There are three performances by members of “The President’s Own” this week around the Washington area – check out which ones you can attend! All concerts are free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, June 19, and Thursday, June 20, the Marine Latin Jazz Ensemble will have a set of sizzling hot tunes perfect for a little swing dancing or salsa. As a continuation of the Marine Band’s Summer Concert Series, the program will open with Tito Puente’s “Ran Kan Kan” and continue with Beni Moré’s “Bueno Bueno Sabroso,” Doug Beavers’ “Trombón Moderno,” Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s “The Eighth Veil,” and many more!

See full program here.

Wednesday’s performance will be held at 8:00 p.m. on the West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol Building (facing the Mall). Limited street parking is available. The nearest Metro stations are Union Station on the red line or Capitol South on the blue, orange, or silver lines.

The Thursday concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Glen Echo Park (5801 Oxford Road, Glen Echo, MD 20812) underneath the covered pavilion. Free parking is available. The park can also be accessed via Metro’s red line Friendship Heights station and Ride On Bus #29.

On Saturday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m. the Marine Chamber Orchestra will kick off its 2019 Summer Series with a concert titled “American Perspectives.” Conducted by Director Col. Jason K. Fettig, the orchestra will present a program including works by American composers Arthur Foote, George Gershwin, and Jennifer Higdon, as well as Austrian-born American composer Robert Starer.

As a member of the Second New England School, Foote was part of a group of New England composers who were responsible for the development of the American classical idiom at the turn of the twentieth century. Foote’s Suite in E for String Orchestra, Opus 63 is his best-known work, and was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1909.

As part of his formal training in composition, Gershwin wrote a compositional exercise called Lullaby for string quartet. Though it was never published during his lifetime, the short piece enjoyed immediate success in the intimate venue of chamber parties, where his friends played it before or after reading more substantial quartet works by classical and romantic masters. Lullaby was finally published posthumously as a string quartet in 1968, and it was brought to public attention by the Juilliard String Quartet. With its simple, bluesy melody that repeats several times in different settings, Lullaby was Gershwin’s only work written for strings alone.

Higdon writes of her piece Dance Card that it is “a celebration of the joy, lyricism, and passion of a group of strings playing together! This piece is made up of five movements, each of which is designed so that it can also be played as a separate work. From a string fanfare, through gentle serenades, and actual wild dances, the musicians get a chance to highlight their soloistic and ensemble playing. This work reflects the deep commitment that string players bring to their music-making, not only in the many years of learning to play their instruments, but also in the dedication manifested in gorgeous music-making as an ensemble.”

Born in Austria, Starer’s musical studies brought him to the Vienna State Academy, the Jerusalem Conservatory and eventually the United States after World War II, where he entered the Juilliard School in New York and studied composition with Aaron Copland. As an example of Starer’s earlier compositions, Concerto a tre closely follows the model of the twentieth-century Viennese style in which he was educated. The opening Allegro movement is structured similarly to a concerto grosso, with the solo trio set against the accompanying string orchestra. By contrast, the second movement Andante allows each of the solo instruments the opportunity to shine individually. The finale, Molto allegro e giocoso, contains an extended cadenza for the three soloists, cheekily titled “Trialogue.”

See full program and notes here.

There will not be a pre-concert ensemble performance prior to this concert. The concert will take place at Schlesinger Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. Free parking is available in the adjacent garage.