Conservatory Project Starts Tomorrow

I neglected to mention the Kennedy Center's Conservatory Project in the February concert roundup, because the dates had not yet been announced. Once a year, the Kennedy Center turns over its Millennium Stage series of free concerts to students from the nation's leading conservatories and university schools of music. Even better, the venue is shifted from the Millennium Stage, inhospitable spaces in the center's public hallways, to the Terrace Theater (with one event in the Concert Hall). This year, the conservatories on the schedule will be split between two weeks, the first starting tomorrow and the second starting on April 22. All performances begin at 6 pm, and all are free and open to the public.

• February 16, Curtis Institute of Music
  Lutosławski’s Subito and Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death


• February 17, University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance
  Music of George and Ira Gershwin


• February 18, Juilliard School
  Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1 and Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1


• February 19, Organ Showcase in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall
  Students from twelve participating schools perform music by Widor, Schumann, Buxtehude, Smetana, Shostakovich, Demessieux, Litaize, Albright, Dupre, Ellington, Bach, Cochereau, and others on the Rubenstein Family Organ


• February 20, Cleveland Institute of Music
  Music by Laursen, Hong, Strauss, Chopin, Amosov


• February 21, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University
  Music by Beethoven, Scodanibbio, Rabbath, Rameau, Ligeti


• February 22, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
  Program not announced


• February 23, Yale School of Music
  Program not announced


• February 24, Peabody Institute at the Johns Hopkins University
  Music by Viñao, Gounod, Owens, Verdi, Bonds, Ligeti, Ravel

The Kennedy Center throws in a lagniappe to end the week, with a performance of the Apollo Orchestra, made up of young professional musicians, which will take place in the Terrace Theater (February 25, 6 pm). Their program includes John Adams’s Short Ride on a Fast Machine, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (with soprano Alison Buchanan), Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Gershwin’s Cuban Overture.