Founded in 1975 as the 20th Century Consort, the group became a resident ensemble at the Smithsonian Institution three years later. In its concerts at historic St. Mark’s on Capitol Hill, at the Hirshhorn Museum and at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Consort has presented exciting programs frequently related to museum exhibitions, featuring music by a diverse array of living composers – often world premieres – along with 20th century classics.
Under the direction of its founder and conductor, Christopher Kendall, the Consort’s artists include members of the National Symphony Orchestra and other prominent chamber musicians from Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. The ensemble is managed by Boyd Sarratt.
For over forty-five years the Consort’s concerts have been professionally recorded and archived, complementing the Consort’s produced studio recordings. This vast, living archive is permanently preserved at the University of Maryland, and can be heard without charge on our archive page, where it can be searched for any concert, composition or composer.
To read more about us, click here. And to see our full concert season, click here.
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Child’s Play
at 5pm on Saturday April 122025
with pre-performance discussion at 4pmHirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium – a program about music and art intent on recapturing childhood’s vision of the world, including a world premiere by composer Jon Deak
- Luciano Berio
- Sequenza III
- Sofia Gubaidulina
- Musical Toys
- Juri Seo
- Toy Store
- Jon Deak
- Greta, the Fearless (world premiere)
- Igor and Coco“Revolutions” is the first word in the title of the Hirshhorn’s 50th anniversary exhibition, which features work from the Museum’s unparalleled collection and covers the tumultuous period in art from1860–1960.