Concerts from the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the 2018-2019 season, filled with an astonishing roster of artists and speakers. Building on the world-class chamber music you love to hear in the Coolidge Auditorium—which this year includes the Emerson Quartet with David Finckel, the Brentano Quartet with Hsin-Yun Huang and the Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Vogt Trio, and many more—a number of special projects offer unique experiences supported by the vast cultural resources of the Nation’s Library. You can hear the U.S. premiere of a Liszt opera, spend a weekend learning about video game music, and get to know our special collections related to The Wiz and Artur Schnabel, or Howard Ashman and Alan Menken—who will be performing—among many others. Our jazz offerings are especially exciting, with performances by the Pérez, Cohen, Potter Quintet; Charles Lloyd and the Marvels with Lucinda Williams; Aaron Diehl; and Jazzmeia Horn. With six new Library commissions, there will be a host of new sounds in which to immerse yourself, led by groups like Alarm Will Sound, the Quince Ensemble, the TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Signal and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Celebrate the 350th birthday of François Couperin with Les Talens Lyriques, and hear the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra perform major works by Mendelssohn alongside a new piece by Valerie Coleman. A host of films and talks are also available to you, as always, free of charge—come and listen!
Tickets for 2018 events will be available starting on Wednesday, September 5 at 10 am ET. This year all films, lectures and preconcert events will be general admission, with no tickets needed. Seating will be first-come, first-served. We will still offer registration for films and lectures, so that we can send a reminder and notify you of any schedule changes.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Click here to read our press release.
Click here to see the Season-at-a-Glance, where you can click on each event to learn more.
Comments (5)
I made a special effort and made note of the September 5 at 10 am time to order tickets for the Season-at-a-Glance. So today, the 5th, I went on at
10:15 am. and found that everything was sold out!!!
Either people are getting tickets before the 5th or Eventbrite is doing a bad job.
An explanation would be helpful. Surely, not that many “guest” tickets are set aside.
Thank you for your message, and we are sorry that you were unable to get the tickets you wanted. Tickets for most concerts were sold out within 2 to 5 minutes of becoming available, which is normal for our series. Our hall seats 485, and guests can reserve two tickets at a time, so they go very quickly. We do have a large number of no-shows due to the concerts being free, so we still encourage you to try our RUSH pass system. While we can’t guarantee admission, we usually get in 60-80 people without a ticket at the door for every concert, and only rarely do we have to turn anyone away. For more information, please visit: http://www.loc.gov/concerts/tickets.html
Not sure what changed with the switch to Eventbrite. For years I was able to get tickets to many of the concerts through the prior ticket service – now everything seems to be immediately sold out. So I just don’t even try any more.
Dear David,
Thanks for responding to Ms. Rubin’s comments. I had the same experience. It seems to be a shame for it to be so easy for these concerts to “sell” out to people who might not use the tickets. Please consider adding a small fee. That usually prevents such poor behavior. And that fee is going to a good cause.
I am very disappointed that I am unable to secure tickets for a performance that I learned about months ago on a performer’s website because I was unable at be available for a 10 minute window when the tickets became available. I’ll try the “rush” option, but there must be a better way.
Thank you for your message as well. We understand and share your frustration about attendance and ticket availability–we are always looking for ways to improve our system that also allows for broad, free access to the concerts. It is part of our mandate to offer free events to the public, and with limited space there is only so much that we can do. I do encourage people without tickets to still try at the door, as there are usually only one or two events per season where we are unable to seat everyone who wants to attend, and as mentioned before, we are usually able to get 60-80 people without tickets in even at the most popular events.