Things to Do

March Music and Dance

What's happening around town this month in music in dance?

Kennedy Center Opera House

The Washington National Opera’s spring season begins with the Santa Fe Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes March 21 through April 4. Set in an English fishing village around 1830, it’s the tale of a fisherman (Christopher Ventris) accused of murder and the schoolteacher (Patricia Racette) who believes in his innocence. For tickets ($45 to $300), call the WNO at 202-295-2400 or visit dc-opera.org.

The New York City Ballet’s appearances are always a treat. On the program March 4 through 8 are dances by Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Martins, and the ballet’s founder, George Balanchine. Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp’s “Brahms/Handel”—a light, satirical collaboration between the two greatest choreographers to combine modern dance, pop, and ballet—is also on the bill. For tickets ($29 to $99), call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall

An eclectic lineup is heading to the Concert Hall, beginning March 1 with pianist Evgeny Kissin playing music by Chopin and Prokofiev. For tickets ($47 to $127), call the Washington Performing Arts Society at 202-785-9727 or visit wpas.org.

Wynton Marsalis is tooting his horn in more ways than one. The trumpeter is performing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra March 16 and delivering the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy March 30. For tickets to the concert ($42 to $87), call the Washington Performing Arts Society at 202-785-9727 or visit wpas.org. For free tickets to the lecture, visit americansforthearts.org/events.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt leads the National Symphony Orchestra in music by Mozart and by Bruckner March 19 through 21. For tickets ($20 to $80), call the Kennedy Center at 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org. Bass baritone Samuel Ramey and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade perform March 25. For tickets ($42 to $87), call the Washington Performing Arts Society at 202-785-9727 or visit wpas.org.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs “A Quarreling Pair” March 24 and 25. The dance with video projections is based on Jane Bowles’s 1945 short puppet play about two sisters who live together but don’t get along. Jones has expanded that theme.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company performs “De Sueños” (Of Dreams), “De Sueños Que Se Repiten” (Recurring Dreams), and “Beloved Renegade” March 27 and 28. Tickets are $22 to $65. 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org.

Verizon Center

Fleetwood Mac, on the road for the first time in five years—and 32 years after its Rumours album—pulls into town March 10 with its Unleashed tour; tickets are $49.50 to $149.50.

Pop pet Britney Spears’s tour and most recent hit have a circus theme. She’ll be here March 24; tickets are $39.50 to $128.

Call Ticketmaster at 202-397-7328 or visit ticketmaster.com.

National Presbyterian Church

The Washington Bach Consort, under the direction of J. Reilly Lewis, performs Bach’s Great Organ Mass on March 22. For tickets ($20 to $55), call 202-429-2121 or visit bachconsort.org.

Music Center at Strathmore

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Jun Märkl, and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, directed by Tom Hall, perform Mozart’s Requiem on March 7; tickets are $25 to $80. On March 14, the National Philharmonic Choral Masterworks also performs Requiem ($29 to $79); for tickets, call 301-581-5100.

The Grammy-winning male choral group Chanticleer performs American music—from folk to gospel and much in between—March 28. Tickets are $28 to $68.

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