Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 22, 2020

The Kennedy Center announces the

Millennium Stage Schedule for

March 2020

Celebrating the Human Spirit with Free Performances of Countless Artistic Styles

including

The Apollo Orchestra The Second Annual BLACK GIRLS ROCK! FEST Beyoncé Mass Star Amerasu Performances from DIRECT CURRENT SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras

(WASHINGTON)—The Kennedy Center announces the March calendar of events for Millennium Stage, its free daily performance series featuring art and artists representing countless artistic styles.

The Apollo Orchestra presents a program including Resphigi’s Trittico Botticeliano and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in the Terrace Theater (Mar. 5). Witness the womanist spiritual experience that is the Beyoncé Mass (Mar.8) or enjoy a performance by multi-instrumentalist Star Amerasu (Mar. 20.), both part of DIRECT CURRENT, the Kennedy Center’s two-week celebration of contemporary culture.

Other highlights include Millennium Stage performances as part of BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Fest, a multi- day celebration of women of color (Mar. 6 & 7), and SHIFT, an immersive festival experience highlighting American orchestras (Mar. 23 & 25).

Millennium Stage, now celebrating its 23rd season, is a manifestation of the Kennedy Center’s mission and vision to welcome all to celebrate our collective cultural heritage in the most inclusive, accessible way possible. Millennium Stage is the only place in the United States to offer a free performance every day of the year that is streamed live on the internet.

A full schedule of Millennium Stage performances for the month of March 2020 is below. Unless otherwise noted, performances will take place in the Kennedy Center Grand Foyer, and no tickets are required. Performances are open to television and radio news coverage. Media crews must request access at least one full week prior to the performance date. Chronological Schedule for March 2020

Please check the Kennedy Center website for updates on programming.

DATE TIME PERFORMANCE

Sun., Mar. 1 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Mon., Mar. 2 6 p.m. Touted as a “gifted young guitarist” by the New York Times, Mak Grgic is a star on the worldwide stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests. From the ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music, his roles as soloist, collaborator, and recording artist are fueled by curiosity, imagination, and boundless energy.

Presented in Collaboration with the Embassy of Slovenia.

Tue., Mar. 3 6 p.m. One of Portugal’s foremost pianists, both nationally and internationally, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is celebrated for his poetic sensibility, musical intelligence, and consummate artistry.

Presented in Collaboration with the Embassy of Portugal

Wed., Mar. 4 6 p.m. Word Dance Theater boldly integrates the talents of dancers, Skylight Pavilion playwrights, actors, musicians, multimedia, and production artists. They create original and dynamic theatrical productions that test creative boundaries for artists and bring new theatrical experiences to audiences.

Thu., Mar. 5 6 p.m. Founded in 2010, The Apollo Orchestra provides a platform for many Terrace Theater of the Washington, D.C. area’s finest professional freelance classical musicians. The orchestra joins forces with well-known opera stars and accomplished international instrumental soloists for an annual series of free concerts throughout the D.C. area. Join them in the Terrace Theater for program including Resphigi’s Trittico Botticeliano and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Fri., Mar. 6 6 p.m. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Fest™ is a multi-day immersive live Eisenhower experience that celebrates, empowers, and elevates women and girls of Theater color. BGR! FEST™ brings renowned women musicians, thought- leaders, and creative innovators to the DMV during International Women’s Day Weekend. Successfully launched in 2019, the second edition of BGR! FEST™ at the Kennedy Center includes concerts, discussions, workshops, activations, and free community events.

Sat., Mar. 7 6 p.m. Join us for another Millennium Stage engagement as part of BGR! FEST!

Sun., Mar. 8 6 p.m. Beyoncé Mass is a womanist worship service that uses the music and personal life of Beyoncé as a tool to foster an empowering conversation about Black women—their lives, their bodies, and their voices. Curated by Rev. Yolanda Norten, this groundbreaking spiritual experience has gathered thousands of people at worship services from Southern California to Portugal.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Mon., Mar. 9 6 p.m. Pershing’s Own Chamber Players present a recital of inspired music created by women. While the classical music world makes strides to uplift works by women, they are a group of composers who often go overlooked, yet continue to shape the future of the performing arts. This program will feature works by Libby Larsen, Valerie Coleman, Joan Tower, Katherine Hoover, Jennifer Higdon, and Sgt. 1st Class Brooke Stevens of The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Tue., Mar. 10 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Wed., Mar. 11 6 p.m. The Washington Post called Dior Ashley Brown a “Hip Hop Polymath.” A proud Washington, D.C. native and Army brat, Brown combines her theater study and life experiences into her Hip Hop performance, creating soulful, organic storytelling that inspires the listener to a call to action.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Thu., Mar. 12 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Fri., Mar. 13 6 p.m. Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng is a queer multi-dimensional creative of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese descent. The fluidity of her art blends award-winning spoken word poetry, special effects make- up, theater performance, photography, and fabrication to navigate themes of queerness, indigenous culture, and other underrepresented narratives.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Sat., Mar. 14 5:45 p.m. An established bandleader, composer, performer, and improviser, Aurora Nealand has become a prominent force in the New Orleans music scene since she first arrived in 2004. Combining her formal education—a music composition degree from Oberlin Conservatory and training at the Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris— with the informal experience of playing music in the streets and clubs of New Orleans, Nealand has emerged as an innovative, sensitive, and daring music creator.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Sun., Mar. 15 6 p.m. Raye Zaragoza is an award-winning singer-songwriter who carries an acoustic guitar and a message. Her quiet yet powerful song “In the River,” written in response to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, garnered half a million video views, national media coverage, and a Global Music Award and Honesty Oscar. Her forthcoming sophomore LP recorded with Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, First Aid Kit) will be released in 2020.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Mon., Mar. 16 6 p.m. Guerilla Opera, the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Boston Conservatory, makes their debut in Washington, D.C. with the local premiere of faculty member Marti Epstein’s Rumpelstiltskin, based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale. This one-night-only performance features shadow puppetry animation by Iranian animator and theater artist Deniz Khateri and is conducted by Jeffrey Means.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Tue., Mar. 17 6 p.m. Ami Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer, and producer from Baltimore. Her sound ranges from North Indian classical fused with noise/ambient electronics to beat-driven psych and experimental dancepop. Dang’s music references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Wed., Mar. 18 6 p.m. DMV native Janel Leppin is a cellist and visual artist whose work spans genres such as jazz, classical, rock, and avant-garde.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Thu., Mar. 19 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Fri., Mar. 20 6 p.m. Star Amerasu started singing at a young age. She is a multi- instrumentalist, singer, dancer, and actor whose work spans many genres. She has performed all over the world and is here to change the world through her art.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Sat., Mar. 21 6 p.m. DIRECT CURRENT Comedy at the KCClub Terrace Theater Line-up to be announced at a later date.

