Around the world with Jewish music trio
You don’t have to know Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Luganda, Arabic or even English to sing and swing along with the Robyn Helzner Trio when they present “A Concert of World Jewish Music” in Columbia.The words — even if foreign to your ears — and the music will draw you in by “the emotion and the celebration” in song of the Jewish experience, said Robyn ... READ MORE
Major black history exhibit visits museum
A nationally renowned exhibit has made its way to Baltimore, where it may bring a surge of visitors to the East Coast’s largest African-American museum.Curated over 35 years, the Kinsey Collection offers a variety of items that chronicle black history in the United States.The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture opened “The Kinsey... READ MORE
Put La Quinta resort on your holiday list
With the traditional lighting of the Christmas tree, something magical happens at the La Quinta Resort & Club. It becomes a winter wonderland. The Christmas tree, bedecked in glittering, giant ornaments and surrounded by hundreds of poinsettias, soars 68 feet.“Children, especially, enjoy the lighting of the tree,” said Samantha Swadish, marketing manager. “The YMCA... READ MORE
Highlights of festive holiday productions
December is traditionally the family-friendliest month on D.C.-area stages, with a mix of holiday-themed perennials and time-honored favorites.A listing of some of this year’s top attractions follows.Before we get to the more traditional offerings, there’s something a bit different at the Kennedy Center: Elf The Musical (Dec. 17 to Jan. 5). The Opera House will vibrate with ... READ MORE
Estelle Parsons stars in Arena premiere
The Academy Award-winning star is getting ready to go to the theater, and she is fretting about clothes. But this is not about a red-carpet appearance, and she’s not concerned about how she looks.This is the dilemma of a working actor who is trying to find the essence of a character, and part of that search involves wardrobe. What the character wears onstage will tell the audience a... READ MORE
Blues legend Johnny Winter to perform
It was 1962, and 17-year-old Johnny Winter was holding out hope that blues legend B.B. King would let him play guitar onstage. After all, Winter and his band, Johnny and the Jammers, had released music on a Houston recording label two years before. Winter and his brother Edgar waited in a club called the Raven in Beaumont, Texas, where they had come to see King perform. Both boys were... READ MORE
How to become more creative later in life
It’s never too late to develop your creativity, and two new books show you why and how.Contemplating life after retirement and its inevitable question of “What’s next?,” psychologist Francine Toder impulsively, and almost simultaneously, took up cello lessons and creative writing classes.What those two seemingly random events led to was an exploration of late (or... READ MORE
Shakespeare al fresco with Caribbean flair
Just as when Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre brings its audience up close to the stage.And as in the first staging of Antony and Cleopatra and Taming of the Shrew back in the 1600s, the actors join the audience between exits and entrances.But that’s where the similarities to the Bard’s time end. Chesapeake Shakespeare’s... READ MORE
Melissa Etheridge rocks again at Wolf Trap
Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge may have won two Grammy Awards, been honored by Washington’s Women in the Arts Museum last year and garnered a star on the Hollywood Walk of fame in 2011. But when she was a child in Leavenworth, Kan., a music teacher didn’t know what to make of her raw, gravelly voice. *My first choir teacher did tell me that my voice was so weird she had to... READ MORE
KC and the Sunshine Band still shaking
When KC and the Sunshine Band released iconic dance hit "Get Down Tonight" in 1975, it was an instant success. Despite many changes in mainstream music, the band's hits have remained popular over the years. Video game series Dance Dance Revolution, for example, has used several of KC's songs to get players moving to the beat.When KC and the Sunshine Band entered the music... READ MORE
