Since its founding in 1916, the Arts Club of Washington has promoted and celebrated the visual, performing, and literary arts in the nation’s capital. Arts Club members come from a wide range of artistic disciplines and professional backgrounds, joined by their shared enjoyment and appreciation of the arts.
The Arts Club of Washington has long held a distinctive profile among Washington’s clubs. Founded in 1916 by a group of prominent local artists and modeled on New York’s National Arts Club and the Chelsea Arts Club in London, the Arts Club was the very first in the city to have women in leadership roles and as members from its very start. Its arts-focused, innovative, and bohemian character provided a unique contrast to the city’s more traditional, all-male private clubs.
The Arts Club is both a private membership organization and a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and public programming spotlighting the full range of the arts is a significant part of the club’s activities. The club welcomes visitors to four gallery spaces; free weekly concerts; events focusing on writing, dance, and theatre; and studio classes in visual arts. Much of the public programming is free.
The club draws much of its character and tradition from its home, the center of which is an historic Federal-era mansion that once served as the residence of James Monroe—and for a time, as his official presidential residence.
The club’s mission also includes promoting the importance of historic preservation through the ongoing restoration and preservation of the club’s headquarters, which encompasses significant 19th-century structures designated as a National Historic Landmark (the James Monroe House) and on the National Register of Historic Places (the General Robert MacFeely House).
The creative and generous spirit of those founders endures in the warm, welcoming, and lively organization that is today’s Arts Club of Washington. We welcome people who engage in the arts (both professionally and for the love of it), or simply enjoy and support the arts, to consider the many benefits of membership and to join us as the Arts Club continues to make Washington history.
On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, join the Pressenda Chamber Players for an evening of exceptional chamber music at the Arts Club of Washington. This intimate concert will feature works by Mozart, Barrière, and Arensky, showcasing a unique combination of stringed instruments.
The performance will begin with Mozart’s Duo for Violin and Viola, a delightful conversation between two instruments, with violinist Aaron Berofsky and violist Kathryn Votapek highlighting Mozart’s playful and expressive writing.
Next, cellists Jan Mueller-Szeraws and Tobias Werner will bring to life Barrière’s Duo for Two Cellos, a piece full of rich harmonies and dynamic interplay between the instruments.
The program concludes with Arensky’s Quartet for Violin, Viola, and Two Cellos, a lush, evocative work that blends emotional depth with Russian lyricism. This rarely heard combination of strings provides a deeply resonant and immersive listening experience.
The concert begins at 6:30 pm.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear master musicians in one of DC’s most beautiful historic venues.
Opening Guest Performances for The Steve Washington Trio by:
Vocalist, Anna Bergman & Pianist, Howard Breitbart
Produced by Arts Club Member Cliftine Jones
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
WAITING LIST ONLY
Thursday, October 17, 2024, 6:30 pm
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Members $49 - Non-Members $60
What About Paris? The Capital of France, Paris is renowned for its gastronomy, haute couture, art, literature, and intellectual community. It is home to iconic Landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Palace of Versailles, and so much more. And then there is the music of Paris-Chanson Françoise: Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Michel Legrand & Gigi’s Maurice Chevalier, and of course, as Casablanca’s Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman “We’ll always have Paris.”
This event includes a reception with refreshments and full bar.
About the Artists:
Steve Washington has been performing for more than 40 years with earnest beginnings in Princeton University's singing groups and theatrical productions. After Princeton, Steve performed in numerous professional musical and dramatic theatrical productions. A highlight was working under the direction of the world-renowned producer, Cameron Macintosh, in a production of "Hey, Mr. Producer." Shifting focus to music, Steve began cultivating a jazz-infused body of work, including standards, big band, R&B, funk, Latin & Brazilian and has been presenting at the area's most popular venues including Blues Alley, the Atlas Theater, the Carlyle Club, Mr. Henry's Capitol Hill, the Katzen Arts Center, the Woman's National Democratic Club, and the Arts Club of Washington. Along the way, Steve enjoyed more than a decade headlining on the world's finest cruise ships with his one-man shows: "Nat & Sammy Remembered" and "Rhythm, Blues & Broadway." In the last 10 years or so, Steve's focus on jazz has sharpened. In late 2015, Steve released "Right to Love", featuring the Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra, which still enjoys international airplay and attention. A full-house CD Release concert at the famed Metropolitan Room in NYC followed and resulted in an invitation to present quarterly at the Metropolitan Room the following year. In 2018, appearances beyond the DMV, including a couple of month-long tours in Russia followed. The Russian tours resulted in "Skylark," a 2018 CD recorded in Moscow with the Sergey Vasiliev Trio. In 2020, Steve performed three live-stream concerts, courtesy of Blue House Studio's, "Covid Sessions" series. A CD featuring the standout cuts from those live concerts is pending. In 2023, Steve enjoyed another highlight as the opening artist at the North Carolina Jazz Festival. Steve continues to share his music whenever and wherever possible in the DMV and beyond and looks forward to more discovery and adventure in the enduring and always exciting world of entertainment.
“Smokin pure magic baritone, power, and nuance, brilliant falsetto, joyful….
What a show!”
- The South Hampton Press(Montauk Community Notes)
Anna Bergman is an internationally acclaimed cross-over artist who enjoys a career in concerts, theater, opera, cabaret, with music festivals, symphony orchestras, on recordings and television. Raised abroad as the daughter of an American diplomat, Anna sings in multiple languages and styles. She has garnered critical acclaim for her solo concerts at the Kennedy Center, Feinstein's 54 Below and Regency Hotel, Music Center at Strathmore, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and more.
Anna is a graduate and fellow of Vassar College and Aspen Music School. Anna Bergman is an internationally acclaimed cross-over artist who enjoys a career in concerts, theater, opera, cabaret, with music festivals, symphony orchestras, on recordings and television. Raised abroad as the daughter of an American diplomat, Anna sings in multiple languages and styles. She has garnered critical acclaim for her solo concerts at the Kennedy Center, Feinstein's 54 Below and Regency Hotel, Music Center at Strathmore, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and more.
Anna is a graduate and fellow of Vassar College and Aspen Music School.
- “Elegant and utterly enjoyable…a wonderful, poignant and breathtaking show that makes classic songs seem vibrant and new.”
-BROADWAY WORLD
Howard Breitbartis a musical director, arranger and pianist, and is a native of Miami. Florida, and has his music degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Howard has become a renowned and popular musician for many theaters and productions throughout the DMV area and has toured with the political satire troupe "The Capital Steps" for 27 years, until they ended their acclaimed performance run in 2020. Howard has performed at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater, accompanying Norm Lewis, Feinstein's 54 and at the Olney Theater Center, where he was the pianist for "Side by Side by Sondheim." Howard is happy to be reunited with his longtime friend, the delightful and talented Anna Bergman.