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21st Century Consort: Art Becomes Music Becomes Art
March 8, 2025 | 5:00 pm–7:00 pm
All free passes have been claimed. Our walkup line will open at 4 PM on the Lower Level (concert only).
Questions? Email Hirshhornexperience@si.edu
Hirshhorn Insiders, email HMSGdevelopment@si.edu
Taking inspiration from the Hirshhorn’s 50th-anniversary exhibition Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, the 21st Century Consort presents a selection of music inspired by indispensable 20th-century artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell, and others. Closing the performance will be a presentation of an early 20th-century masterpiece, Chamber Symphony by Arnold Schoenberg, a composer equally esteemed as a painter.
This program is presented in celebration of the 21st Century Consort’s 50th-anniversary season.
SCHEDULE
4 pm | Pre-concert discussion
5 pm | Performance
PROGRAM
Bobby Ge: Intuitive Geometry
Shawn Okpebholo: On a Painting by Henry O. Tanner: The Thankful Poor
Jennifer Higdon: American Canvas
Trevor Weston: Shape Shifter (The Angry Bluesman)
Sarah Gibson: You Are Still Here
Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony
ABOUT THE 21ST CENTURY CONSORT
Founded in 1975, the 20th Century Consort became the resident ensemble for contemporary music at the Smithsonian Institution in 1978. In this season’s concerts at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and a special preseason concert at historic St. Mark’s on Capitol Hill, the Consort continues to present dynamically balanced concerts related to museum exhibitions, featuring music—often world premieres—by a diverse array of living composers. In 1990, the Consort was awarded the Smithson Medal in honor of the group’s long successful association with the Smithsonian Institution. Under the direction of its founder and conductor, Christopher Kendall, the Consort’s artists include principal players from the National Symphony Orchestra along with other prominent chamber musicians from Washington, DC, and elsewhere. For more information, visit 21consort.org.
