Performances
2017-2018 season
Falla!
Perspectives Ensemble collaborates with visual artist Kevork Mourad to create an audiovisual and musical experience that transports you on a multimedia journey through Spain. The program includes two classical works by the great Spanish composer Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo and Master Peter’s Puppet Show.
Two Masterpieces by Manuel de Falla
Perspectives Ensemble collaborates with visual artist Kevork Mourad to create an audiovisual and musical experience that transports you on a multimedia journey through Spain. The program includes two classical works by the great Spanish composer Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo and Master Peter’s Puppet Show.
Itamar Zorman plays Dvořák
Violinist Itamar Zorman, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and a recipient of the 2014 Borletti-Buitoni Award and the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto under the direction of Angel Gil-Ordóñez.
Narek Hakhnazaryan plays Tchaikovsky
Armenian-born and internationally renowned cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan plays Tchaikovsky’s concerto-like Rococo Variations under the direction of Angel Gil-Ordóñez.
The Star of Ethiopia: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Historic Visits to D.C. (1904-1910)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was a black British composer who catapulted to fame with his 1898 oratorio Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.
The New Babylon: The Soviet silent film classic with Shostakovich’s score
This astonishing culminating achievement of the Soviet silent film era is an historical epic both whimsical and tragic, set during the 1871 Paris Commune. It is the first of Shostakovich’s historic collaborations with filmmaker Grigori Kozintsev —a relationship ending with their epochal King Lear of 1971.
Mozart's Gran Partita
Peridance Contemporary Dance Company’s Artistic Director Igal Perry presents the world premiere of his newest full-length work featuring Mozart’s soaring score for wind ensemble, played live by students from the Manhattan School of Music and conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez.
Deep River: The Art of the Spiritual
Harry Burleigh (1866-1949) is a forgotten hero of American music. Antonin Dvorak’s assistant in New York City from 1892 to 1895, Burleigh was subsequently the composer/singer most responsible for turning spirituals into art songs. His Deep River (1915), a sensation in its day, took an obscure upbeat spiritual and turned it into the reverent song made famous by Burleigh, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson and countless others.
Music in Wartime: A Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration
For Pearl Harbor Day, we juxtapose three galvanizing musical responses to World War II by Dmitri Shostakovich, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler. With the Cathedral Choir and members of PCE conducted by Michael McCarthy and Angel Gil-Ordóñez. This program includes film clips of Pearl Harbor, the Siege of Leningrad, and FDR’s declaration of war on Japan. The concert begins with a wartime Eisler/Brecht workers’ song sung as a processional.
Celebrate The Messiah
The Music and Creative Arts Ministry of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church will host its 41st presentation of Handel’s Messiah on Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 5 pm. Leading the performance will be Spanish-born guest conductor Angel Gil-Ordoñez, Music Director for Washington, D.C.’s adventurous PostClassical Ensemble and also the Georgetown University Orchestra. This performance marks first time in the church’s history that the ministry of music has partnered with both institutions for the annual Handel’s Messiah performance.
Richard Wagner’s Parsifal and The Valkyrie
The Georgetown University Orchestra, in collaboration with the Wagner Society of Washington DC (WSWDC), presents a selection of musical excerpts from Parsifal and The Valkyrie. With the participation of bass baritone Kevin Deas and tenor William Green, alumnus of The American Wagner Project (a partnership of WSWDC with Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices).
The Russian Experiment
PostClassical Ensemble and American University’s Carmel Institute of Russian History & Culture present The Russian Experiment: Soviet Culture of the twenties with pianist Vladimir Feltsman.
2016-2017 season
Anne Akiko Meyers plays Mendelssohn
This year the Bowdoin International Music Festival features Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s leading violin soloists. Angel Gil-Ordóñez conducts the Festival’s orchestra for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64.
Screening of Redes
Join Perspectives Ensemble at the Americas Society for a performance of works by Silvestre Revueltas, followed by a screening of the Mexican film Redes and panel discussion.
A Lou Harrison Centenary Celebration
Join PostClassical Ensemble at the Indonesian Embassy to listen to Lou Harrison’s work in his centenary celebration, with commentaries by Gamelan Scholar and Professor Sumarsam.
Music for Cuba Exchange
Twelve Georgetown University students and two faculty members participated in the first part of the Music for Cuba exchange March 5-12 in Cuba, including daily rehearsals, sectionals and workshops with the Lyceum Mozartiano de La Habana teachers. The second part of the exchange for the Lyceum musicians’ trip to Georgetown University from April 16-24 features this culminating free joint concert on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 8 pm in GU’s Gaston Hall.
Music Under Stalin: Inmersion experience
Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczyslaw Weinberg influenced one another over the course of a remarkable creative conversation. The sparse “late style” of both composers arose collaboratively, and so did their use of Jewish themes.
The Trumpet Shall Sound
A program of spirituals and religious arias connecting My Lawd, What a Mornin’ and Handel’s Hallelujah chorus.
A Tribute to Silvestre Revueltas with Spain's Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra
Silvestre Revueltas —a master Mexican composer whose time will come— composed one of the greatest of all film scores for one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made: Redes. This program celebrates the complete film score of Redes in its Spanish premiere. The first half of the program presents the film in its cultural and historical context, as a genuine result of the Mexican Revolution.
Mozart, “Amadeus”, and the Gran Partita
Angel Gil-Ordóñez conducts PostClassical Ensemble in Mozart, Amadeus, and the Gran Partita, a one-of-a-kind program including an actor, a wind ensemble, a courtly minuet and new choreography by Igal Perry. Known as the Gran Partita, Mozart’s Wind Serenade in B-flat major is the most famous of all such serenades. The performance will feature dancers from the Washington Ballet Studio Company and pianist Philip Hosford as Salieri.