Olivia Hampton

Washington Arts Ensemble sees bright future after pandemic launch

The young chamber music group begun by two Juilliard alums has already sold out monthly performances.

NSO creates fine embroidery with Tortelier conducting

The entire program was united in evoking pastoral landscapes and idylls.

Yan Pascal Tortelier on conducting: ‘Art and beauty enlighten, elevate and open unexpected doors’

He returns to the National Symphony Orchestra’s podium for the first time in nearly three decades.

The National Symphony Orchestra meets its audience at The Anthem

Musicians ditched their concert dress for casual-cool wear more in tune with the industrial-chic locale.

Tune in to Kennedy Center’s big 50th birthday party Friday on PBS

Celebrating 50 years of the National Cultural Center, the evening is hosted by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald.

Kennedy Center flings open its doors for 50th anniversary

New season celebrates the performing arts as a unifying and healing force.

NSO reunites with live audience after 15 months of silence

For the first time in more than a year, audiences lined up outside the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall to hear the National Symphony Orchestra perform last week. Musicians and their public were together...

Women composers to revel this weekend at WoCo Fest 2021

Cellist Amanda Gookin joined the legions of artists whose lives were upended when the pandemic robbed them and their public of sharing music in the same space. But that all changes on Saturday, June...

Roaring back: Noseda returns to lead NSO in four filmed concerts

Gianandrea Noseda has returned to the podium of his beloved National Symphony Orchestra, awakening the sleeping giant that is the sound he has crafted as the ensemble’s music director since the...

How the pandemic got music educators to think outside the box

In a typical year, Sound Impact reaches some 8,000 students throughout the United States and Central America. But typical, 2020 is not. The upheaval brought on by the pandemic left this collective of...

12-hour marathon to mark Beethoven’s birthday and seek world peace

Yael Weiss can remember the exact moment it all began. It was the summer of 2017, and the Israeli-American pianist was reading newspaper headlines in her New York apartment. Each story was more...

Tiny chamber concert series strikes audience gold in crisis

When Ellen Hwangbo launched a chamber concert series in November 2019 that included a venue just a stone’s throw from the White House, little seemed brazen about it. But within months, American...

How the Kennedy Center is keeping live performance alive (cautiously)

Update November 18, 2020: COVID cancelations to cost Kennedy Center over $80 million Scheduled performances through April 25 are off; Broadway musical tours are postponed; Kennedy Center Honors are...

IN Series to build a digital opera house without walls

If the COVID-19 pandemic has a lesson for the arts community, it’s that what’s small can still be mighty. Without a house to fill and lavish sets and costumes to maintain, Washington’s tiny itinerant...