Combined News

Remember Y2K, another deeply unsettling time for the world? The 20th Century Consort faced a dilemma of historic dimensions: what to call the group in the new century. Settling back then on – duh – 21st Century Consort, we now find ourselves TWICE as long in the tooth as we were at the turn of the century, having now survived, symmetrically, 25 years in BOTH centuries! Who’da thunk? 

Now, at our half-century mark and counting, we’re noting all manner of milestones, including our renewed residency at the Hirshhorn Museum, which is celebrating – and celebrated for – its own half-century. Throughout this season and next, we’ll be revisiting musical milestones – works of special significance from our five decades. We’re also appreciating anew our graphic designer of 50 years, Jeanne Krohn (see her wonderful artwork – made for our 1982 recording of George Crumb’s “Celestial Mechanics” – on the program cover and elsewhere). We’re also delighted to be working with long-standing friend and colleague (and Consort board member) Janet Griffin on our engagement with art from the Hirshhorn collection and its resonance in our programs. 

With the November 16th concert, we launch our 2024-2025 series of concerts at the Hirshhorn with “Above and Beyond,” a program inspired by the Smithsonian/NASA Chandra Observatory anniversary celebration. The shape of the program describes a cosmic passage inward, from the cold emptiness of deep space, toward (lest a cold darkness envelope our own world) a fragile “new sky with consonance of harmony…right to the sparrow.”

• Above and Beyond

  at 5pm on Saturday November 162024

  Hirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium – Smithsonian/NASA Chandra Observatory anniversary celebration. Art and music that relates to things overhead, from atmospheric avifauna to the distant reaches of outer space. Click here to get your free general seating ticket(s) from the Hirshhorn when they become available.

  Trevor Weston

  A.N.S. (A New Sound)

  Jordan Kuspa

  Sounds from Outer Space

  Juhi Bansal

  Trail of Stars

  Donald Crockett

  Celestial Mechanics

  Sophie Kastner

  Where Parallel Lines Converge (U.S. premiere)

  Lisa Bielawa

  Fictional Migrations

  Joseph Schwantner

  Sparrows