DC Girl on the Go

This Saturday the National Philharmonic will be premiering Debussy’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian as part of a festival in the Washington, DC area celebrating the composer’s 150th birthday. The Martyrdom is Debussy’s only large-scale choral work. It tells the story of St. Sebastian, a Roman soldier whose conversion to Christianity inspired him to save other Christians from death, and ultimately led the Emperor Diocletian to order his execution. 

Influenced by Symbolist poets and Impressionist painters, Debussy’s compositions took on a new form of originality through nontraditional tonal structures. His technique achieved a new voice that evoked profound images and moods in the lush texture of the music. In the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, for example, listeners are made acutely aware of the anguish sung by the chorus: 

Hélas! Ah! Pleurez, Ô femmes de Syrie, criez: Hélas! Ma Seigneurie! Toutes le fleurs se sont flétries. Criez! Pleurez!

“Alas! Ah! Weep ye, oh women of Syria, cry out: Alas! Beloved homeland! All the flowers are withered. Cry out! Weep ye!”

It is a work of profound beauty and mystery- give this orchestral excerpt a listen. See you there!

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Pre-concert lecture: 6:45 pm in the music hall

Concert: 8 pm, Music Center at Strathmore

Grosvenor- Strathmore Metro stop on the Red line.

Tickets: www.nationalphilharmonic.org.

I’ve got another concert this Saturday and it’s one that you won’t want to miss! Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State will be hosting this concert. Whoops, did I just name drop? My bad. :)

The concert is all about the ladies aka. celebrating women pioneers in music. The highlight is after intermission when we’ll be singing the rarely performed Grand Mass by Amy Beach. For surrious, this work has only been performed 4 (?) times in public so suffice to say this is a huge debut for the Washington area.

Amy Beach=American Mozart. Google her. At age one, she could sing 40 songs perfectly and at two, could improvise harmony with her mother. At four, she composed her first waltzes. At six, she learned to play the piano, and at seven, gave her first public concert, performing one of her own compositions as the encore. Beach won acclaim both as a concert pianist and as the first American woman composer of major choral and orchestral works. She debuted with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 18 and wrote her Grand Mass at 19. Puts your life in perspective, doesn’t it? 

An interesting thing to note, the concert master of the Naitonal Philharmonic just turned 20. Her name is Justine Lamb-Budge. Listen to this NPR piece on her, it is ridiculous http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14908550. We have a modern day youth prodigy in our midst.

As always, National Phil tix are $10 with a college ID. TEN BUCKS. That’s the cost of a quick lunch out during the work week. Also, all proceeds from the concert benefit the Maryland Women’s Bar Association scholarships. Ipso facto if

As Charlie Sheen would say, “Winning.”

www.nationalphilharmonic.org

Love, Swag