Get ready to have a good time at #NationalDanceDay 2024! 💃🎶🕺 Join us this Saturday, Sep. 21 at the #KenCenREACH for FREE dance classes, performances, community conversations & more!
Check out the full schedule ➡ tkc.co/ndd
#NDD2024
Jeffrey Foucault - Millennium Stage (September 20, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: In two decades on the road, Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most distinctive voices in American music, refining a sound instantly recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power. With a string of critically acclaimed studio albums—“Stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” (The New Yorker), “Beat-up troubadour folk whittled to dolorous perfection” (Uncut Magazine), “Songwriting Brilliance,” (Irish Times)—he’s built a brick-and-mortar international touring career and a devoted following, one that includes luminaries like Van Dyke Parks, Greil Marcus, and Don Henley.
In September of 2024, Jeffrey Foucault will release The Universal Fire (Fluff & Gravy, 9/6/24), his first album of entirely new material since 2018. A series of high-voltage performances cut live in one room, the album is both a working wake—Foucault lost his best friend and drummer Billy Conway, to cancer in 2021—and a meditation on the nature of beauty, artifact, and loss.
Augmenting Foucault’s all-star band with members of Calexico and Bon Iver (drummer John Convertino and producer/saxophonist Mike Lewis), The Universal Fire sets Conway’s death against the massive 2008 fire at the Universal Studios lot in California that destroyed the master recordings of some of our bedrock American music, in order to interrogate ideas about mortality, legacy, meaning, and calling.
Christylez Bacon Presents: Biriba Union - Millennium Stage (September 19, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: “A refreshingly new sound... improvisational spontaneity and high energy performance.”
—WSLR Radio
Biribá Union features Mike Block (cello, vocals), Christylez Bacon (beatbox, guitar, rhymes), and Patricia Ligia (electric bass, pandeiro, vocals), forming a dynamic trio that blends original music with global influences, creating a fresh and accessible sound. Each member draws from their diverse backgrounds, such as Brazilian, bluegrass, jazz, classical, hip hop, funk, and pop styles, synthesizing them through original compositions and songs that highlight their improvisational spontaneity and high energy stage presentation.
The U.S. Navy Band Chamber Players - Millennium Stage (September 18, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: The Navy Band Chamber Recital Series showcases a variety of small ensembles comprised of members across all major units within the U.S. Navy Band. These ensembles frequently perform at the White House and for functions hosted by the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior government and military protocol events in addition to community public concerts. The same ensembles are routinely featured in the Navy Band’s Music in the Schools program, which connects thousands of students each year with professional military musicians through in-school performances, clinics, masterclasses and educational conferences.
Jenny and the Mexicats - Millennium Stage (September 14, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: A jazz kit played with sticks and mano, an upright bass tattooed with comely women, jaunty Caribbean-influenced acoustic guitar, and a beautiful blonde siren with, yes, a trumpet. Do you wanna dance yet? Jenny will lure you in with her bluesy no-nonsense voice. She doesn’t want to work, just to dance. This relationship is torture. It’s just plain better in Buenos Aires. And always her case is compelling, the music a perfect dance in and of itself, pieced together like good jazz —every player counts. Jenny’s from Britain, but her Spanish is impeccable. The drummer is from Spain, and the strings are from Mexico, but this group is original, like Manu Chau without the political agenda, or a killer ska combo minus the kitsch. They are independents and the sum of their parts is from a land of heart and strong, quick rhythm.
California State University: Dominguez Hills - Millennium Stage (September 13, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Founded in 2009, the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that transforms the lives and minds of young people in inner-city Los Angeles through high quality music education. We teach inner-city youth the great music of the world and provide opportunities for them to perform that music in the most magnificent settings of our community. We prepare our members for advanced study and high caliber success in music and otherwise. We instill the ancillary benefits that music instruction provides: problem-solving skills, critical thinking, self-reliance, self-confidence, self-discipline, and the crystallization and pursuit of meaningful purpose.
