At this point in December, holiday concerts and Handel’s Messiah have completely hijacked the classical music schedule. Here are a few other events, not all of which avoid the spirit of the season. After this post, the Classical Music Agenda will take its end-of-the-year hiatus, to return in the New Year. >> On Tuesday, the final concert sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society this calendar year features young violist Jennifer Stumm and Finghin Collins at…

On Tuesday Metro introduced those two redesigned railcars we mentioned last week, which have a variety of new features including non-carpeted flooring, bench seating and those odd looking leaning pads designed to give standing passengers a back rest. Rail cars #6104 and #6105 also feature and more overhead stainless steel grab straps, which are apparently designed to be more accessible to shorter customers, and fewer windscreens. The overall effect of the design is intended to…

It looks like I.M.P., the Montgomery County-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, hasn’t given up on opening a Silver Spring music hall. In September, we wrote that concert producer and venue owner Live Nation had signed a non-binding letter of intent to put a Fillmore music hall in the old J.C. Penney store at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring, across from the AFI Silver Theater. Both the…

It’s always interesting to compare collegiate news coverage with larger news outlets whenever a story breaks out of a campus publication. In the case of today’s news about the apprehension of one suspect in the recent spate of hate graffiti on the George Washington University campus, the differences are pretty tangible. Both the Examiner and the Washington Post have stories up about the arrest by University Police of an unnamed student for his or her…

Sen. McConnell, On Tuesday the Senate is set to take up legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And though the measure passed the House and enjoys wide support in the Senate and among the American people, you’ve threatened to use procedural road-blocks to prevent it from coming to a vote. Please don’t. Sen. McConnell, in opposing a measure that would grant the District’s 600,000 residents a…

Though the initial shock of seeing Eastern Market almost consumed by flames has passed, members of the community have ramped up fundraising efforts to ensure that the rebuilding begins as quickly as possible and the displaced vendors are cared for. On Tuesday, May 8, a number of bars will direct a percentage of their proceeds to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, which is serving as focal point for Eastern Market-related fundraising efforts. So far,…

Last year’s celebration of the 100th birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich, on September 25, fizzled out somewhat here in Washington. This week, dedicated listeners had the chance to take their fill of the Russian composer’s music. After a thundering concert performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by the Kirov Opera on Sunday, it was the Emerson Quartet who brought the early half of their complete cycle of Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets, played to great acclaim in…

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it’s a double-ticket),…

The weather’s turning cooler, and runners everywhere know what that means: it’s time to finish breaking in shoes, finalize hydration strategies and push through the last awful burst of training before the season hits its peak. For some D.C. runners, there’s one more item on that to-do list: start shopping for a new dress. For some reason this town’s array of transvestite track & field options keeps expanding. Sad to say, but the first of…

On Tuesday, American composer Steve Reich turned 70, as mentioned in last week’s Classical Music Agenda. While New Yorkers are enjoying a month-long festival of performances of Reich’s music, here in Washington there was only one opportunity, a concert Saturday night by the recently formed Great Noise Ensemble at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Silver Spring. The Great Noise Ensemble may have the distinction of being the first new music ensemble formed through a listing…