Emerson String Quartet
Philip Setzer, violin
Eugene Drucker, violin
Lawrence Dutton, viola
Paul Watkins, cello

Renée Fleming, soprano

Simone Dinnerstein, piano

Uma Thurman, narrator

Hailed as “America’s leading string quartet” by the Washington Post, the Grammy Award^®–winning Emerson String Quartet return to the Terrace Theater. The ensemble reunites with Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor at Large Renée Fleming for another “rapturous recital” (The Washington Post) after their successful collaboration on the 2015–2016 chamber music season. At the center of the evening is Penelope, a new monodrama inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey from the Academy Award^®–winning composer André Previn with libretto by playwright Tom Stoppard and the role of Penelope by Academy Award®-nominated actress Uma Thurman.

GEORGE WALKER
Lyric for Strings

PHILIP GLASS
Mad Rush

SAMUEL BARBER
String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11

ANDRÉ PREVIN/TOM STOPPARD
Penelope
Kennedy Center Co-Commission

A NOTE FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JOSEPH KALICHSTEIN
If chamber music is about bringing different voices together, then in this program we have the ultimate. Converging to tell the story of The Odyssey from Penelope’s point of view are the great Fleming, Emersons, and Previn, not to mention a libretto by Tom Stoppard. Surely an evening to remember.

A NOTE FROM RENÉE FLEMING

I so happy to be bringing to the Kennedy Center the Washington premiere of the late André Previn’s final work, Penelope. My collaborations with André, notably with the premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire, have been among the great joys of my life as an artist. With a text by the brilliant playwright Tom Stoppard, Penelope is a new look at the legendary character from Homer’s The Odyssey. André composed the piece for me and the incomparable Emerson String Quartet, and I’m overjoyed that we will be joined again by the superb artists who performed the work at its premiere, the great American pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and the phenomenal actor Uma Thurman as the narrator.