(Classical music agenda by DCist contributor
Charles T. Downey of Ionarts)

Having done this agenda a couple times as a
bimonthly column, we feel like we don’t talk to you
people regularly enough. Some readers have wondered
why DCist is covering classical music, but we also
know that other readers have gone to concerts
suggested here and rediscovered a latent interest in
things classical. Therefore, we resolve to give you a
look at the concerts in Washington near the beginning
of each week. As always, there is a complete schedule,
now called Classical
Week in Washington, at Ionarts on
every Monday, where you can also find links to reviews
of most concerts.

FREE CONCERTS:
>> For most of us, the best concerts are the free
kind, and Washington has a great assortment of them.
If you have time at lunch on Tuesday and you work
downtown, go hear some Bach at the Church of the
Epiphany (13th and G Streets NW) this Tuesday (May 3
at 12:10 pm). The excellent Washington Bach
Consort continues their Noontime Cantata Series,
presented on the first Tuesday of the month, with
Bach’s cantata Was frag ich nach der Welt,
BWV 94, and selected organ works performed by Eric
Plutz. No reservation required: just show up.

>> The lesser-known National Museum of Women
in the Arts (1250 New York Avenue NW) has a nice
little auditorium, where they host a few free concerts
each season. This Wednesday (May 4 at 7:30 pm),
Russian-born pianist Elena
Bashkirova will play pieces by Mozart,
Shostakovich, and Brahms. Although the concert is
free, you do need to make a reservation, by phone
(202-783-7370) or e-mail (reservations@nmwa.org).

>> If you’re looking for something unusual, marimba
player Eric Beach, who won the Yale Gordon Concerto
Competition last year, will play a free concert this
Saturday (May 7 at 7:30 pm) at Shriver
Hall, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore.

>> Two other museums have free weekly concerts on
Sundays. This Sunday (May 8 at 5 pm), at the Phillips
Collection, there will be a concert by Elisabeth
Adkins, violin, and Ed Newman, piano. The concert is
free, but you have to buy a ticket to get into the
museum. Later that night (May 8 at 6:30 pm), the
Baltimore Consort will play a program of 17th-century
music from the Netherlands at the National
Gallery of Art, in connection with the new exhibit
Jan
de Bray and the Classical Tradition.