Strathmore

The award-winning Romanian pianist performs in Washington for the first time in more than a decade in this concert presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society. On the playlist is Janacek's "In the Mist," Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata," and Schubert's Sonata in A, D. 959. Lupu is acclaimed for interpreting the works of Beethoven and Schubert. He's also a winner of the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. -- Mark Berman Wednesday at 8 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman...

THU 02 Chelsey Green The violinist, a former Strathmore artist in residence, performs the world premiere of a new work by composer Robert Miller, commissioned by Strathmore. 7:30 p.m. Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100. www.strathmore.org . $20. The Films of Olivier Assayas A survey of the French director's work over the past few decades begins with an exclusive advance screening of his new film, "Something in the Air," about a '70s Parisian high school student whose heart is...

This original production, which is part concert, part theater, is billed as a "postmodern pageant. " The creative team was inspired by the winter traditions of celebrating with light, and people taking joy in one another during a cold and dark season. "Take Joy!" stars John Michael Higgins ("Arrested Development," "Best in Show"), a comic actor who attended high school in Bethesda, as well as local performers, and features rock, hip-hop, Beethoven and original songs. -- From staff reports Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Music Center at...

Strathmore will partner with Federal Realty Investment Trust, developer of a 24-acre town center under construction in the White Flint area near Rockville, to create a 250-seat performing arts venue next year. The venue, which Strathmore founder and chief executive Eliot Pfanstiehl said will have a "club-like setting," is scheduled to open next year, with programming beginning in early 2015. "We've always lived on our 11 acres," Pfanstiehl said. "This is our first big step off campus.

The National Philharmonic doesn't think you should call a babysitter in order to take in one of its performances. In fact, you can bring the children -- on the house. To prove its commitment to arts education, the symphony invites kids ages 7 to 17 to attend all of its concerts at the Music Center at Strathmore free. And all performances at Strathmore are preceded by free lectures in the education center that explore that evening's program. The organization sees the free tickets and lectures as an investment in younger generations'...

Zuill Bailey didn't just perform all six of Bach's Suites for Unaccompanied Cello at Strathmore on Saturday. He treated the hugely appreciative audience to a sort of running memoir, recounting his struggles growing up with this extraordinary set. These struggles — and Bailey's decade-long preparation for a recording, issued in 2010 — have led to an idiosyncratic understanding of the suites, which have challenged the greatest cellists of the...

It is never a good sign when classical musicians walk onstage wearing earplugs. Several did Friday night at Strathmore, when tap dancer Savion Glover put on a noisy show with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Marin Alsop, an always animated conductor, clearly enjoyed jamming with Glover, a renowned tapper who pounded away on a 12-by-12 foot platform just in front of her podium. Alsop acknowledged, when introducing the music, that there was an inherent problem with this multidisciplinary setup.

Strathmore will partner with Federal Realty Investment Trust, developer of a 24-acre town center under construction in the White Flint area near Rockville, to create a 250-seat performing arts venue next year. The venue, which Strathmore founder and chief executive Eliot Pfanstiehl said will have a "club-like setting," is scheduled to open next year, with programming beginning in early 2015. "We've always lived on our 11 acres," Pfanstiehl said. "This is our first big step off campus.

In 2008, the Russian violinist Vadim Repin made a memorable D.C. recital debut at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. On Friday night, his performance at Strathmore, courtesy of the Washington Performing Arts Society, wasn't so much memorable as merely indifferent. The program, certainly, offered promise of the kind of subtlety and range that had characterized his earlier performance: from sonatas by Janacek, Ravel and Grieg to the familiar and fiendish showpiece of Ravel's "Tzigane.

If you go What: "Strathmore Unleashed!" Where: The grounds and the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. When: Through June 23. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. How much: Free For more information: www.strathmore.org or 301-581-5200

Last week, two of Germany's best musical ensembles — one very large, one very small — visited our area. After the resplendence of the Dresden Staatskapelle on Tuesday at Strathmore, we were treated on Friday to an equally impressive display of precise, polished musicianship by the Calmus Ensemble , an a cappella vocal quintet from Leipzig. Founded in 1999 by students at the St. Thomas Church choir school (which used to be run by a fellow named Bach), Calmus presented a...

Conducting an orchestra takes a vast amount of knowledge and talent, an ability to communicate, and a certain je ne sais quoi. Try as the Cleveland Orchestra might, Franz-Welser Moest will never have the charisma and popular following of a Gustavo Dudamel . Although David Zinman might conduct circles around Christoph Eschenbach , it's Eschenbach who has the higher profile. And as the Italian conductor Fabio Luisi learned, he couldn't make himself as desirable as Christian...

Cameron Carpenter might be the closest we have to the virtuoso musical showmen of the 19th century, like Liszt or Paganini. In his Washington area debut Friday night, the 31-year-old organist left a sparse Strathmore audience amazed after a surprisingly diverse recital, ranging from Bach and Bernstein to Albeniz, Ives and even improvised variations on "Shortnin' Bread," all served up with blazing technique, wit and enthusiasm for the organ nothing short...

Andras Schiff is one of a handful of musical artists today who can write their own ticket. For a pianist, it's almost unthinkable to build a major career without programming the works of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Ravel or Prokofiev, but this Hungarian master has all but ignored these cornerstones of the repertory, focusing instead on the Austro-German classics from Bach through Brahms (with a few early excursions into Bartok). This singularly narrow approach would be fatal to anyone...

Nick Cave brought his Bad Seeds and scads of morosity to the Music Center at Strathmore on Wednesday. Fans were out of their seats from first note to last, either in rapture or because the shock-friendly performer gave 'em the willies and they were too afraid to sit down. The 55-year-old Australian favors dark wardrobes and darker song motifs, and he worked the stage like Marilyn Manson imitating Mick Jagger, or vice versa, with Manson's macabre look and Jagger's herky-jerky rock steps.

The 28-voice Eric Whitacre Singers made the first stop on their first U.S. tour at Strathmore on Monday, and they were greeted by a wonderfully mixed crowd with the loud excitement usually reserved for a pop star. Whitacre — conductor, composer, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and composer-in-residence at Cambridge University — has a sort of pop-star-like presence onstage. He never took a bow. He just ambled to the microphone at the end of each piece to discuss the next.

A new exhibition of artwork at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda is really going to raise the woof. No, that's not a misspelling. The exhibit is called "Strathmore Unleashed!" and it features more than 60 works by 25 artists. Have you figured out the theme? Man's best friend. Dogs. Canines. Pooches and puppies. On this page are a few of our favorite works of art from the show. We really encourage you to visit. You'll see everything: photography, paintings, even sculptures on the mansion's grounds.

The 28-voice Eric Whitacre Singers made the first stop on their first U.S. tour at Strathmore on Monday, and they were greeted by a wonderfully mixed crowd with the loud excitement usually reserved for a pop star. Whitacre — conductor, composer, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and composer-in-residence at Cambridge University — has a sort of pop-star-like presence onstage. He never took a bow. He just ambled to the microphone at the end of each piece to discuss the next.