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TICKET NOTICE: Tonight’s Igor Levit tickets are now available exclusively through the Kennedy Center. Washington Performing Arts is no longer selling tickets to this performance.
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The long-awaited return of one of today’s most celebrated pianists.
It has been a long wait for Igor Levit’s many fans in our region to experience the supremely gifted and always intriguing pianist’s return to the Washington Performing Arts stage. Originally scheduled for May of 2020, his recital was canceled (like most public engagements at that time) due to COVID-19. In the hiatus that Spring, he live-streamed concerts from his home in Berlin on 52 consecutive nights, becoming a viral sensation in classical music circles and beyond. As New Yorker critic Alex Ross marveled at the time, “It was no surprise that Levit’s inaugural live stream attracted attention, though I was taken aback when the number of viewers climbed into the tens of thousands.” In 2020, Levit also earned the title of Musical America’s “Artist of the Year.”
Now Levit is back on tour, characteristically exploring a great range of repertoire—in this recital, three classics (by Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt) plus a novel twist: an arrangement of the beloved American folksong “Shenandoah” commissioned by Levit from jazz pianist Fred Hersch. As the New York Times attested in a May 2022 review, Levit remains a force of nature in concert: “At the keyboard he was capable of conjuring not only thunder…but also the troubling calm that can precede it and…something like the gentle parting of clouds that follows.”
SCHUMANN - Waldszenen, Op. 82
FRED HERSCH - Variations on a Folksong
WAGNER (arr. Zoltán Kocsis) - Prelude from Tristan and Isolde, WWV 90
LISZT - Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178
The performance is 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission.
This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.
Program notes PDF, for viewing, downloading, and printing.
This performance is made possible through the generous support of the following sponsors: Susan S. Angell; Anne and Burton Fishman; and Ellen and Michael Gold.
Washington Performing Arts’s classical music performances this season are made possible in part through the generous support of Betsy and Robert Feinberg.
Her Excellency Ambassador Emily Haber, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the honorary patron of this engagement.
This is one of twenty 2022/23 season performances included in Washington Performing Arts’s The World in Our City initiative, which promotes cross-cultural understanding and cultural diplomacy via the presentation of international visiting artists, globally inspired local programming, and the award-winning Embassy Adoption Program, a partnership with D.C. Public Schools.
Special thanks to the following lead supporters of Washington Performing Arts’s mission-driven work: Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated; the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; and the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Accessibility:
Washington Performing Arts is committed to ensuring visitors of all abilities can experience the performances and programs we present. We partner with our venues to ensure accommodations are available. For specific questions about accessibility at our Kennedy Center events, please visit https://www.kennedy-center.org/visit/accessibility or contact us at patronservices@washingtonperformingarts.org.
COVID-19 Health and Safety:
As Washington Performing Arts does not own nor operate its own venue, Washington Performing Arts audiences are subject to the current vaccination and face mask policy of the venue on the date of the event. Please see venue specifics here.