From our 2014-2015 season: 

Steven Lutvak / Jeanine Tesori / David Yazbek

A thrilling evening with three of Broadway’s hottest musical creators performing their own music—Steven Lutvak, Jeanine Tesori and David Yazbek make a rare appearance in Washington for an intimate evening of music, lyrics and magic.

STEVEN LUTVAK’s rise to Broadway fame was met with the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2014 for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Lutvak is a past recipient of the Kleban Award for Lyric Writing for the Theater and the Fred Ebb Award for Songwriting for the Theater.

JEANINE TESORI
From Thoroughly Modern Millie to Violet and Caroline, or Change, Tesori’s musicals have become modern classics, garnering her four Tony nominations and the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
Photo credit: Matthew Karas

DAVID YAZBEK
David Yazbek, a three-time Tony nominee, is known for his comedic musicals The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. He is also a GRAMMY-nominated producer, Emmy-winning TV writer, and co-composer of the theme song to PBS’s Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?

Race and the Broadway Musical

A lecture with Warren Hoffman, Ph.D

Warren Hoffman, a program director, producer, theater critic, and playwright, discusses the role of race in American musical theater. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Kanter called Hoffman’s book “an eye-opener for anyone studying the racial implications of commercial musical theater.”

Presented in conjunction with the Library of Congress exhibition
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom”

Presented in association with Songs of America and the Library of Congress Daniel A.P. Murray African American Culture Association

Theaters

The Library of Congress and W.W. Norton & Company celebrated the publication of "Theaters" with a special program of music and entertainment. Featured were an illustrated overview of the book by the author, Craig Morrison; a performance by Ted van Griethuysen of the Shakespeare Theatre Company; a musical performance by Genevieve Williams featuring songs composed by Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Howard Dietz and Irving Berlin; and a performance by the noted Russian pianist Svetlana Potanina of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Robert Schumann.

On Saturday, October 16, 2019, Concerts from the Library of Congress hosted Afro-Cuban jazz master, Chucho Valdés. Founder and director of the legendary Cuban jazz band Irakere, winner of six GRAMMYs and four Latin GRAMMYs, Chucho Valdés is not just an authority in the jazz world, he is a living legend.  This Pick of the Week features Chucho Valdés in conversation with Music Specialist, Claudia Morales. 

In this fun and intimate conversation, Chucho Valdés reacts to some treasures from our music collections that include music composed by his father, one of the most representative musicians in the history of Cuban music, pianist and composer, Bebo Valdés. He also reacts to a photo of him and the American drummer Max Roach from the Max Roach Papers housed in the Music Division. Chucho’s reaction to the materials was simply heartwarming.

No one talks to Chucho Valdés without talking about Irakere. I had so many questions to ask, but I was primarily interested in learning about his experience with religious syncretism, the merging of two or more religions in a new belief, as an element of his music. Chucho told me about his exposure to Santeria through his grandfather and to the Catholic church through his grandmother, and how he mixed these elements with jazz and funk to create the Timba Cubana. 

We concluded the interview with the question: what would you say to the new generation of musicians? Chucho’s answer was the summary of the musician that he is; he mentioned discipline as the number one characteristic a musician must have. Discipline plus passion for music have spurred this now 79-year-old Afro-Cuban jazz master to continue his musical journey that includes writing an opera, touring around the globe with a robust calendar of performances, and now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting with his audience via online recitals on social media. I invite you to watch and enjoy Chucho Valdés in conversation.

Click this link to view Chucho Valdés in conversation 

Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier

Canadian pianists Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier have been performing together since their student days and have developed a remarkable sensitivity to the four-hand and two-piano literature. Their program features staples of the Russian two-piano repertoire, with a few additional gems. 

His "Last Work:" Hearing Ghosts in Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances

Blair Johnston, PhD, Associate Professor of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University.

Blair Johnston speaks about Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninoff's last completed orchestral work. The Library of Congress now holds all of the significant primary source materials for this iconic work.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Steven Isserlis, cello 

Connie Shih, piano

Who is ready for a Fauré foray by cellist Steven Isserlis and Canadian pianist Connie Shih? The program is filled with gems from the familiar to the Martin-new, including a work composed by Thomas Adès for Isserlis. 

Pre-concert Talk:
Steven Isserlis

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis talks with Music Specialist Nicholas Brown about his work as a cellist, chamber musician and author.