Classical Month in Washington: July

Classical Month in Washington is a monthly feature that appears on the first of the month. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (praecentor at yahoo dot com). Happy listening!

Tuesday, July 5, through Sunday, July 10, various times
Kirov Ballet: Le Corsaire (music by Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Leo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo, and Pavel Oldenburgsky)
Kennedy Center Opera House
See the review by Sarah Kaufman (Washington Post, July 7)

Thursday, July 7, 8 pm
Meet the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Douglas Boyd, conductor (Elgar, Britten, Stravinsky)
Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.)
See the review by Daniel Ginsberg (Washington Post, July 9)

Thursday, July 7, 8:15 pm
National Symphony Orchestra, All-Tchaikovsky Concert, "Russian Bells and Cannons"
With Emil de Cou, guest conductor, and violinist Joshua Bell
Wolf Trap (Vienna, Va.)
See the review by Claire Marie Blaustein (Washington Post, July 9)

Saturday, July 9, 8:15 pm
National Symphony Orchestra: Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, and Wagner: "Murder and Other Operatic Mayhem"
Wolf Trap (Vienna, Va.)
See the review by Joseph McLellan (Washington Post, July 11)

Sunday, July 10, 2:30 pm; Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 pm; Friday, July 15, 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 17, 2:30 pm
Verdi, Rigoletto
Summer Opera Theatre Company
See the review by Joseph McLellan (Washington Post, July 12)

Sunday, July 10, 4 pm
Opera International, Opera Gala concert (with mezzo-soprano Guang Yang and many others)
Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.)

Tuesday, July 12, 7:30 pm
21st Century Consort (music by Debussy, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and local composer Christopher Patton, multimedia piece with lighting effects by Daniel MacLean Wagner)
Washington National Cathedral [FREE, no tickets required]
See the review by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, July 13)

Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 pm; Friday, July 15, 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 17, 2:30 pm
Verdi, Rigoletto
Summer Opera Theatre Company
See the review by Joseph McLellan (Washington Post, July 12)

Thursday, July 14, 7 pm
Forlana Consort, Celebration of Flanders Day
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Thursday, July 14, 8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: A Midsummer Night's Classics, with Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello, and Mark Wigglesworth, conductor (Shostakovich Festival Overture)
Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.)
See the review by Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, July 15)

Friday, July 15, 7:30 pm
Cathedral Men's Voices in Concert (directed by Michael McCarthy)
Tallis's Lamentations, Poulenc's Four Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi, and other works
Washington National Cathedral, Summer Music Festival [FREE, no reservation required]

Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16, 7:30 pm
National Symphony Orchestra at Carter Barron (Sarah Hatsuko Hicks and Emil de Cou, conductors)
Carter Barron Amphitheatre [FREE, no reservation, gates open at 7 pm]
See the review by Andrew Lindemann Malone (Washington Post, July 18)

Sunday, July 17, 3 pm
Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic [formerly Mount Vernon Orchestra] (Beethoven, Suttermeister, and three world premieres by local composer Armando Bayolo) [FREE]
The Lyceum (Alexandria, Va.)

Sunday, July 17, 7:30 pm
Washington area combined choirs, music of Thomas Tallis (including the famous motet in 40 parts, Spem in alium)
Washington National Cathedral, Summer Music Festival [FREE, no reservation required]

Monday, July 18, 7:30 pm
Washington Musica Viva (new music for clarinet, saxophone, cello, soprano, and piano, including pieces by Janet Peachey, John Stephens, Jay Vosk, Beth Joselow; also Brahms)
The Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum (Bethesda, Md.)
See the review by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, July 19)

Tuesday, July 19, 7:30 pm
Miles Hoffman, violist [FREE]
Summer Music Festival 2005 at Washington National Cathedral

Thursday, July 21, 7:30 pm
Cathedral Choral Society with National Symphony Orchestra (Gounod, St. Cecilia Mass; Ravel, Pavane for a Dead Princess; Britten, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; Poulenc, Organ Concerto) [FREE]
Summer Music Festival 2005 at Washington National Cathedral
See the review by Lindsay Heller (Ionarts, July 22)

Thursday, July 21, 8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: A Night of Firsts, with Hugh Wolff, conductor (Walton's Façade Suite No. 1, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, and Schumann's Symphony No. 1)
Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.)
See the review by Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, July 22)

Friday, July 22, 7:30 pm
Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach
The Tennessee Players with Hugh O'Brian and NPR's Carl Kasell and Jean Cochran (multimedia production highlighting the monumental life's work of Albert Schweitzer with music by Bach) [FREE]
Summer Music Festival 2005 at Washington National Cathedral

Friday, July 22, 8 pm; Sunday, July 24, 2 pm; Friday, July 29, 8 pm; Sunday, July 31, 2 pm
Mozart, Don Giovanni (Wolf Trap Opera Company)
The Barns at Wolf Trap (Vienna, Va.)
See the review by Joseph McLellan (Washington Post, July 25)

Tuesday, July 26, 7:30 pm
Phoenix, Vocal Ensemble [FREE]
Washington National Cathedral, Summer Music Festival 2005

Thursday, July 28, 9:30 am and 11:30 am
The Elephant's Child (new staged musical score for children, by Bob Novak and David Griffiths, on Rudyard Kipling's classic story)
Backyard Theater Stage, Strathmore

Thursday, July 28, 8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, with Baltimore Choral Arts Society and conductor Jeffery Kahane (also Beethoven's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage)
Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.)
See the review by Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, July 29)

Thursday, July 28, 8:15 pm
National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap (JoAnn Falletta, conductor), with Sir James Galway and Jeanne Galway, flutes
Wolf Trap (Vienna, Va.)

Friday, July 29, 7:30 pm
National Spiritual Ensemble [FREE]
Washington National Cathedral, Summer Music Festival 2005

Sunday, July 31, 5 pm
William Neil, organ [FREE]
Washington National Cathedral, Summer Music Festival 2005

Sunday, July 31, 6 pm
Richard K. Fitzgerald, organ (Assistant Director of Music, National Shrine)
Music by Vierne, Daly, Ducommun, Near, Messiaen, Bach [FREE]
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Great Upper Church

——» Go to Classical Month in Washington: June.