Join us for the debut performance from the third cohort of Next Jazz Legacy, a national apprenticeship program for women and non-binary improvisers in jazz with the intersection of gender and race as a guiding principle. The mission of Next Jazz Legacy is to increase opportunities for musicians most underrepresented in the art form and to create waves of lasting change that benefit the whole community.

Join us for the debut performance from the third cohort of Next Jazz Legacy, a national apprenticeship program for women and non-binary improvisers in jazz with the intersection of gender and race as a guiding principle. The mission of Next Jazz Legacy is to increase opportunities for musicians most underrepresented in the art form and to create waves of lasting change that benefit the whole community.

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Royal Wood has established himself as a true musical talent. Since being proclaimed “Songwriter of the Year” by iTunes (2010), Wood has continued to evolve and hone his musical craft while maintaining a unique identity.

Mateusz Krzyżowski is the winner of the International Competition for Young Pianists Arthur Rubinstein in memoriam (2021) and the International Piano Competition Ignacy Jan Paderewski (2022). In 2021, he reached the semi-finals of the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition. In 2024, Mateusz Krzyżowski returns to the USA with a second concert tour (the previous one took place in 2023).

Members of the National Symphony Orchestra play an assortment of chamber music.

Students from the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program will perform chamber music on the Millennium Stage.

Presented in recital, for the first time at the Kennedy Center, is Katherine Goforth: American vocalist and inaugural recipient of Washington National Opera’s True Voice Award for transgender and non-binary singers.

Bring your dancing shoes and hit our dance floor with this special dance version of Millennium Stage, complete with swingin’ live music of Duke Ellington performed by the 15-piece Jazz Houston Orchestra, Vincent Gardner, Music Director. Honored guest in attendance, Mercedes Ellington.

Members of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra emerge from the orchestra pit and take their place on the Millennium Stage to share the rich and varied chamber music repertoire. Each musician plays a solo part and the interaction among them creates an astonishing range of sounds and emotions.

From February 1994 to August 1996, the Tuesday night open mic at It’s Your Mug was a community event that had a lasting impact on Washington’s poetry scene that continues to impact American poetry. Celebrate the event’s 30th anniversary with original host and founder Toni Asante Lightfoot, and a group of Mug regulars.

Under the direction of JP Lynch, this performance by the award-winning band from Shenandoah Junction, WV, is a preview for the May 2, 2024 Regional Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Festival in Winchester, VA. The performance will include hits such as “Take the A Train,” “In a Mellow Tone,” and others.