Sun., Mar. 22 6 p.m. Efraín Rozas’s experimental ensemble La Mecánica Popular explores the frontier between social dance and experimentalism, and seeks to erode the divisions between the popular and the avant-garde. The ensemble’s goals include re-contextualizing Latin American music beyond the cliches of the tropical kitsch; regaining tradition as a form of agency; and promoting a polycentric world as opposed to an art world that needs to comply with Western criteria of “World Music”.

Presented as part of DIRECT CURRENT.

Mon., Mar. 23 6 p.m. SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras celebrates the vitality, identity, and extraordinary artistry of orchestras and chamber orchestras by creating an immersive festival experience in the nation’s capital. The week-long festival is composed of mini-residencies, with each participating orchestra presenting education events, symposia, and community events in venues around Washington, D.C., along with full-orchestra performances in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Tue., Mar. 24 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Wed., Mar. 25 6 p.m. Join us for another Millennium Stage engagement as part of SHIFT.

Thu., Mar. 26 6 p.m. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 735,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. ASCAP upholds the value of its members’ music, and helps them thrive alongside the businesses that use their music every day.

Fri., Mar. 27 6 p.m. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 735,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. ASCAP upholds the value of its members’ music, and helps them thrive alongside the businesses that use their music every day.

Sat., Mar. 28 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Sun., Mar. 29 6 p.m. The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum is among the nation’s most dynamic cultural and educational institutions. An institution committed solely to the study and preservation of African American history, the museum presents life-size, life-like wax figures highlighting historical and contemporary personalities of African ancestry.

Mon., Mar. 30 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

Tue., Mar. 31 6 p.m. Programming to be announced at a later date.

All performers and programs are subject to change without notice.

ABOUT THE KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

Millennium Stage embodies the Kennedy Center mission and vision, inviting audiences to celebrate our collective cultural heritage in an inclusive, accessible way. Millennium Stage, now in its 23rd season, explores countless artistic styles and inspires the community to engage in the performing arts. Welcoming local, national, and international artists, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage is the only U.S. institution that presents a free performance, 365 days a year at 6 p.m., streamed live on the internet.

Support Millennium Stage by texting ‘MSTAGE’ to 243-725. Your gift will help the Kennedy Center continue to bring free programming to Washington, D.C.

Need a Lift? The free Kennedy Center Shuttle, the Center’s link to Metro’s Foggy Bottom/George Washington University/Kennedy Center Metro station (blue/orange/silver lines), departs every 15 minutes from 9:45 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Monday – Thursday; 10 a.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday; noon to 11 p.m., Sunday; and 4 p.m. on Federal holidays. Standard parking rates apply when attending free events.

FUNDING CREDITS

The Centene Charitable Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of Millennium Stage.

The Millennium Stage is brought to you by Target and The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

The Millennium Stage was created and underwritten by James A. Johnson and Maxine Isaacs to make the performing arts accessible to everyone in fulfillment of the Kennedy Center’s mission to its community and the nation.

Generous support is provided by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

Additional support is provided by Kimberly Engel and Family-The Dennis and Judy Engel Charitable Foundation, The Gessner Family Foundation, The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives, The Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky Family Foundation, Inc., The Meredith Foundation, Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A.J. Stolwijk, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Millennium Stage Endowment Fund.

The Millennium Stage Endowment Fund was made possible by James A. Johnson and Maxine Isaacs, Fannie Mae Foundation, the Kimsey Endowment, Gilbert† and Jaylee† Mead, Mortgage Bankers Association of America and other anonymous gifts to secure the future of the Millennium Stage.

For more information on the Millennium Stage, please visit the Millennium Stage event page or Millennium Stage Facebook page.

Discover the Kennedy Center on social media:

#MillenniumStage

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PRESS CONTACT PUBLIC INFORMATION Rachael Stambaugh (202) 467-4600; (800) 444-1324 (202) 416-8882 www.Kennedy-Center.org [email protected]