This DCist went to listen to some of the Rostropovich Cello Competition qualifying round this past week, which we recommended to you in our last Classical Music Agenda. Although that was good listening, it’s still August, and there is not that much to hear as far as classical music in Washington, but we have drummed up a few things you might want to consider.

MILITARY MUSIC:
>> Washington enjoys the regular performances of several choral and instrumental groups associated with the American armed forces, and they tend to give a lot of performances in the summer, mostly outdoors and almost always for free. On Monday (August 8 at 8 p.m.) you can hear the U.S. Navy Band on the west side of the U.S. Capitol. On Tuesday (August 9 at 8 p.m.), the same group will join the U.S. Navy Sea Chanters for a concert at the U.S. Navy Memorial (701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW). The Sea Chanters will also be performing on Thursday (August 11 at 8 p.m.) back on the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Finally, on Friday (August 12 at 8 p.m.), the U.S. Army Band (nicknamed “Pershing’s Own”) will perform a concert featuring Tchaikovsky’s famous and bombastic 1812 Overture, on the grounds of the Washington Monument. Take some water, or another cool beverage of your choice, and enjoy some free music.

FREE OPERA:
>> In the summer, the Washington National Opera hosts an Opera Camp for Kids, during which kids from age 10 to 14 rehearse and perform a children’s opera. This year, these talented kids will present Brundibár, an opera begun by Czech composer Hans Krása in Prague during World War II. He completed the opera in a new instrumentation, so that it could be performed by the children in the Terezín transit camp, where he was himself interned in 1942. Incredibly, the opera was performed over 50 times before Krása was taken to Auschwitz, the final destination of everyone in the Theresienstadt ghetto. He was killed in the gas chambers in 1944.