Drawing inspiration from America’s 250th anniversary, Sounds of US is an immersive new music festival that asks us to imagine the future we want to live in for the next 250 years.
Created and curated by Jennifer Koh, violinist and Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, Sounds of US provides a space for all voices to be heard and a new way to enjoy music as a community—unrestricted by genre or exclusivity.
In between four paid mainstage concerts in Studio K, the FREE ongoing performances in the Peace Corps Gallery will provide listeners with opportunities to join in the music making through sessions of open instrumentation, so YOU also get to share your voice!
Filled with nonstop music and visual art, the festival includes over 40 world premiere commissions by ARCO Collaborative, featuring new works by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon, as well as Vijay Iyer, Nina C. Young, David Ludwig, and more. Highlighting the importance of mentorship and education, commissions will also come from students of The Juilliard School and Georgetown University.
A centerpiece of Sounds of US will be Hear Here, an innovative commissioned work by Angélica Negrón that represents the diversity of America. This world premiere will be created out of sounds that remind us all of home, featuring submissions from people across the nation.
Share your voice, experience a diverse array of new music, support the next generation, and dream of a future that welcomes and uplifts us all.
Studio K concerts at 2, 4, 6 & 8 p.m. are paid, ticketed events.
FREE performances open to the public run from 1–9 p.m. in the Peace Corps Gallery.
The festival begins with free live music in the Peace Corps Gallery at the REACH. World premieres by Hannah Chen, Maria É., D.C.-native inti figgis-vizueta, performed by students of the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship with conductor Abel Pereira.
Support students in the early stages of their music pursuits in a program featuring world premiere works by Nick Bentz, Anthony Cheung, Adeliia Faizullina, Linda May Han Oh, and Hilary Purrington, performed by NSO musicians Robert Rearden, Loewi Lin, and Jennifer Mondie, as well as NSO Youth Fellowship students (Enzo Baldanza, Esther Bonney, Jessica Chen, and Chloe Lee).
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Enjoy more free live music in the Peace Corps Gallery, continuing to spotlight senior composers alongside young professionals. World premieres by Kennedy Taylor Dixon, Hannah Ishizaki, and Leilehua Lanzilotti, performed by students of the NSO Youth Fellowship program with conductor Abel Pereira.
Hear compositions by rising generations. World premieres by Alyssa Weinberg, Trevor Weston, and composition students of the Juilliard School’s Pre-College program (Sophia Dou, Lucas Hayes, Max Kim, Asha Melvani, Alex Robertson, Aadit Shrivastava, Luke Soneral, Isaac Thomas, Charles Wang, and Philina Zhang), performed by Javier Gándara, Weston Sprott, and Juilliard Pre-College students (Anwan Deng and Aidan Peters).
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Free live music continues in the Peace Corps Gallery, with two new commissions featuring violin and prepared electronics. World premieres by Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang, performed by Jennifer Koh.
This program features graduates and current college students. World premieres by David Ludwig, Nina C. Young, and composition students from The Juilliard School (Kimani Bridges, Jonah Cohen, Liam Cummins, Kian Ravaei, Emre Sener, Danae Venson, Yiqi Xue, and Justinas Zlabys), performed by Jennifer Koh and students of The Juilliard School.
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The final free live music performance in the Peace Corps Gallery spotlights world premieres by Eunike Tanzil, who will perform her new work with electronics, and the festival centerpiece Hear Here by Angélica Negrón. Hear Here is an innovative, crowd-sourced composition incorporating sounds submitted by Americans from across the country in response to the question, “What does home sound like?”
In the final Main Stage concert, hear from some of the most celebrated composers of today! World premieres by Vijay Iyer, Jeff Scott, and Carlos Simon, performed by Jennifer Koh and other professional artists including Danielle Cho, Javier Gándara, Iyer, Simon, and Weston Sprott.
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November 11, 2024
Sounds of US Festival with Jennifer Koh
By Nicole Lacroix, WETA
"The most important part of life is what we do for others." — Jennifer Koh
We have arrived at an historic turning point as a nation. We have survived a bitter election and are looking towards our 250th birthday in 2026. It is the right time to ask ourselves the important questions: who are we, what do we stand for, what does the future hold, and for each of us, what is our role, our mission in society. Artists excel at interpreting our world and answering these questions for us. Jennifer Koh’s Sounds of US festival couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Sounds of Us” is an immersive new music festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Saturday, November 16, from 1-9 pm. It features over 40 world premiere commissions by the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative in both ticketed concerts and free performances. Jennifer Koh, the creator and curator of the event and founder of ARCO Collaborative, was kind enough to chat with me about the festival.
November 11, 2024
5 Questions to Jennifer Koh and Weston Sprott (Sounds of US Festival)
By Forrest Howell, I Care If You Listen
"Her latest project is curating Sounds of US, a one-day festival bursting with over 40 premieres across eight concerts, including works by composers Angélica Negrón, Nina C. Young, inti figgis-vizueta, and Carlos Simon. Presented by the Kennedy Center, the performances feature artists from various stages of a musician’s life cycle, from pre-college students to established professionals. The choice to include multiple generations of musicians is purposeful and correlates with the themes of the festival’s four mainstage concerts: To Begin, To Believe, To Become, and To Be."
November 10, 2024
Sounds of US is a festival for everyone, and that’s just who’s playing
Sounds of US, a music festival at the Kennedy Center’s Reach campus, will premiere more than 40 pieces over the course of one day.
By Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post
"Koh is hoping for a day of music that opens the ears of new listeners to new sounds as well as fresh perspectives on what American music can and should sound like. 'I feel like as an artist, I take risks all the time, I get criticized all the time,' Koh says. 'We all fail. We're all human. Hopefully, this festival will do well — and then I can do more things like this.'"
November 2024
Sonic Youth
By Michael McCarthy, DC Magazine
Sounds of US celebrates America’s upcoming 250th anniversary with the daylong music fest at The Reach.
November 2024
Things to Do
Washingtonian
Jennifer Koh's upcoming festival Sounds of US.
