Events at the Library of Congress
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Event | concerts and performancesSkye Consort and Emma Björling, Music from the British Isles and Scandinavia
Wednesday
September 25, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) Skye Consort & Emma Björling perform transatlantic music from Scandinavia, Ireland, Britain, and French Canada, as well as tunes of their own devising. They find enchanting stories and melodies, then bring them into the 21st century with chamber-folk settings in which voices, fiddle, nyckelharpa, cello, bouzouki, banjo, and percussion riff on whirling polskas, groovy reels, passionate love songs, breathtaking hymns, and original compositions. -
Event | lectures and symposiaConversation with 2024 NEA Heritage Fellows: Chicano Muralist Fabian Debora and Rockabilly and Country Musician Rosie Flores
Thursday
September 19, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) Join us as two NEA 2024 Heritage Fellows, Chicano Muralist Fabian Debora and Rockabilly and Country Musician Rosie Flores, speak with Allina Migoni of the American Folklife Center staff about their lives, work and experiences as artists. They will also talk about their experiences as artist of Hispanic heritage. -
Event | courses and workshopsLive! At The Library: Acoustic Jam Session with Christylez Bacon
Thursday
September 5, 2024
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm EDT LJ 119 Join us for a special acoustic jam featuring Hip-Hop, Go-Go, and other urban African American styles, with Grammy nominee Christylez Bacon. Although these genres are usually amplified, our jams are acoustic. -
Event | concerts and performancesWindborne: Old Songs, Bold Harmony
Thursday
August 29, 2024
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Windborne singers Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan, and Will Rowan share a vibrant energy onstage with a blending of voices that can only come from decades of friendship alongside dedicated practice of polyphonic harmony singing. They will draw their audience along on a journey that spans continents and centuries, performing nature related songs from a variety of traditions in celebration of Labor day. -
Event | concerts and performancesSwanky Kitchen Band: Traditional Fiddle Music of the Cayman Islands
Wednesday
July 31, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Swanky Kitchen Band is on an essential quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to Kitchen Dance Music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The Kitchen Dance sound, created through a crossroads of European and African influences, might have disappeared save for the efforts of Swanky… -
Event | concerts and performancesRachel Sumner and Traveling Light: Traditional Folk and Bluegrass
Wednesday
June 26, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Lennon Award-winning songwriter Rachel Sumner sits at the helm of her virtuosic string band Traveling Light (fiddle, guitar, bass). This Boston based acoustic trio come bearing new interpretations of traditional folk songs and lend their deeply rooted bluegrass know-how to the tightly crafted original songs written by Sumner. In addition to some of their own songs, the group will be performing their own take… -
Event | concerts and performancesIstiwanāt Live! Arabic Music Ensemble in a Homegrown Concert Series Archive Challenge
Wednesday
June 5, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) Istiwanāt Live! This ensemble reinterprets music that was originally performed 100 years ago for a transnational industry of Arab, Arab American, and international record labels and recently released into the public domain. The concert is inspired by the “Archive Challenge,” an initiative of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and draws on recordings archived in their collections as well as on… -
Event | concerts and performancesLive! at the Library: Shaker Community Sing with Kevin Siegfried
Thursday
Event has been updated
May 30, 2024
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm EDT LJ 119 Shaker music is a rich body of spiritual folk music and vital American musical tradition, widely enjoyed in both religious and secular contexts. “Simple Gifts,” popularized by Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, represents the tip of the iceberg of a tradition encompassing thousands of songs. Shaker music is community music and comes alive in the context of group singing, and song leader Kevin Siegfried will… -
Event | concerts and performancesSomapa Thai Dance Company in Concert at Live! At the Library
Thursday
May 23, 2024
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Somapa Thai Dance Company is a distinguished Thai dance and music company based in the Washington DC area, featuring an accomplished Thai orchestra. Many of its artists have been trained with highly recognized dance and music masters, including National Artists and others from Chulalongkorn University and the prestigious Department of Fine Arts in Bangkok, Thailand. The orchestra is led by the widely recognized Thai… -
Event | concerts and performances"From Folk to Baroque" with Celtic music duo Rakish
Wednesday
May 15, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) Using musical form and harmonic language as focal points, Rakish demonstrate the influence and overlap between dance music and airs from Britain and Ireland and art music or classical music from surrounding countries. The concert will include musical dance forms and tune types including Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, and Airs, arranged from written collections to be performed on the fiddle and guitar. -
Event | concerts and performancesNorthern Resonance, Scandinavian Roots Music String Trio
Thursday
March 7, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) All members are highly skilled and accomplished musicians, rooted in traditional music. This Scandinavian string trio performs newly composed folk music, which is rooted in traditional music, with their unique combination of instruments; viola d’amore, hardanger fiddle and nyckelharpa . Their debut album was released in the autumn of 2020, and has impressed a broad audience worldwide. This album was nominated for a Swedish… -
Event | concerts and performancesLive! at the Library: Rev. Robert B. Jones, Sr.
