PostClassical Ensemble Announces 2022-2023 Season Featuring African-American Spirituals, An Evening in 1920s Paris & More

PostClassical Ensemble has announced its 19th season, one designed to transport audiences around the world in celebration of the human spirit. Under the leadership of Music Director, Angel Gil-Ordóñez, the 2022-2023 season presents a slate of daring yet accessible performances in partnership with a diverse array of artists, filmmakers and more.

In addition to three mainstage productions, PostClassical Ensemble is introducing a collaboration with the Hay-Adams Hotel. Open to all guests of the hotel as well as to the public, the first of these intimate salon performances will take place October 17. Further details forthcoming.

"While the soul of PostClassical Ensemble is the orchestra, we bring together many other art forms to provide context to the music and deepen the experience for the audience," says Gil-Ordóñez. "There is something here for everyone to enjoy. This is what the PCE concert experience is all about."

Mainstage Productions to Include:

Paris at Midnight: Jazz and Surrealism in the 1920s

Paris in the 1920s was a place of great artistic conflict and excitement. While some like Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso embraced Neo-Classicism and a "return to order" in the aftermath of the Great War, others launched bold new experiments. Under the leadership of André Breton, Surrealism sought to shock the bourgeoisie, while a passion for African and African American art and culture, from jazz to art to dance, galvanized the city, personified above all by Josephine Baker. Join PCE for a screening of the classic Surrealist film Entr'acte (René Clair, 1924) with the original score by Erik Satie performed live. The program also includes film footage of Baker dancing and a tribute to jazz great Sidney Bechet. It culminates with Maurice Ravel's partly-jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G featuring soloist Drew Petersen. Presented in collaboration with Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern art at the National Gallery of Art.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 at 7:30pm

Terrace Theater, The Kennedy Center*

Tickets are available online through the PCE website. For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Kennedy Center Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

Tickets: $45

*This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

Amazing Grace: Music for the Spirit

PCE rings in 2023 with a new season tradition. We present a stirring program for chorale and orchestra that celebrates the expression of the human spirit through music. Amazing Grace, perhaps the most universal of all folk hymns, has inspired people all around the world for centuries. Hear versions of it woven throughout the program and join the whole ensemble at the end of the program. Featuring African-American spirituals, and works by Adolphus Hailstork, Samuel Barber, William Grant Still, and J. S. Bach. Adolphus Hailstork, one of the most celebrated American composers, will also join us on stage.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 7:30pm

Location: TBA

Tickets will be available online through the PCE website.

Tickets: $45

Entwined: A Double Feature with Manuel De Falla's "El retablo de maese Pedro," and the world premiere of "Entwined: Love's Magicians''

In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Manuel De Falla's seminal chamber opera, El retablo de maese Pedro, PCE and playwright/director Derek Goldman present Entwined. This performance features the world premiere of Goldman's sensuous new performance piece conjuring the deep and unlikely friendship between Federico García Lorca, widely regarded as the greatest Spanish poet of the twentieth century, and Manuel De Falla, Spain's most prominent composer of the period. In the second half of our double feature, PCE will perform de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show), which is inspired by "Don Quixote". In this collaboration with Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad, puppets are replaced by animation synced with the score performed by PostClassical Ensemble.

April 19, 2023 at 7:30pm

Location: TBA

Tickets will be available online through the PCE website.

Tickets: $45

PostClassical Ensemble

(PCE) creates a welcoming, inclusive and joyful experience that nourishes the soul, touches the spirit and inspires the mind. Through the brilliant playing of some of the area's most distinguished musicians, and an array of artistic mediums, PCE strives to capture each composer's extraordinary vision along with the cultural, political and artistic landscape in which their music was created.

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