Music Podcast
National Gallery of Art Music Programs
On the third Tuesday of every month, the National Gallery of Art music department will release a podcast offering a deeper understanding of the art of music.
Podcast 1 | Podcast 2 | Podcast 3 | Podcast 4 | Podcast 5 | Podcast 6 | Podcast 7
Choral Festival in Honor of Reopening of American Galleries
Contemporary arrangements of 18th- and 19th-century American choral music, sung by the Central Bucks County (Pennsylvania) High School West Choir, the Eighteenth Street Singers (Washington, DC), and ProMusica of Columbia Union College (Takoma Park, Maryland)
Choral music has been an important part of music at the National Gallery ever since the very first concert at the Gallery in December 1942, sung by the United States Navy Music School Chorus. In April 2009, the Gallery celebrated the reopening of the American Galleries in the West Building with a three-day festival of American choral music presented by six outstanding choirs. Listen to the some of the music sung by three of those choirs.
Ma'alot Wind Quintet: Mendelssohn, Ligeti, Barber, Piazzolla, and Joplin
Program: Felix Mendelssohn's Ein Sommernachtstraum (A Midsummer Night's Dream), op. 61, arranged by Ulf-Guido Schäfer; György Ligeti's Six Bagatelles; Samuel Barber's Summer Music, op. 31 (1956); Astor Piazzolla's Suite, arranged by Ulf-Guido Schäfer; Scott Joplin's Ragtimes, arranged by Ulf-Guido Schäfer Formed in 1986, the Ma'alot Wind Quintet has won prizes in major international festivals and established a reputation as a leading proponent of new music. In addition to works written especially for the ensemble, the group also performs arrangements by quintet members Ulf-Guido Schäfer (clarinet) and Volker Grewel (horn). The other members of the quintet are Stephanie Winker (flute), Christian Wetzel (oboe), and Volker Tessmann (bassoon). This performance took place on January 11, 2009, and was the inaugural concert of Mendelssohn on the Mall, a festival presented jointly by the Library of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Gallery of Art.
Plays Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor
Program: Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor
The National Gallery of Art Piano Trio, the resident trio at the National Gallery, features violinist Luke Wedge and cellist Ben Wensel, both of whom have performed as members of the National Gallery Orchestra. The third member of the trio, pianist Danielle DeSwert Hahn, is also the Gallery's music program specialist. Listen to the four movements of Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor, from a performance in the West Garden Court of the National Gallery on February 24, 2008.
National Gallery Chamber Players
Program: Music from the 16th and 17th centuries that explores the theme of travel National Gallery of Art Chamber Players perform a concert in honor of Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450–1700. On this occasion, the ensemble includes tenor Wolodymyr Smishkewych, recorder virtuoso Kathryn Montoya, harpist Keith Collins, dulcian player Anna Marsh, viola da gambist Loren Ludwig, and harpsichordist Stephen Ackert.
Concert in Honor of African American History Month by Celeste Headlee and Danielle DeSwert
Program: Songs by William Grant Still for soprano and piano
Listen to music by William Grant Still, known as the dean of African American composers, and one of the country's most celebrated figures in music. A prolific composer, Still wrote more than 150 works, including symphonies, ballets, operas, chamber pieces, and vocal works. The concert features performances by Celeste Headlee, W. G. Still's granddaughter, and Danielle DeSwert.
The Choir of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle
Live Performance at the National Gallery of Art
Program: Locus iste (Bruckner), Prevent us, O Lord in all our doings (Byrd), Ave maris stella (Grieg), Psalm 121, Above all praise and majesty (Mendelssohn)
One of the most renowned choirs in the world, the Choir of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, presented a brief concert at the National Gallery of Art on October 25, 2007, in honor of the centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon (1907–1999), founding benefactor of the Gallery and an ardent Anglophile. In his memoir, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, Mellon suggested that his love of Great Britain was foreshadowed during his first visit with his parents, when he was baptized in St. George's Chapel on December 22, 1907. The performance took place in the Gallery's East Garden Court.
&Out my one window,& an Aria from Later the Same Evening: an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper
Listen to the premiere performance of &Out my one window,& an aria recorded on June 19, 2007 at a National Gallery of Art press conference announcing the new opera Later the Same Evening: an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper, commissioned to coincide with the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Gallery. &Out my one window,& music by John Musto and lyrics by Mark Campbell, is used by kind permission of Peermusic Classical, New York.