The Phillips Collection hosts a couple more concerts before closing its musical season. In-person tickets are sold out for both, but should one of these days prove less than sunny (or even if not), the live streams are worth checking out. On May 8, tenor Karim Sulayman and fortepiano player Yi-heng Yang present an all-Schubert program titled “Where Only Stars Can Hear Us.” On May 19, the museum’s “Leading International Composers” series will celebrate the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León, with a selection of chamber works (including the U.S. premiere of selections from her opera “Scourge of Hyacinths”) performed by pianist Conrad Tao, cellist Tom Kraines, violinist Maja Cerar and singers from the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington National Opera. May 8 at 4 p.m.; May 19 at 6 p.m. phillipscollection.org. $15 virtual tickets ($10 for members).
Led by artistic directors Efi Hackmey and cellist Carrie Bean Stute, the buzzy Chiarina Chamber Players put on some of the most compelling chamber programs in town. On May 8, the ensemble closes its season with “Intersections: Music, Longing and Displacement,” a program of musically diverse pieces by first- and second-generation American composers, bound by common themes. A six-piece ensemble, featuring Stute on cello, will play works by Mary Kouyoumdjian, Polina Nazaykinskaya, Tania León, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Mohammed Fairouz and Bright Sheng. In-person tickets are available, but each concert is also live-streamed, for the lazy Sunday types. May 8 at 7:30 p.m. St Mark’s Episcopal Church, 301 A St. SE. chiarina.org. $10-$25 in-person; free online.
The co-founder of the fearless string quartet Brooklyn Rider returns to D.C. to present “This Is America,” a suite of 22 works for solo violin. Gandelsman has assembled a musical diary of sorts, as well as a striking showcase of contemporary composers, shaped by the last two years of social and political upheaval and presented as a free concert at the Library of Congress. Along with Bach (his Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major transcribed for violin), Gandelsman will play works by Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Davis, Clarice Assad and Marika Hughes and a new work by Anjna Swaminathan commissioned by Washington Performing Arts (a co-presenter of the program with the Library of Congress). May 13 at 8 p.m. Library of Congress, Coolidge Auditorium, 101 Independence Ave. SE. washingtonperformingarts.com. Free; online registration required.
Maryland Lyric Opera will present two performances of Verdi’s doomed-in-any-language (but here served in Italian) “Don Carlo.” Louis Salemno will lead the MDLO Orchestra and Chorus in a concert staging with enhanced visuals. A strong cast features tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz in the lead role, soprano Elaine Alvarez singing Elisabetta, basso profondo Andrea Silvestrelli as King Filippo, bass-baritone Mark Delavan as Rodrigo, mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin as Princess Eboli and bass Kenneth Kellogg as the Grand Inquisitor. May 13 at 7:30 p.m.; May 15 at 2 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Ln., North Bethesda. mdlo.org. $10-$150.
With “Carmen,” the Washington National Opera celebrates a proper return to Francesca Zambello-helmed grand opera at the Kennedy Center. There will be toreador-inspired spectacle; there will be special guests (can I say? neigh, I cannot …); there will be the enduringly captivating music of Bizet, here conducted by principal conductor Evan Rogister. But there will also be a formidable cast, with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard making her debut in the title role. Tenor Michael Fabiano makes his WNO main stage debut as Don José, as does bass-baritone (and Marian Anderson Award winner) Ryan Speedo Green as Escamillo. And the Colombian American soprano Vanessa Vasquez (who won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2017) makes her role debut as Micaëla. Okay, fine, there’s also a horse. May 14-28. Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F St. NW. kennedy-center.org/wno. $25-$299.
The CCS’s 80th season continues with a pair of spring concerts. On May 15, music director Steven Fox will lead a full performance of Verdi’s “Requiem” — performed by the society at its first-ever rehearsal in December 1941 — beneath the arches of Washington National Cathedral. And on June 18 at the National City Christian Church, Fox joins forces with Stanley Thurston to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the Heritage Signature Chorale. “I, Too, Sing America: My Spirit Sings!” is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two groups to “highlight the contemporary and historical contributions African Americans have made to America’s musical culture” through choral performances of Negro spirituals. May 15 at 4 p.m., Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW, $25-$108. June 18 at 4 p.m., National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW, $25-$35. cathedralchoralsociety.org.
Léo Delibes’s 1883 opera (to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet) is seldom staged, probably because of its overbearing Orientalist overtones — highly en vogue in 18th-century Paris, not so much today. Washington Concert Opera’s forthcoming presentation sidesteps such cultural hazards with a concert performance that showcases Delibes’s beguiling music through a stellar cast of singers. Soprano Erin Morley sings the title role alongside Quebecois tenor Frédéric Antoun. Bass-baritone Alfred Walker (as Nilakantha), baritone Theo Hoffman (as Frédéric) and mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven (as Mallika) round out this strong lineup. May 22 at 6 p.m. at Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. concertopera.org. $40-$110.
This reliably adventurous annual festival of female and gender-marginalized composers (co-presented by Strathmore and the Boulanger Initiative) returns with over a dozen performances over two days at two venues. It opens with a May 27 concert at the Church of the Epiphany in D.C., featuring the East Coast premiere of Alexandra Gardner’s “Sanctuary of Joy,” performed by Boulanger Initiative co-founders Joy-Leilani Garbutt and Laura Colgate. WoCo continues all day on May 28 at Amp by Strathmore in North Bethesda with a panel discussion and performances by percussion quartet Recap (joined by Lainie Fefferman), Leila Adu, Jiji (an alum of the inaugural “21 for ’21” feature), and a collaboration between Attacca Quartet and Caroline Shaw. May 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW, $30. May 28 at various times at Amp by Strathmore, 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda; $30-$40 per session, $100 full-day pass. boulangerinitiative.org/woco-fest-2022.
National Symphony Orchestra
The NSO is starting off the summer with some serious power at the piano: Emanuel Ax plays Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with conductor Marek Janowski from June 9-11 (all at the Kennedy Center except for June 10, at Capital One Hall in Tysons), and Stewart Goodyear plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with conductor Kazuki Yamada June 16-18 (all at the Kennedy Center). But the 90th birthday celebrations for composer John Williams promise to be the real blockbuster. The gala birthday concert on June 23 is sold out, but tickets remain for the NSO’s explorations of two of Williams’s most beloved film scores: “E.T.” (June 22) and “Jurassic Park” (June 24). Various times. kennedy-center.org/nso.
The Washington Chorus closes its spring season with “Justice and Peace.” Featuring the world premiere of “Become the Sky” by composer Roshanne Etezady, the program will also include the D.C. premiere of Damien Geter’s “The Justice Symphony” as well as Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Dona Nobis Pacem,” a stirring cantata for chorus, orchestra and soloists. After the long interruption of the pandemic, artistic director Eugene Rogers will make his chorus and orchestra debut with TWC, which is joined by soprano Karen Slack (making her TWC debut) and baritone Kerry Wilkerson. June 12 at 5 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW. thewashingtonchorus.org. $15-$49.
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