La Santa Cecilia - Millennium Stage (September 12, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Grammy Award® winners for Best Latin Rock Album
La Santa Cecilia exemplifies the modern-day creative hybrid of Latin culture, rock, and world music. The group draws inspiration from all over the world, utilizing Pan-American rhythms including cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero, tango, jazz, and klezmer music. Their unique sounds and the experience of their colorful, passionate performances continues to captivate both loyal fans and new listeners.
Named after the patron saint of music, La Santa Cecilia is composed of accordionist and requinto player Jose “Pepe” Carlos, bassist Alex Bendaña, percussionist Miguel “Oso” Ramirez, and vocalist “La Marisoul.” With a captivating voice that sings about love, loss, and everyday struggles, the band has become the voice of a new bicultural generation in the United States, fully immersed in modern music, but always close to their Latin American influences and Mexican heritage.
La Santa Cecilia’s released their debut album Noche y Citas in 2011. The album was nominated at the Latin Grammy Awards® for the single “La Negra.” El Valor in 2012 was named one of the best albums of the year by NPR’s Alt Latino. In 2013, Treinta Días was released and went on to win the Grammy® for Best Latin Rock Album, Alternative or Urban. In 2016, Buenaventura was nominated for a Latin Grammy® in Best Pop/Rock Album category, and for a Grammy® in the Best Latin Urban, Rock or Alternative category. Their seventh album was released in the fall of 2019.
Svetlana & The New York Collective - Millennium Stage (September 11, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Night at the Movies! is a concert inspired by Svetlana’s chart-topping record (#1 on the Billboard US Traditional Jazz Charts). The concert showcases innovative jazz interpretations of iconic movie soundtracks (American classics, French New Wave, European Cinema, contemporary Academy Award® winners, and beloved animated films). Audiences will be captivated by the blend of cinematic dreaminess and fiery musical virtuosity, experiencing a kaleidoscope of sound that transitions from sophisticated retrospection to a lively foot-stomping party. It’s a concert reflecting Svetlana’s own immigrant journey from the silver screen dreams of her childhood to the vibrant reality of New York City, blending fantasy with the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
Catch Svetlana Music on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage this afternoon at 6 p.m. for "Night at the Movies!" — a concert inspired by her chart-topping record. 🤩
Svetlana's innovative jazz interpretations of iconic movie soundtracks, from French New Wave to beloved animated films, will leave you captivated in cinematic dreaminess. 🎞️🎶 Learn more ➡ https://bit.ly/4e4cGjq
Reach at 5 Promo
On this day in 2019, we gathered to celebrate a new type of arts campus—one where artists and audiences come together to explore the creativity found in all of us. This year, we invite you back to celebrate five years of the #KenCenREACH. 🎂
Sep. 20–22, join us in a celebration of all that this space has made possible with movie nights, a block party, dance events, chamber music, and more. We're so excited to celebrate the history of this space with you and get excited about all that's yet to come!🤩
Explore the full schedule of events ➡ https://bit.ly/4dcpgvL
Julien Baker & the NSO: "Ziptie"
Julien Baker's poignant performance of "Ziptie" with the National Symphony Orchestra in June had our hearts skipping a beat.💓
Watch this performance from Ben Folds's DECLASSIFIED series on YouTube here: https://bit.ly/3yTThSY
Martha Wainwright - Millennium Stage (September 7, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Martha Wainwright is beginning again. The beguiling performer and songwriter returns with Love Will Be Reborn, released in August. Wainwright’s fifth studio album follows recent years of loneliness and clarity in search of optimism and joy.
John Muq - Millennium Stage (September 6, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: From Kampala, Uganda, Jon Muq is a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who makes soul-filled pop music celebrating the magic of human connection, love, and the world’s many wonders. Now based in Austin, Muq has found a strong creative community to nurture his powerful talent. Dan Auerbach produced Muq’s debut album in Nashville, which was released through Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label in 2023. Muq has performed in New York City, Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and will expand his touring schedule to support his new music.
