing
- Robert Gibson
- Night Music
- Jon Deak
- Greetings from 1984
- David Froom
- Hidden Motives
-
Scrooge Opera Film Premiere
Saturday December 082018
Special Event: Film maker Paul H. Moon’s film of Jon Deak’s “The Passion of Scrooge, or a Christmas Carol” will receive a premiere screening, free to the public, at 3:30 PM in McEvoy Auditorium prior to the concert.
- Jon Deak
- The Passion of Scrooge, or a Christmas Carol
-
“Between Worlds”
Saturday December 082018
Bill Traylor is one of the most celebrated American self-taught artists, whose life spanned slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Great Migration and foreshadowed the era of Civil Rights, offering a rare perspective to the large story of America. The Consort’s music probes subjects and stories that inhabit Traylor’s remarkable work.
Read the printed program now for this concert.
Special Event: Film maker Paul H. Moon’s film of Jon Deak’s “The Passion of Scrooge, or a Christmas Carol” will receive a premiere screening, free to the public, at 3:30 PM in McEvoy Auditorium prior to the concert.
- Carlos Oliver Simon
- Lickety Split
- Isai Rabiu
- Freedom
- Corey Dundee
- Migration Miniatures
- David Baker
- Clarinet Sonata
- Frederic Rzewski
- Down by the Riverside
- TJ Anderson
- Gospels, Serenades, and Vamp
- Evan Chambers
- Come Down Heavy!
-
“All You Need is Love”
Saturday February 162019
Well, maybe it’s not ALL you need; a little music is also good. For Valentine’s Day, the Consort digs deep to find contemporary classical music that explores the subject of romance viewed from multiple vantage points, in a program that ends with a Valentine surprise.
In light of recent and potential “circumstances beyond their control” effecting the Smithsonian, you may not be entirely surprised to learn that the Consort’s February 16th concert won’t be happening at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Instead the beautiful St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill has generously agreed to be the venue for “All You Need Is Love.”
We’re very much looking forward to it and to seeing you there!
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
301 A St SE
Washington, DC 20003- Melinda Wagner
- Romanza with Faux Variations
- Jeffrey Mumford
- An Evolving Romance
- Maurice Wright
- Cantata
- Scott Wheeler
- Serenata
- Hilary Purrington
- Mean Reds
- Nicolas Maw
- La Vita Nuova
-
“Black Angels”
Saturday April 132019
A harrowing and formative period for many in America, 1965-1975 is the subject of SAAM’s exhibition “America and the Vietnam War.” The Consort mounts a musical corollary with works that speaks to the tenor of the times and the themes that still radiate from them.
- James Primosch
- Times Like These
- Susan Botti
- River Spirits
- Kim Ngoc
- Open House
- Christopher Theofanidis
- The World is Aflame
- George Crumb
- Black Angels
-
“Time Out of Mind”
Saturday November 092019
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill (301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003)
- Corey Dundee
- Convoluted Reasoning
- Sebastion Currier
- Brainstorm
- Gemma Peacocke
- Amygdala
- Chen Yi
- Memory
- Sofia Gubaidulina
- Garten von Freuden ynd Traurigkeiten
- Robert Paterson
- The Thin Ice of Your Fragile Mind
- Jon Deak
- Moody Melody
- Melinda Wagner
- Four Settings
-
“Round About Midnight”
Saturday December 212019
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill (301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003)
- Dylan Thomas
- A Child’s Christmas in Wales (not in program order)
- George Crumb
- Eine Kleine Mitternacht Musik
- Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
- Music a Quattro
- Evan Chambers
- Firehose Reel
- Helen Grime
- Snow and Snow
- Pete Seeger
- The Bells of Rhymney
- Paul Mealor
- Silent Night
- David Froom
- Violinetude (Eine Kleine Kleinmusik)
- Hilary Tann
- ....Slate, Blue-Gray
- Paul Mealor
- Ubi Caritus
-
“Time’s Up”
Saturday February 222020
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill (301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003)
- Gyorgy Ligetti
- Poeme Sympthonique for 100 Metronomes
- Sebastion Currier
- Variations on Time and Time Again
- Elliot Carter
- Tempo e Tempi
- Olivier Messiaen
- Quartet for the End of Time
-
“H2O (Water Music)”
Saturday March 212020
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Ring Auditorium
6:00 Concert (5:00 pre-concert discussion)- Tan Dun
- Water Music
- Kati Agocs
- A la Claire Fountaine
- Stella Sung
- Dance of the White Lotus Under the Sliver Moon
- Luciano Berio
- Circles
-
“A Time for…”
Saturday April 182020
Note: Due to Covid19 restrictions this concert is cancelled.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capital Hill (301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003)
- Paul Dessau
- Guernica
- Eugene O’Brien
- Elegy to the Spanish Republic (premiere)
- Conlon Nancarrow
- Prelude and Blues
- Kevin Puts
- And Legions Will Rise
- Roberto Gerhard
- Three Impromptus
- George Crumb
- Ancient Voices of Children (50th anniversary of the work)
-
“ S p a c e d O u t ”
Friday October 162020
This concert was recorded on October 16, 2020, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
- Jeffrey Mumford
- An Expanding Distance of Multiple Voices
- Carlos Simon
- Between Worlds I
- Zosha Di Castri
- La Forma della Spazio
- Carlos Simon
- Between Worlds II
- Jennifer Jolley
- How to be a Deep Thinker in LA
- Carlos Simon
- Between Worlds IV
- John Luther Adams
- The Light that Fills the World
*Programs subject to change.