As our 100th season enters its last few weeks, we are excited to invite you to a new music weekend, with an enticing pair of concerts featuring new and recently composed music.
First, on Friday, May 30 at 8 p.m., loadbang will join us for a concert that will feature three Library of Congress commissions. Easily the finest quartet of bass clarinet, baritone voice, trumpet, and trombone around, loadbang brings their unique sound to recent works by Sebastian Currier, Hilda Paredes, Michael Finnissy, and Laura Cetilia. The works by Currier and Finnissy are both Koussevitzky commissions and receive their Library premiere at this concert. Sources for the texts employed by the composers are wide-ranging, and Michael Finnissy’s setting includes multiple texts by Walt Whitman, represented in the Library’s collections.
Midway through the event we will hear the world premiere of Christopher Otto’s Buggydandy, commissioned through the Leonora Jackson McKim Fund in the Library of Congress. Otto will appear as violinist alongside pianist Ning Yu for the work’s debut. A preconcert conversation will take place at 6:30pm in the Whittall Pavilion. Reserve tickets here
Then on Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m., come back to hear Christopher Otto and Ning Yu perform music by Muhal Richard Abrams as a prelude to this year’s “Piece Offering,” where we focus on a single major work in performance and conversation. We are pleased to present Brigitta Muntendorf’s monumental Trilogy for two pianos, tape, and live electronics, performed by pianists Cory Smythe and Ning Yu with live electronics managed by Levy Lorenzo and Jeff Svatek. While the composer was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances, we were able to chat with her in advance and will have that video available on the event page once it is live, and she will also offer some insights during the concert remotely via video message. Reserve tickets here
Please note that performance reservations are for tickets for specific seats. Don’t worry if you are unable to get a pair of tickets to these shows—a high percentage of guests do not show up to the hall on the performance date, so we release their seats to all waiting guests five minutes before the concert is scheduled to begin. We have an easy-to-use numbered RUSH pass system available to patrons two hours in advance of each concert. Historically, we have been able to get everyone seated who arrived at least half an hour in advance of a sold-out show, and we will continue to do everything we can to make our free concert series accessible to the public.
We recommend arriving half an hour in advance of each event to avoid losing your seat, as sometimes security lines can be longer than expected to enter the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.
We hope to see you at an upcoming concert, and appreciate all of your support over what has proven to be a spectacular year of Concerts from the Library of Congress.