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Air Force Strings to play at Millennium Stage

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jake McCray
Washington D.C. --  This year's Summer Concert Series moves to an exciting venue as the Air Force Strings perform on The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage this Wednesday, August 21 at 6 p.m. The concert will feature works by Elgar, Hindemith and Arensky. The Strings will be led by Second Lt. Shanti Nolan and will feature viola soloist, Technical Sgt. Wayne Graham.

As a recent Honor Graduate from the Defense Information School in Ft. Meade, Md., Nolan had this to say about the upcoming performance:

"I am thrilled to be back conducting this program with the Air Force Strings after spending 10 weeks at Defense Information School at Fort Meade. Playing at the Kennedy Center affords us the opportunity to explore challenging repertoire by great composers such as Johann Stamitz, Paul Hindemith and Sir Edward Elgar. I am fortunate to collaborate with incredible musicians and am excited to perform this powerful music in such an iconic venue.

This program features Technical Sgt. Wayne Graham on viola playing Hindemith's very moving "Trauermusik." Hindemith wrote this piece following the death of King George V in 1936. Hindemith was in London at the time and was scheduled to perform with the BBC Symphony Orchestra the next day. The concert was canceled, but the BBC wanted to include Hindemith in the memorial. Hindemith wrote "Trauermusik" in six hours and performed it the next day for the king's service. After exploring the various stages of grief, the beautiful work culminates with a harmonically-masked statement of the popular hymn tune "Old One Hundredth." We are also featuring our principal players in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, a fiery and at times tender work for quartet and string orchestra."

This concert is one of the last remaining concerts in the Band's Summer Concert Series, so be sure not to miss this rare opportunity to hear one of our ensembles indoors, at the Kennedy Center. You can still hear various ensembles from the band at our other 3 venues, the west steps of the Capitol Building, the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Air Force Memorial.

For more specific information and a complete listing of our events, please click here: Events Calendar.

Please note, all events by The U.S. Air Force Band are subject to cancellation due to inclement weather, including excessive heat. For up-to-the-minute information, please call (202) 767-5658 or check out our Facebook or Twitter feeds via the Band's home page.