Press
In January, try these classical music streams from close to home
The Washington Post | December 30, 2020
Unless your goal for last year was to get really good at baking, I feel safe assuming that most of our New Year’s resolutions were a complete bust. In the spirit of that educated guess, I’m keeping the promises I make to myself this year highly practical and easily achievable. One of them is this: Listen locally!
The endless options of the Internet enable hours of virtual wanderlust; but don’t let this faux-freedom allow you to forget the orchestras, ensembles and assorted outfits making beautiful music in our own backyard. (And sometimes theirs.)
Berlin Philharmonic helps Dumbarton Concerts series mark 40th anniversary
The Washington Post | February 11, 2018
The Dumbarton Concerts series marks its 40th anniversary this year, hosting performances in the sanctuary of Georgetown’s venerable Dumbarton United Methodist Church. For Friday night’s concert by the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, a devoted audience filled the pews, lit only by a few candles during the music.
Cellist Matt Haimovitz brings Bach to Georgetown’s Dumbarton Church
The Washington Post | January 26, 2014
It’s been more than a dozen years since Matt Haimovitz first took Bach’s solo cello suites on tour across North America in nontraditional venues. On Saturday, he brought them to Georgetown’s Dumbarton Church, where he presented the six suites — split in two back-to-back performances — in a refreshing old-meets-new light…
A Far Cry closes out Dumbarton Concert series
The Washington Post | April 7, 2013
What a chamber orchestra loses by performing without a conductor is some degree of ensemble cohesion, as well as an outside ear to judge balances, phrasing and interpretive choices. What it gains is independence, and that can energize a democratically oriented group. The Boston-based conductor-less chamber orchestra known as A Far Cry, heard on Saturday night to close out the Dumbarton Concerts series in Georgetown, was founded only in 2007, but it has already made quite a mark…
Amerigo Trio: Musicians work in harmony
The Washington Post | March 18, 2012
The Amerigo Trio was formed in the summer of 2009, but its members play like a string trio that’s been together for decades. Led by violinist Glenn Dicterow (the longtime concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic), the Amerigo Trio was heard in a recital at Dumbarton Church on Saturday that showcased its strengths…
Brooklyn Rider
The Washington Post | February 26, 2012
Dumbarton Concerts consistently offers the city’s most engaging mix of high-quality artists in eclectic programming, and Saturday’s performance by the genre-bending string quartet Brooklyn Rider certainly fit the mold. The concert surrounded Beethoven’s Op. 131 quartet with Romanian gypsy music composed or arranged by Lev Zhurbin, some film music by Philip Glass, and an ear-tickling opener, Seven Steps, composed collaboratively by the foursome themselves…
Nordic Voices takes audience on harmonious journey through time
The Washington Post | February 12, 2012
The a cappella ensemble Nordic Voices capped its American tour on Saturday with an engaging concert at Dumbarton Church. Charged with fire and energy, the six-member Oslo-based vocal team (two sopranos, a mezzo, tenor, baritone and bass) led its Georgetown audience on an exhilarating journey, jetting through the musical ages from the Renaissance to the present…
NSO’s Steven Honigberg salutes the cello world
The Washington Post | January 22, 2012
Does it take a village to raise a cellist? Steven Honigberg — a highly regarded member of the National Symphony Orchestra’s cello section — might well agree. In an intriguing and deeply personal recital Saturday at Georgetown’s Dumbarton Church, Honigberg presented an evening of music that reflected the varied influences other cellists have had on his path, from mentors Maurice Gendron and Mstislav Rostropovich to performer-composers such as Marin Marais and Gaspar Cassado…
Hugo Wolf Quartet at Dumbarton Church
The Washington Post | October 16, 2011
The Hugo Wolf Quartet came to play serious music, and they did so with severity of concentration and devotion to the craftsmanship of sound, devoid of theatrical contortion and hair-flipping. In the first concert of the season Saturday at Dumbarton Church in Georgetown, the mostly Austrian members of the string quartet (the second violinist was born in Switzerland) put all of their performance’s considerable drama and engagement into the music, rather than into their gestures and facial expressions…
The Vogler Quartet, an exhilarating musical experience
The Washington Post | March 21, 2011
The Vogler Quartet, founded a quarter-century ago in East Berlin, has not had a large U.S. profile, even though it made an early splash with a series of fine recordings on RCA/BMG. In the past decade, it appeared only once at the Kennedy Center and never at the Library of Congress. I mention this because those prestigious venues have clearly missed the boat with this remarkable ensemble, which is superior to most of the groups they present.
Fortunately, Dumbarton Concerts in Georgetown has brought the Vogler here twice recently, and Saturday evening’s performance confirmed its place near the top of the profession…
Miro Quartet at Dumbarton Church
The Washington Post | April 12, 2010
Saturday's recital by the Miro Quartet at Dumbarton Church started off with a jolt of electricity. Beethoven's early C-Minor String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4, certainly provides opportunities for drama. But the Miro players paid particular attention to the work's dark undercurrents, digging into its jabbing accents with a thrilling fervor and taking a full-blooded, freely rhapsodic approach to the score's more restrained passages…