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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This post’s publication coincides with our celebration today of George Gershwin’s birthday – he was born on Sept. 26, 1898, in New York City. The Library also announced today the availability of rare Gershwin home movies on its newly launched National Screening Room website. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced this week that husband-and-wife team …
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Library of Congress photographer Shawn Miller captured this stunning photograph of 10 Stradivari instruments – and Italy’s esteemed Quartetto di Cremona – during a special “Strad Shoot” in the Great Hall of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building on May 11. The occasion was a prelude to a concert that evening by the Quartetto, co-presented by …
Posted in: Concerts, Music, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The Library of Congress is delighted to report that a composition it co-commissioned won a 2018 Grammy Award: Jennifer Higdon, acclaimed composer of contemporary classical music, accepted the award in Madison Square Garden in New York on January 28 for “Viola Concerto.” The Library co-commissioned the work from Higdon with the Curtis Institute of Music, …
Posted by: Gayle Osterberg
Happy New Year! There is something sort of refreshing to me about saying those words. I have always fully embraced the notion that a new calendar year, psychologically speaking, offers a particular moment to reset, recommit and reprioritize. Whether you call them New Year’s Resolutions or, as one of my dear friends refers to them, …
Posted in: Collections, Concerts, Congress, Exhibitions, LCM, Literacy, Maps, News, Science
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Celebrated performer Tony Bennett salutes the crowd on November 15 after Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and a delegation of Members of Congress presented him with the 2017 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Members who joined Bennett on stage were Rep. Kevin Yoder, U.S. House of Representatives Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the …
Posted in: Concerts, Events, Music, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Ledward “Led” Kaapana delighted an audience in the Coolidge Auditorium on July 6 with traditional music from Hawaii. A master of the Hawaiian ukulele and slack key guitar, Kaapana has performed in Hawaii and beyond for more than 40 years, perpetuating the musical style and repertoire of his home village, Kalapana, in the southernmost district of …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The BeauSoleil Quartet performed the lively and soulful music of Louisiana Cajuns on June 28 in the Coolidge Auditorium as part of the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series. For four decades now, the quartet has been taking traditional ingredients—waltzes, two-steps, Cajun French lyrics, hot fiddle licks and irresistible accordion—and spicing them up with eclectic percussion, acoustic …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The Cambodian-American Heritage Dancers and the Chum Ngek Ensemble performed classical Khmer dance and music in the Coolidge Auditorium on May 25. The program took place as part of the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series and in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Posted in: Asian American History, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Legendary singer Gloria Gaynor performed the night away in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building on May 6 to an audience of dancers in glittering halter dresses, platform shoes, and bell bottoms. The dance party ended a daylong celebration of disco culture. It started with a symposium that explored disco’s influence on popular …
Posted in: Concerts, Events, Pic of the Week