Monday, February 5, 2007 from 6 to 10 p.m.
Performance Schedule | About the Artists | About the Millennium Stage
Free Tickets Required
To commemorate 10 years of free daily performances on the Millennium Stage, the Kennedy Center presents an unprecedented night of free performances in its various venues. Each of the live performances will also be projected on screens in the Grand Foyer, so that audiences who acquire free tickets to one event may still enjoy a free simulcast of the other performances.
Free Ticket Giveaway Saturday, Jan. 27
per the following schedule.
MAXIMUM 2 TICKETS PER PERSON.
First-come, first served. Limited availability.
9–10 a.m.: SUFJAN STEVENS (Hall of Nations, line forms to left of entrance)
10–11 a.m.: NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (River Terrace, follow signs)
11 a.m.–12 noon: ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER (Hall of States, line forms to right of entrance)
PLEASE NOTE:
Sorry, there is no free parking for patrons picking up free tickets.
There will be no late seating for performances.
There will be no standby lines for either Sufjan Stevens or Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Performance Schedule
6–7 p.m. on the Grand Foyer Millennium Stage
“Commodores” U.S. Navy Jazz Ensemble
The best of jazz and popular music
7–7:40 p.m. in the Concert Hall
National Symphony Orchestra
Performing Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
8–8:30 p.m. in the Eisenhower Theater
Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater
Performing its signature classic Revelations
9–10 p.m. in the Opera House
Sufjan Stevens
Indie-rock singer and multi-instrumentalist accompanied by members of
the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
“Commodores” U.S. Navy Jazz Ensemble
A specialty unit of the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., the Commodores features 18 of the Navy's top jazz  and "big band" musicians. Under the leadership of Chief Musician Philip M. Burlin, the group combines the best of jazz and popular music. Since the band’s founding in 1969, the Commodores have become one of the most acclaimed jazz ensembles in the country. They trace their roots to before World War II, when Band members with jazz experience formed dance bands and rehearsed on an as-needed basis for specific occasions. Their performances now are high-energy affairs that not only pay tribute to the legendary big bands of yesterday, but also feature original compositions by members of the group. In 2005, the Commodores released their latest CD, Three Shades of Blue.
Artist Web Site
Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater
 Alvin Ailey, one of America’s most outstanding choreographers, founded Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater in 1958 to enrich the heritage of American modern dance while preserving the uniqueness of black cultural expression. Over the past 48 years, the company has earned its reputation as an ambassador of American culture, bringing its distinctive style to more than 68 countries worldwide. Legendary Ailey dancer and Kennedy Center Honoree Judith Jamison leads the company as artistic director. Revelations, considered by most critics to be Ailey’s masterpiece, took the dance world by storm following its premiere in 1960. Inspired by memories of Ailey’s Baptist childhood, Revelations is a vibrant celebration of his African American roots set to the music of traditional southern spirituals.
Artist Web Site
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra is acknowledged as one of today’s finest  orchestras. Now in its 76th season, the Orchestra numbers 100 musicians, and presents approximately 175 concerts annually, including a classical subscription series, Pops concerts, and one of the country’s most extensive educational programs. Through the John and June Hechinger Commissioning Fund for New Orchestral Works, the NSO has commissioned more than 50 works representative of the diverse influences in American composition today. The NSO’s long commitment to nurturing young American conductors increased with the creation in 2000 of the National Conducting Institute, which Music Director Leonard Slatkin founded and directs. Another important project is the American Residencies, a venture sharing all elements of classical symphonic music with a specific state through exchanges, training programs, and commissions. Established in 1992, the project has so far taken the NSO to 16 states.
Artist Web Site
Sufjan Stevens
 Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens, known for his instrumentally rich brand of indie-rock, began his ambitious 50 states album series in 2004 with a collection of folk songs and instrumentals inspired by his home state of Michigan – the recording Michigan on the label Asthmatic Kitty Records he created with his stepfather. He then released the second in the 50 states project in 2005, the critically acclaimed Illinois for which the 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards awarded Stevens with the Album of the Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist of the Year. On July 11, 2006, he released The Avalanche, which features 21 works of music he had culled from the Illinois recording sessions.
Artist Web Site
About the Millennium Stage
Current Schedule | Video Archive
The Kennedy Center is the only U.S. institution that presents free performances 365 days a year. The Millennium Stage, created as part of the Center’s Performing Arts for Everyone initiative in 1997 and underwritten by James A. Johnson and Maxine Isaacs, features a broad spectrum of performing arts – dance, jazz, chamber music, folk, comedy, storytelling, theater, and more – every day at 6 p.m. In the past 10 years, over 3 million people have attended Millennium Stage performances.
The Millennium Stage has presented 41,000 artists, which includes more than 3,000 international artists from more than 50 countries; performers representing all 50 states; and 19,000 Washington-area ensembles and solo artists. The Charlie Byrd Trio and the Billy Taylor Trio were the first artists to delight audiences with a free performance on March 1, 1997. Acclaimed American artists such as jazz pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn; vocalist and composer Bobby McFerrin; folk icon Pete Seeger; opera singer Jessye Norman; dancer and choreographer Jacques d’Amboise; the Joffrey Ballet; the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; rock band Los Lobos; vocalist and pianist Norah Jones; spoken word artist and rock musician Patti Smith; and many more have appeared on the Millennium Stage.
International performers such as Colombian superstar Juanes; the Royal Shakespeare Company; Brazilian pianist Sergio Mendes; French African hip-hop/R&B duo Les Nubians; Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi; Nigerian vocalist and guitarist King Sunny Ade; the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra; French violinist Jean Luc Ponty; Senegalese vocalist Youssou N’Dour; South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela; and Arabic oud master Hamza el Din have also appeared on the Millennium Stage.
In 1999, the Center began web-casting each night’s live performance, and continues to archive and maintain each event in a database of over 2,500 performances. The web-casts average 900 hits daily, and have received a total of over 1,500,000 hits.
“The nightly free Millennium Stage program has become part of the fabric of the Washington community and draws visitors from across the country and around the world,” says Kennedy Center Chairman Emeritus James A. Johnson.
“I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished on The Millennium Stage, and am looking forward to many more years of performances,” says Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman.
The Millennium Stage was created and underwritten by James A. Johnson and Maxine Isaacs to make the performing arts accessible to everyone in fulfillment of the Kennedy Center's mission to its community and the nation.
The Millennium Stage, underwritten by James A. Johnson and Maxine Isaacs, is brought to the public by Target Stores and Fannie Mae Foundation, with additional funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education, The Meredith Foundation, Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A.J. Stolwijk, Temple-Inland, Inc., DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Millennium Stage Endowment Fund, and the Kennedy Center Washington Committee on the Arts.
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