Events
The Mount Vernon Flutes Holiday Concert
Sunday, December 15, 2pm
FREE
The Mount Vernon Flutes have been an Athenaeum favorite for many years. This small ensemble from the Mount Vernon Concert Band will perform holiday songs in the gallery.
Join us for this festive performance!
Ballroom Dance Class & Holiday Dance Party
Hosted by Gary Stephans & Margit Paulding
Monday, December 16, 7 - 9pm
$30 per person, $55 per couple
Wine and snacks will be served
Get in the holiday spirit and freshen up your dance skills! Internationally renowned ballroom dance and social dance
instructor, Gary Stephans, will help you learn some hot new
dance moves so you'll have more fun dancing at your upcoming holiday parties, celebrations and evenings out.
Following a 45 minute lesson in Swing, Salsa, Rumba, Foxtrot and Waltz, dance the night away with some of your favorite dance music! Snacks, desserts and a little wine will be served to celebrate the spirit of the season.
More information at Art of Ballroom Dance. Call or
email: or 703-505-5998.
MIN~Contemporary Flute
and Guitar Duo
Holiday Performance
Sunday, December 22nd, 2pm
FREE
MIN~Contemporary Flute and Guitar Duo makes it's highly-anticipated winter season return to the Athenaeum with a varied program that includes many beloved holiday classics. Flutist Saïs Kamalidiin and guitarist extraordinaire Rick Peralta comprise one of the few remaining, regularly performing, professional flute & guitar (chamber music) duos in this part of the country. With their 15 year legacy of musical excellence, the repertoire of MIN consists of music of the baroque, ballads, bossa novas, blues, Broadway and beyond.
For this presentation, as a special holiday gift to the Athenaeum audience, also in performance with MIN will be one of this area's finest vocal artists, mezzo-soprano Ekep Nkwelle. Brighten your holidays and lighten your spirit with this performance of some of the most treasured music of the season. At this special time of the year, Yule love the exquisite music of MIN.
ROBERT MEALY, violin & LEON SCHELHASE, harpsichord
Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord of J.S. Bach
Saturday, January 11, 7pm
Tickets $40 Includes Concert and Reception
Buy Tickets
Please join us at the Athenaeum for an exquisite evening of Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord presented in partnership with 28 Chairs. This is part one of a two part weekend presentation covering the Complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord of J.S. Bach.
The second performance will be held in Washington DC.
Immediately following the one-hour concert, please join us for an hors d'oeuvres and wine reception and meet the performers.
About the Musicians
ROBERT MEALY is one of America’s most prominent Baroque violinists. The New York Times commented that “Mr. Mealy seems to foster excellence wherever he goes;” the New Yorker has called him "New York's world-class early music violinist." As Orchestra Director for the Boston Early Music Festival, he has led the BEMF orchestra in festival productions, international tours, and Grammy-award-winning recordings for over a decade. Mr. Mealy regularly performs as a soloist and concertmaster in New York City, especially on Avi Stein’s concert series Helicon and as principal concertmaster of Trinity Wall Street, which is now embarked on its second multi-year survey of the sacred vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Mr. Mealy has directed the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School since 2012.
Early Music America Magazine has praised the solo performances of harpsichordist LEON SCHELHASE as “exquisite… and filled with virtuosity.” Mr. Schelhase, a native of South Africa, is a recipient of the American Bach Soloists’ prestigious Goldberg Prize and was a finalist in the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition. He has played in countries across the globe including Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. With a repertoire spanning the gamut from the sixteenth-century virginalists to contemporary harpsichord music, he has been a featured artist on the international harpsichord-focused series, Clavecin en Concert in Montreal, Harpsichord Heaven at the Flint collection in Delaware, Emmanuel Music in Boston, and touring concerts with New York State Baroque. His first solo album, Phantasticus, represents his versatility in a program of music in the stylus fantasticus by diverse composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Mr Schelhase has established a distinctive reputation for his compelling interpretations of Bach’s keyboard music. In 2012, Leon joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as harpsichord instructor.