Just one night after the Season Opening Night Gala hosted by Washington National Opera, another set of patrons (and the critics of the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post) came together to fill the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to open the National Symphony Orchestra’s season on Sunday night. In terms of funds raised, it was the most successful opening ball in the NSO’s history, according to Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Blackstone…

Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang joins the National Symphony Orchestra in this weekend’s concerts at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, beginning this evening. He was originally scheduled to give the premiere of a new piano concerto by American composer Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962). However, as announced by the NSO in late March, the composer and the pianist issued a joint statement, saying that “differences in interpretive viewpoints and styles have led us both to feel…

Be a good son or daughter and call your mother today. Then you can start thinking about what concerts to hear this week. Maybe you can ask your mom to come with you. THE BIG GUNS: >> Joining the National Symphony Orchestra this week is Chinese pianist Lang Lang. He and composer Jennifer Higdon have parted ways about her new piano concerto, which he was supposed to premiere this week. Instead, Lang Lang will play…

If the Christmas shopping season begins the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas Concert season begins in the first weekend of December. Some groups perform the same music ad nauseam — especially Handel’s Messiah, a work that Congress should pass a 10-year moratorium against performing — and others program new and interesting music every year. Just trust us when we say that, if you want to hear a Christmas Concert in this city, you can. Throughout…

(Classical music agenda contributed by Charles T. Downey of Ionarts) This DCist is happiest when there are plenty of first-rate concerts to attend, but we are somewhat overwhelmed by the volume of extraordinary listening opportunities in our area in the first part of this month. (For more information, see our new Concert Schedule at Ionarts.) That we have yet to find a spare 20 hours to do our income tax return is only adding to…