In any normal year for classical music in Washington, the Kennedy Center would be the first place to look when considering the season to come. But this has not been a normal year.
President Donald Trump has tried to force a two-year closure of the city’s most important performing arts venue, a still-disputed move that has delayed the announcement of programming from the center’s remaining resident presenters.
In mid-August, the National Symphony Orchestra announced a classical season that will take place entirely outside its former home, and the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts series will host performances at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University. The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will not accompany dance or theater productions this season but will perform self-curated chamber music and orchestra concerts for the Millennium Stage series at the Reach.
But here are 10 classical music offerings worth hearing this fall beyond the Kennedy Center, including a couple of options just a train ride away.
Erno Dohnanyi, Piano Quintet in C minor
Pianist Jenny Lin became director of music at the Phillips Collection in 2024, and she has put a distinctive mark on the museum’s Sunday afternoon concert series. Programs featuring American composers, contemporary music and jazz are prominent, but the season opens with something more traditional. The Ariel String Quartet joins pianist Orion Weiss for a performance of Erno Dohnanyi’s youthful first piano quintet. The quartet also performs Caroline Shaw’s “Blueprint” and Brahms’s first string quartet. Sept. 27, Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. phillipscollection.org.
Songs by Schubert, Strauss, Britten, Sinatra and more
The song recital may be the most rarefied musical experience of all. Poetry is distilled into a musical essence, combining the intimacy of chamber music with the directness of a masterful voice. The city’s reigning series of such experiences, Vocal Arts DC, completed its exodus from the Kennedy Center in January. Its next season, curated by artistic director Peter Russell, opens with American lyric tenor Ben Bliss and pianist Christopher Allen, in songs from Schubert to Sinatra. Oct. 4, Live! at 10th & G, 945 G St. NW. vocalartsdc.org.
‘Also sprach Zarathustra’
Those who heard the Berlin Philharmonic’s 2024 concert at the Kennedy Center, its first since 2003, probably don’t want to wait another 20 years for them to return to Washington. The storied ensemble is making a four-day stop at Carnegie Hall in New York this fall, with Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor since 2019, leading performances of Strauss’s philosophical tone poem (its “Sunrise” opening made famous in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”), Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Daniil Trifonov joins as soloist for Brahms’s first piano concerto on some nights, and tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings selected arias for a special opening night gala. Oct. 8-11, Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Ave., New York. carnegiehall.org.
Noseda and the NSO
Whether the Kennedy Center closes or not, the National Symphony Orchestra is going on a season-long road trip, performing at six venues around the Washington area. Gianandrea Noseda, embarking on his 10th season as music director, will lead the NSO gala at Strathmore on Sept. 26, as well as the first two subscription programs of the season. The second program pairs Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 (“La Reine”) with two Russian works, Stravinsky’s rarely heard “Scènes de Ballet” and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Oct. 8-9, Schlesinger Hall, 4915 East Campus Dr., Alexandria, and Oct. 10, the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. kennedy-center.org.
Haydn’s ‘Armida’
Last season featured Washington Concert Opera’s first foray into the operas of Mozart, and the firsts continue this season, which opens with an almost unheard-of performance of Haydn’s opera “Armida.” The improbable tale of love between the Christian crusader Rinaldo and the Muslim sorceress Armida is drawn from Torquato Tasso’s fantasy epic “Gerusalemme liberata.” Soprano Lauren Snouffer and tenor Fran Daniel Laucerica star as the amorous enemies, supported by soprano Shannon Crowley as Zelmira, Armida’s confidante. Oct. 24, Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. concertopera.org.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 17 (‘Tempest’)
With the bicentenary of Beethoven’s death approaching next year, we will surely be hearing more than the steady diet of his music. One can rely on Igor Levit to inject some revolutionary ideas into his performances, as he did at Sixth & I in January. The Russo-German pianist will put his own spin on four of Beethoven’s piano sonatas: the “Tempest” and the “Waldstein” the most celebrated, alongside his first example of the genre, Op. 2, No. 1, and the bracingly compact Op. 79. Nov. 1, Shriver Hall, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore. shriverconcerts.org.
Ravel’s ‘Shéhérazade’
While we should support the NSO this season, don’t forget their colleagues to the north, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Jonathon Heyward, embarking on his third season as music director, conducts an intriguing program combining “Ablaze the Moon,” a 2023 orchestral work by Grace-Evangeline Mason, with Sibelius’s Second Symphony. At the concert’s heart will be Ravel’s song cycle “Shéhérazade,” with Fleur Barron as guest soloist. The remarkable mezzo-soprano performed the piece in her daring multicultural recital with Vocal Arts DC at the Kennedy Center last season. Hearing the music with Ravel’s original colorful orchestration can only add to the effect. Nov. 6, Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, and Nov. 8, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore. my.bsomusic.org.
‘Nixon in China,’ opera by John Adams
In January, the Washington National Opera severed its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center, a deal struck in 2011 to stave off bankruptcy, and went out on its own. This fall brings its staging of John Adams’s groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson star as the president and first lady, who visited China in 1972, with contemporary music specialist Robert Spano leading in the pit. Elkhanah Pulitzer brings her minimalist production, set against archival footage, to the company’s fall residence, D.A.R. Constitution Hall. Nov. 14, 19 and 21, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, 1776 D St. NW. washnatopera.org.
Janacek’s ‘Jenufa’
Among several reasons to take in the Metropolitan Opera this fall (including the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s “Lincoln in the Bardo” in October) is a new production of “Jenufa,” Janacek’s tragic masterpiece. Jenufa, a woman in a small Moravian village, has had a child with a man who refuses to marry her. Her stepmother makes a fateful decision to make it possible for another man to marry her. The leads in this production, sopranos Asmik Grigorian (Jenufa) and Nina Stemme (the Kostelnicka, her stepmother), are lauded as both singers and actresses. A potential bonus: combine a performance of “Jenufa” early in the run with the Nov. 18 recital by Grigorian, accompanied by father-and-son piano duo Petras and Lukas Geniusas. Nov. 16-Dec. 4, Metropolitan Opera, 30 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. metopera.org.
Renaissance vocal music
Every balanced sonic diet should include music from before J.S. Bach. Graindelavoix, a Belgian early-music ensemble, will use its concert at the Library of Congress to perform works drawn from the Laborde Chansonnier and other printed Renaissance treasures in the library’s collection. The ensemble draws on cross-disciplinary interests in art and film to bring sometimes provocative contemporary ideas to old music. This is definitely not your father’s historically informed performance practice. Nov. 20, Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE. The concert is free, but tickets are required. loc.gov.
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