Thursday
February 15, 2024
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Reverend Robert B. Jones, Sr. is an inspirational musician and storyteller celebrating the history, humor, and power of American roots music. -
Event | concerts and performancesCharly Lowry: Lumbee-Tuscarora Singer and Songwriter
Thursday
November 9, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Charly Lowry is a dynamic singer-songwriter from Pembroke, North Carolina. She is proud to be an Indigenous woman belonging to the Lumbee and Tuscarora Tribes. She considers her work a platform for raising awareness around issues that plague underdeveloped and underserved Native communities. She was a semi-finalist on American Idol, and has toured solo and with Dark Water Rising. -
Event | concerts and performancesAlejandro Brittes Quartet, Masters of Chamamé
Thursday
September 21, 2023
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Join the Library as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of exciting programs and activities, beginning with a celebration of music from Brazil and Argentina. Alejandro Brittes Quartet innovatively explores the traditional, cross-border chamamé musical genre, a confluence of indigenous Guaraní and Iberian Baroque influences, slow-cooked over centuries. -
Event | concerts and performancesNani Noam Vazana: Ladino Singer, Musician, Composer
Thursday
September 14, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT LJ 119 Noam “Nani” Vazana is one of the only artists in the world that write & compose new songs in the endangered Ladino language, the language of the Sephardic Jews living mostly in Israel, the Balkans, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey. In her new album "Ke Haber" (What’s New) she captures the spirit of the ancient, matriarchal language and culture and propels it into the… -
Event | concerts and performancesSinging in Solidarity: Women's Voices Celebrate Labor Day
Wednesday
September 6, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Online Only In celebration of Labor Day, we honor the contributions of women in work through song. This video offers highlights from our Homegrown Concert Series, Archive Challenge videos, and other documented performances. You'll see Thea Hopkins, Ialoni, Martha Gonzalez, Piper Hayes, Windborne, and Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light. All feature the voices of women, with the support of their male colleagues. -
Event | concerts and performancesDeitsch - Traditional Folk Music, Made in Germany
Wednesday
August 23, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Online Only Deitsch plays traditional dance music from Germany, some of it 250 years old. For years, German folk music was neglected and nearly forgotten, or derided as old-fashioned and conservative. But now, arranged and interpreted in the style of modern folk music from Germany's European neighbors on voice, guitars, fiddles, bagpipes, and flutes, it emerges timeless and contemporary at the same time.This event will be livestreamed on YouTube External. -
Event | concerts and performancesHudaki Village Band, Music from the Heart of Ukraine
Wednesday
August 2, 2023
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm EDT Online Only The nine master musicians from the Ukrainian Carpathians, that are HUDAKI Village Band, play music from the Maramures region, a mountainous area of South-west Ukraine on the border with Romania and Hungary. Various ethnic musical influences make the traditional music multifaceted and unique. Archaic Slavic vocal tradition, Romanian melodies, Jewish rhythms and Romany temperament blend together in a local, joyous cross culture that has…This event will be livestreamed on YouTube External. -
Event | concerts and performancesAli Doğan Gönültaş Quartet, 150 Years of Music From Kiğı, Turkey
Wednesday
July 12, 2023
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm EDT Online Only Ali Doğan is a Kurdish-born musician in Turkey. This concert looks at 150-year musical life of the village of Kiğı, Ali's birthplace. It includes the regional languages of Kurmancî, Kırdaskî, Armenian and Turkish, as well as Zazakî, Ali's mother tongue. The concert has thematic content and styles such as govend (traditional Kurdish dance), lament, job songs, prayer forms, that convey the modal characteristics of…This event will be livestreamed on YouTube External. -
Event | concerts and performancesLive! At The Library: African American Roots and Hip-Hop Artist Christylez Bacon
Thursday
June 15, 2023
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A) Join us at the Library of Congress for a special performance by Christylez Bacon, a Grammy Nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist and multi-instrumentalist from Southeast, Washington, DC. As a performer, Christylez multi-tasks between various instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and the human beat-box (oral percussion), all while continuing the oral tradition of storytelling through his lyrics. -
Event | concerts and performancesFrom China To Appalachia: Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer with Chao Tian
Wednesday
May 3, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT LJ 119 Grammy Award winning American Roots artists Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer join with Chinese classical hammered dulcimer player Chao Tian in a show that combines music from China to Appalachia and beyond. Instrumentation includes yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), gourd banjo, five-string banjo, ukulele, guitars, dumbek, cello-banjo and mandolin. The group’s repertoire includes traditional Chinese and Appalachian music as well as contemporary and traditional music… -
Event | concerts and performancesSpælimenninir: Folk Music from Scandinavia
Wednesday
April 12, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Whittall Pavilion (LJ-G45E) Spælimenninir’s music is as familiar as an old time barn dance and as exotic as the landscape of the Faroe Islands, the band's home in the North Atlantic. It’s music of the Nordic countries drawing on traditions centuries old and compositions new as today. The sound reflects each member’s heritage and illustrates the links between the music traditions of Scandinavia and the United States. -
Event | concerts and performancesLive! At the Library: African American Folk Music with Jake Blount
Thursday
February 23, 2023
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm EST Members Room (LJ-162) A gifted musician and scholar of Black American music, Jake Blount performs on voice, banjo, and fiddle. Drawing repertoire from the collections of the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC), he highlights Black and Indigenous histories of American folk tunes. AFC worked with other Library programs, and with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, to schedule this concert for African American History Month. -
Event | concerts and performancesHomegrown: Vigüela
Wednesday
September 14, 2022
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Online Only Join us for a Homegrown at Home concert featuring Vigüela. Vigüela is a traditional folk quintet with a commitment to the rural musical traditions of central Spain.This event will be livestreamed on YouTube External. -
Event | concerts and performancesHomegrown: WÖR
Wednesday
August 17, 2022
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT Online Only Join us for the Homegrown at Home concert featuring the band WÖR. With finely textured arrangements, WÖR injects new energy into 18th-century melodies from the Flanders region of Belgium.This event will be livestreamed on YouTube External.