Dec 6: Experiential Orchestra in Transfigured Night Reimagined at the Library of Congress featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto
Photo of James Blachly and Experiential Orchestra by Allison Stock. High resolution images available here.
Experiential Orchestra in Transfigured Night Reimagined
Presented by the Library of Congress
Featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin
with Soloist Curtis Stewart
Plus Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
Reimagined with Narration by Ling Ling Huang
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm
Pre-Concert Conversation at 6:30pm, Whittall Pavilion
Library of Congress | Thomas Jefferson Building | Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC
Ticket Information: Free with RSVP
Note: This event is currently at capacity, but additional tickets will be released. You can join the waitlist here, and you will be notified when tickets become available. RUSH passes will also be available to walk-up patrons who do not have tickets.
Washington, D.C. – On Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm, the GRAMMY Award-winning, New York-based Experiential Orchestra (EXO) led by Music Director James Blachly brings one of its signature, immersive performances to the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium (Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 1st Street SE) to mark a trilogy of milestones – the Library’s 100th Anniversary, and two significant birth anniversaries for transformative composers Arnold Schoenberg (his 150th) and Julia Perry (her 100th). A pre-concert conversation with the artists will be held at 6:30pm in Whittall Pavilion. Tickets are free but an RSVP is required.
EXO's performances have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and bring listeners close to the music through imaginative and interactive experiences. At the Library of Congress, EXO gives the D.C. premiere of African-American composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin with four-time GRAMMY nominee Curtis Stewart, who made the first commercial recording of this landmark 1965 work with EXO as part of their recently released album, American Counterpoints (Bright Shiny Things). In March, EXO, Blachly, and Stewart performed Perry’s Concerto for Violin at Lincoln Center as part of the 2024 Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival, co-presented by EXO and Videmus. For this concert, Stewart will play legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler’s Guarneri instrument from 1730, part of the Library of Congress’s collection.
The New York Times reported of EXO, Blachly, and Stewart’s world premiere recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin:
“Julia Perry, who would have turned 100 this month, achieved some real recognition during her lifetime, but – in a tale all too common for composers who aren’t white men – fell into obscurity after her death in 1979. There have been recent efforts to revive her works, including her Violin Concerto, written in the 1960s and now recorded by the Experiential Orchestra under James Blachly, with Curtis Stewart as the soloist. This brooding, 25-minute piece begins with a passionate violin cadenza, played like the rest of the concerto with heated commitment from Stewart, and then evolves frequently, without defined section breaks. It is a fine example of the sober yet seething angularity of its era, leavened with warm strings and hints of Coplandesque expansiveness. It’s a vigorous work of mid-20th-century Neo-Classicism . . .”
To mark Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birth anniversary, violinist and author Ling Ling Huang (Natural Beauty, Dutton 2023) reimagines his Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) from 1899 for a modern audience, with new narration that expands the concept of the poem by Richard Dehmel that inspired Schoenberg to write this piece.
In celebration of the Library’s 100th anniversary, other works from the Library’s collections will be highlighted, including Irving Fine’s lush Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra and Alan Hovhaness’ touching tribute, In Memory of an Artist.
This concert is presented through the generosity of the Verna and Irving Fine Endowment in the Library of Congress, with thanks to the EXO Creative Team and Pauline Kim Harris, Henry Wang, Ling Ling Huang, and Lady Jess for concept development.
About the Featured Artists:
James Blachly: www.jamesblachly.com
Curtis Stewart: www.curtisjstewart.com
Ling Ling Huang: www.linglinghuang.com
About Experiential Orchestra:
The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) brings audiences close to the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.
EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.
Recent highlights have included a subscription concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. In January 2024, EXO performed Pärt’s masterwork Passio at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the concert while reclining on yoga mats. In March 2024, the orchestra co-presented a four-day Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, coinciding with Perry’s 100th birthday that month.
EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The album won the Grammy®️ for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 – the first Grammy ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in March 2024.
EXO is led by Music Director James Blachly, General Manager Raphaele de Boisblanc, and Director of Artistic Planning Pauline Kim Harris. EXO:Chamber, a series of chamber concerts, was inaugurated in 2023, curated by EXO’s Creative Team directed by Pauline Kim Harris. The Creative Team includes Henry Wang, concertmaster; Michelle Ross, co-concertmaster; Alexander Fortes, co-concertmaster; Lady Jess, principal; and Sami Merdinian, principal. EXO’s Artistic Advisors are Patrick Castillo, Brad Balliett, and Doug Balliett.