Finding Home in Memory and Music
Layale Chaker blends musical techniques and disciplines to record memories and tell stories
Music at Dumbarton Oaks, Then and Now
2022 is the 75th anniversary of the music program at Dumbarton Oaks
Reflections from the Spring 2021 Early-Career Musician
David Crowell reflects on a virtual residency of composing, teaching, and connecting
Composing Environments and Ecologies
David Crowell evokes ecological beauty with a new string quartet
Depicting Personal and Universal Histories
Jessie Montgomery brings Black history to the operatic stage
Singers and Lesser-Known Premieres at Dumbarton Oaks
Daniel Boomhower discusses the 1950 premieres of two compositions by Samuel Barber, and the links between Dumbarton Oaks and the New York Metropolitan Opera
Composition for Wooden Box
Viet Cuong gives a behind-the-scenes look at the premiere of an unconventional piece
Reflections from an Early-Career Musician in Residence
Viet Cuong makes relatable the seemingly magical process of composing music
The Rock Star of Encores
Robyn Bollinger revives the macabre Paganini, “The Hot Canary,” and other touchstones of an indulgent musical tradition
Postponement of 2020–2021 Music at Dumbarton Oaks Concert Series
April 30, 2020
Encore from an Early-Career Musician in Residence
Robyn Bollinger reflects on researching the history of musical dessert
Meet Robyn Bollinger, the Next Early-Career Musician in Residence
Rising star violinist breaks down barriers to classical music
Announcing the Music at Dumbarton Oaks 2018-2019 Concert Season
The annual Music at Dumbarton Oaks concert series returns this fall with an impressive season of performances.
Announcing the Music at Dumbarton Oaks 2017-2018 Concert Season
For the first time ever, single-concert tickets are available for the Music at Dumbarton Oaks concert series, coinciding with an especially exciting season of performances
Celil Refik Kaya
Third recipient of Early-Career Musician Residency
The Friends of Music
Established in 1946 as the Friends of Music, the concert program presents some of the most celebrated and promising musicians to Georgetown in the splendor of the Blisses’ former estate.
Friends of Music
The Dover Quartet Performs at Dumbarton Oaks
Commissioning and Performing Contemporary Compositions
Dumbarton Oaks’ mission to foster original research and publication in humanistic studies has found a parallel expression in the Friends of Music commissions and performances of contemporary music.
Music at Dumbarton Oaks: The Performers
Many famous or soon-to-be famous musicians performed at Dumbarton Oaks over the years, and several have reminisced fondly about their concertizing there, in both the residential and institutional periods.
Stravinsky, Copland, Tower, and Shaw
The Blisses ensured that music was given proper space in their homes, a commitment that was enhanced through their sponsorship of musicians and the commissioning of new works. Dumbarton Oaks continues this commitment through a concert series and commissioning new works from early-career musicians.
Seventy-Five Years of Arts and Humanities at Dumbarton Oaks
Jan Ziolkowski’s Welcome to a Concert by the Dover Quartet, with the World Premiere of Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation (The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks)
75th Anniversary Gala Concert and Reception
The Musical Art Quartet and the Bliss Stradivarius Viola
Mildred Barnes Bliss was an enthusiastic patron of the Musical Art Quartet. She supported the string quartet from soon after its inception in 1926 until it disbanded in 1944. The quartet performed in the Music Room each year between 1941 and 1944, and it was largely due to the success of these performances that Dumbarton Oaks decided to inaugurate a Friends of Music concert series in 1946.
Friends of Music 2015–16 Schedule
A Residency in Review
Caroline Shaw at Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks Welcomes Composer Matthew Aucoin
The Musical Art Quartet and the Bliss Stradivarius Viola
James N. Carder (May 2015)
Friends of Music
Kitka | December 7 and 8, 2014
Celebration of New Academic Programs
Inaugural Dumbarton Oaks Early-Career Musician
Caroline Adelaide Shaw