European Music Day / La Fête de la Musique

This year it features an exciting, creative, and diverse lineup of music events that will immerse and enthrall participants while spotlighting music’s power to connect, comfort, unite and uplift.

Each year, over 1,000 cities around the world throw citywide music celebrations on June 21. It all started 39 years ago in France.

In 1982, France’s Ministry of Culture dreamed up an idea for a new kind of musical holiday. They imagined a day where free, live music would be everywhere: street corners and parks, rooftops and gardens, store fronts and mountaintops.

The event would take place on the summer solstice, June 21, and would be called Fête De La Musique. (In French, the name means both “festival of music” and “make music!”).

LINEUP

GERMANY

Sabeth Pérez & Charles Altura

The Duo (vocals, guitar) performs a mixture of original compositions based around Argentinian prose, along with arrangements of classics from the Great American Songbook. Their playing oscillates between quiet and intimate as well as velvety, powerful and accentuated.

German-Argentinian vocalist and composer Sabeth Pérez made her recording debut at the age of 12. She started out with folkloric music from South America in large ensembles, her crystal clear voice seamlessly blending into the complex structures. Pérez has worked with prestigious large ensembles, such as the WDR Big Band, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, and the EOS Chamber Orchestra. Pérez was a featured artist in the WDR Bigband’s performance with multiple Grammy award winning composer and pianist Billy Childs, taking place in the Cologne Philharmonic. For her Masters Degree of Jazz Voice in New York, which Sabeth finished in 2020, she received the DAAD scholarship as well as a grant from the German Ministry of Culture two years in a row.

Over the past three years, she has had the pleasure of sharing stages and recording studios with acclaimed musicians and conductors such as John Beasley, Jim McNeely, the Uptown Jazz Tentet, Billy Childs, Lula Galvão, Henry Cole, Luciano Biondini, and Jon Cowherd.

https://www.sabethperez.com/

POLAND

Bogna Kicinska / Kuba Cichocki Duo

NYC-based vocalist Bogna Kicinska and pianist Kuba Cichocki perform their own compositions as well as arrangements of American jazz standards and Polish songs.

Bogna is known for her great vocal facility and “scat” singing. Her album, “The Maze”, was nominated for the FRYDERYK 2015 award, the Polish equivalent of Grammy. She has collaborated with Luis Perdomo, Manuel Valera, and Joseph C. Phillips’s Numinous, to name a few. Kuba Cichocki has performed in a variety of contexts in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including festivals such as The Mafrika Music Festival (NYC), The International Chopin & Friends Festival (NYC), Jarasum International Jazz Festival (South Korea). He is active on the jazz and experimental/improvised NYC scene, collaborating with 5-time Grammy award winner, John Benitez, composer George Brandon, and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.

http://www.bognakicinska.com/

SPAIN

The live musical accompaniment and dedicated dancers Arte Flamenco :

Arte Flamenco is a performance company and teaching studio. Using live musical accompaniment and dedicated dancers, they present the music, the singing, and the dance of the south of Spain – Andalucia. Their lively performances are designed to reveal the drama, passion, and depth of flamenco culture, as well as the joyous, colorful, and lighter moments. The company has been performing for over 25 years and has a history of performance schedules which include the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the Louisiana Jazz, and Heritage Festival (JazzFest), Hispanic and ethnic and arts festivals, as well as educational programs, art museums, and theaters in 5 states. The director and choreographer, Natalia Monteleon, has been involved in flamenco for 40 years.

The company has received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, and recognition from EBLO (Education Based Latino Outreach), for artistic contributions to the Hispanic Community.

https://www.arteflamenco.us/

CLASSICAL

Duo Judith Ingolfsson / Vladimir Stoupel

Engaging and imaginative programming is a hallmark of the Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel. Individually, Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel are seasoned soloists who have won acclaim for their performances across the globe. Together they create connections, tell untold stories, and take audiences on a journey to the heart of chamber music. A recent world premiere performance of the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Paul Arma at the Konzerthaus Berlin was hailed as the “sensation of the evening” by Deutschlandfunk – “there was an intensity in the performance that no one in the audience could escape.”

The Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel regularly participates in the world’s renowned concert series and festivals, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the festival “Voix Etouffées” in Paris, the Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerten, the “New Faces,” the “New Music Festival” in Krakow, under the auspices of the Associazione Culturale “Maestro Rodolfo Lipizer” in Gorizia, Italy, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Villa Esche in Chemnitz.

https://www.ingolfsson-stoupel-duo.com/

Evening Concert with Washington Opera Society

With Matthew Payne – Baritone, Margaret Polglaze – Soprano, Sepehr Davallou – Piano.

Matthew Payne recently received his master’s degree from the University of Maryland as a part of their Maryland Opera Studio. He has also received degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and College. Payne has performed in concerts with the French Embassy, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra, and the Society for New Music.

Margaret Polglaze is an operatic soprano from Washington DC. This past year, she sang as a soloist in Monte Carlo for the Prince Albert II Foundation’s climate gala. Past roles include Manja in Maritza by Emmerich Kálmán, Jennie in Down in the Valley by Kurt Weill, Veronica in Doctor Miracle (Bizet), and Una Donna in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Sepehr Davallou (Tehran, Iran). During his first two years in the United States, he participated in the Collaborative Piano Institute in 2020 and 2021, attended the Aspen Music Festival and School as a collaborative piano fellow in the summer of 2021, and received a scholarship as the only pianist participating in the debut of the Dandelion Opera Institute in 2020. This summer he will be attending the Miami Music Festival as the rehearsal pianist for the production of Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Matthew and Margaret are the co-founders of a Classical Hybrid Concert Producer looking to re-shape and re-sound the way classical musicians present and perform in the 21st century.

http://www.washingtonoperasociety.org/#currentseason

CZECH REPUBLIC

Orchester Praževica With Tomáš Drgoň – vocals and electric guitar, Zacharie Serlét – upright bass, and Seth Kibel – clarinet.

Resistance is futile, this Turbo Folk! High energy dance music drawing on the tradition of Eastern European Czardas and Gypsy Swing, but widely influenced by jazz and blues. Under the direction of Slovak born and raised guitarist and singer Tomáš Drgoň this band delivers honest, authentic and entertaining mix of folklore, jazz and dance music suitable for everything from upscale clubs to dives, jazz festivals to mosh pits, arts receptions to underground galleries. Orchester Praževica has performed at several prestigious stages including the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington DC, Patterson Theater in Baltimore, The Drom in NYC, and shared stage with the Hungarian Gypsy folk supergroup Parno Graszt, the Romanian Gypsy brass legends Fanfare Ciocarlia, Boban and Marko Markovic Orchestra, and other greats on the “not so mainstream” music scene.

www.prazevica.com

FRANCE

The official band of the French Embassy, The Reservoir Frogs.

Performers include  Laetitia Doyle, vocals, Robert Hagermann, drums,  Karim Morcos, guitar & vocals,  Stéphane Raud, guitar  , Jean-Christophe Yin, bass & vocals. Reservoir Frogs bring the best French and international pop/rock to the DMV area. They are the French Embassy’s resident rock band you probably didn’t know about. No matter the song, no matter the language, every show is always about getting together and having a good time.

https://reservoirfrogsusa.mystrikingly.com/

This event is brought to you by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Embassy of Czech Republic, and the Embassy of France in the United States. 

Link for registration :

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/european-music-day-at-the-sylvan-theater-tickets-359536793227