Gaia Wilmer & Jacques Morelenbaum - Millennium Stage (September 5, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Jaques Morelenbaum is a cellist, composer, arranger, and musical producer who has worked with great names of Brazilian music, such as Caetano himself, as well as Tom Jobim, Gilberto Gil, and Egberto Gismonti. Morelenbaum has recorded and arranged/produced some of the most important recordings of Brazilian music. He has also been a fundamental part of the Jobim-Morelenbaum quartet, and the duo and trio with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Gaia Wilmer is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and music producer, and has been active both in Brazil and the United States. Wilmer has been carving herself quite a niche in the jazz and Brazilian instrumental music scene, and has worked with the likes of Egberto Gismonti, Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, Frank Carlberg, amongst others.
Trem das Cores is a celebration of Caetano Veloso, the Brazilian singer-songwriter and an important figure in Brazilian culture and in Morelenbaum’s and Wilmer’s lives. The idea comes from their love and great pleasure in working together with Caetano’s work, while also celebrating his 80th birthday. The idea comes most of all from honoring him as a composer, beyond his greatness as a singer and a poet—hence the idea of an instrumental journey through his music.
Wilmer and Morelenbaum worked together for the first time in 2018, in a project paying homage to Egberto Gismonti’s music—also a celebration of his 70th birthday—in a series of concerts in Brazil organized by Wilmer. They also worked together during and the recording of Folia: The Music of Egberto Gismonti with Gaia Wilmer Large Ensemble and Morelenbaum as one of the guests. Since then, the desire of doing something together has been present in their lives and, during the pandemic, they came up with an idea: an album, together paying homage to Caetano. Thus, in 2022, in a project in partnership with Brazilian label Biscoito Fino, they assembled a group of musicians made up of two flutes, clarinet, two saxophones,
Joshua Jenkins - Millennium Stage (August 31, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Featuring the music of composers both from Africa and the diaspora, this show highlights the dynamism and originality present within this tradition. As the music that not only forms the foundation of modern jazz, but continues to inform its trajectory, African and Afro-diasporic music will take center stage in this program. Listen as Joshua Jenkins and his ensemble perform works by Lionel Loueke (Benin), Joshua Uzoigwe (Nigeria), Sakésho (French Caribbean), and others, in order to honor the beautiful wellspring of expression that is African music.
Personnel:
Joshua Jenkins - piano
Eliot Seppa - bass
Angel Bethea - drums
Domenic Lewis - steelpan
DC Jazz Festival: Ebban & Ephraim Dorsey - Millennium Stage (August 29, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Ebban and Ephraim Dorsey are 20- and 21-year-old saxophonists, composers, bandleaders, and rising stars in the contemporary jazz scene. The multi-talented siblings have been playing together since they were nine and 10. Both have been members of Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz, Herbie Hancock Institute’s National Peer-to-Peer All-Star Jazz, JAZZ HOUSE KiDS, and Peabody Jazz Ensembles between 2020–2024.
Ebban Dorsey’s improvisational prowess is also featured extensively on José James’ album On & On, a jazz tribute to Erykah Badu, which resulted in Ebban Dorsey being invited on her first international tour in 2023. Ephraim Dorsey was also cast to play a young Kamasi Washington in his short film As told to G/D thyself, which was nominated for awards at the Sundance and La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festivals.
Destined for greatness, the Dorseys continue to blaze a trail forward with their trademark humility, melodic invention, and forward-thinking musical concepts. Their performances can be described as two different voices coming together to create a healing, ethereal, and emotional experience for listeners as well as themselves.
In collaboration with DC Jazz Festival
DC Jazz Festival: Eliot Seppa - Millennium Stage (August 28, 2024)
Live Tonight on Millennium Stage: Eliot Seppa is well known as one the most sought-after bassists in the D.C. area in jazz, R&B, gospel, musical theater, and more. Through years of experience in so many diverse musical situations, he has developed a band sound that is eclectic and uniquely his own. In his compositions and arrangements, Eliot embraces rich harmonies, infectious rhythms, and organic interplay between band members.
In collaboration with DC Jazz Festival
Don't Be Deceived video
Don't be fooled! Our website, kennedy-center.org, is the *only* place to buy tickets for our performances and events — like &Juliet and Broadway Center Stage: Schmigadoon! on sale Sep. 10 at 10 a.m. 🎫🎭✨
Click the #LinkInBio for more information about these exciting new musicals, and mark your calendar to be first in line for tickets.📆
