Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Announces July Performances

Wolf Trap Features Cutting Edge Eclectic Folk and Bluegrass with k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang, The Belle Brigade, Béla Fleck and the Original Flecktones, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Abigail Washburn & The Village; Plus Three Consecutive Performances from the National Symphony Orchestra

k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang

with Special Guest The Belle Brigade

Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 8 p.m.

$45 in-house, $25 lawn

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang

Eclectic crooner k.d. lang returns to Wolf Trap with her band the Siss Boom Bang. Lang burst onto the music scene in the mid-1980s with rock-infused country on Angel with a Lariat, which became an underground smash critics adored. She won her first of four GRAMMY Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, in 1989 and earned a Top 25 hit with the single "Full Moon of Love" the same year. In 1992 the vocalist signaled a shift toward alternative rock with the platinum album Ingénue, which gave way to the pop-oriented albums All You Can Eat (1995) and Invincible Summer (2000). It wasn't until 2008 that lang released another album of original material. Sing It Loud arrived in 2011, which she recorded with her new band the Siss Boom Bang and is a "strong step in a bold, satisfying new direction." (AllMusic.com)

Video: k.d. lang-"Constant Craving"

The Belle Brigade

Pop duo The Belle Brigade features siblings Barbara and Ethan Gruska, who emerged from Los Angeles in 2011 with their self-titled debut album. The musicians come from a family with a history in music; grandfather John Williams is an Oscar-winning film composer, and father Jay Gruska wrote songs for pop artists including Michael Jackson. Paste magazine says, "their DNA-sharing vocal chords are able to vibrate perfectly together, creating full, textured harmonies that seem to rise above the instrumentation while flowing along it." This California duo draws influences from Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, and The Beatles. The Belle Brigade's breezy, harmonic melodies and emotionally resonant lyrics create a beautiful balance between happy and sad that is sure to lead to a successful career.

Video: The Belle Brigade-"Losers"

National Symphony Orchestra

Tcheers for Tchaikovsky!

Pietari Inkinen, conductor

Caroline Goulding, violin

Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 8:15 p.m.

Tickets range $20-52

Tcheers for Tchaikovsky! has been an NSO tradition for decades, and this summer's program provides two exciting debuts. Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen was appointed Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic in 2009. The NSO also welcomes Caroline Goulding, an 18-year-old "precociously gifted virtuoso" (Gramophone) who will be the soloist in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Goulding has been honored with a first prize award in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, received a GRAMMY nomination for her 2009 self-titled debut, and was awarded the 2011 Avery Fisher Career Grant. The all-Tchaikovsky program includes Suite No. 1 from The Nutcracker and ends with the thunderous 1812 Overture.

National Symphony Orchestra

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony

Andy Brick, conductor

Friday, July 8, 2011 at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets range $20-52

The world of video games and the National Symphony Orchestra first met in 2006, and this year PLAY! A Video Game Symphony continues to carry on this Wolf Trap tradition. Accompanied by award-winning music from Super Mario Brothers, World of Warcraft, FINAL FANTASY®, the Legend of Zelda, Halo, Battlefield 1942, and more, will be scenes from these blockbuster video games projected onto massive screens in-house and on the lawn. Conductor Andy Brick has composed the scores for a variety of video games and conducted a number of orchestras internationally. The artistic range of the National Symphony Orchestra provides a rare chance to hear this unique music live.

National Symphony Orchestra

Three Broadway Divas

Emil de Cou, conductor

Debbie Gravitte, Christiane Noll, and Jan Horvath

Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 8:15 p.m.

Tickets range $20-52

Three Broadway Divas comes to Wolf Trap for an evening of Broadway showstoppers from Gypsy, The Music Man, A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady, Wicked, Mamma Mia!, and Evita. The show features Jan Horvath, who played Christine in the original Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera, Debbie Gravitte, who won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jerome Robbin's Broadway, and Christiane Noll, who originated the role of Emma in Jekyll & Hyde. These three women have performed in a number of Broadway shows throughout their careers and are joined by the legendary Emil de Cou, Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Béla Fleck & The Original Flecktones

with The Carolina Chocolate Drops

and Abigail Washburn & The Village

The Acoustic Planet Tour 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 7 p.m.

$40 in-house, $25 lawn

Béla Fleck & The Original Flecktones

Banjo master Béla Fleck brings his stellar picking skills to Wolf Trap, backed by his band The Original Flecktones for an evening of genre-bending music. Fleck has been nominated for GRAMMY Awards in jazz, bluegrass, pop, spoken word, gospel, contemporary Christian, classical, and country categories, illustrating his wide range of musical ability. He first united The Flecktones in 1988, creating a quartet of talented musicians bonded by their mutual passion for musical creativity that won four GRAMMY Awards. The band returned to their original lineup for the first time in nearly two decades to record their fourteenth album, Rocket Science (2011), which AllMusic.com calls "a fresh and exciting reintroduction to a newly energized Flecktones."

Video: Béla Fleck & The Original Flecktones-"Next"

The Carolina Chocolate Drops

Reviving traditional African-American folk and blues, The Carolina Chocolate Drops specialize in music native to their Piedmont, North Carolina roots. The three members of this trio met in 2005 and were drawn together by their similar music tastes. Using unconventional instruments such as the clawhammer banjo, bone percussion, and kazoo, the group blends bluegrass, country, and early rock to create a uniquely antique sound. Member Justin Robinson explained, "We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians." Their latest release, Genuine Negro Jig (2010), won a GRAMMY Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2011.

Video: Carolina Chocolate Drops-"Genuine Negro Jig"

Abigail Washburn & The Village

Singer/songwriter Abigail Washburn, known for her unique folk music and clawhammer banjo skills, performed in a number of groups (including in a duo with current husband Béla Fleck) before touring with The Village this summer. The musician utilized her interest in Chinese culture to blend classic American bluegrass with traditional Chinese rhythms on her debut album, Song of the Traveling Daughter (2005). Since then, Washburn has continued creating imaginative music that blends global sounds of the East and West for a sound of cross-cultural fusion. Paste magazine calls her newest album, City of Refuge (2011), Washburn's "finest effort to date...one of the stronger folk albums in recent memory."

Video: Abigail Washburn-"A Fuller Wine"

Tickets can be purchased by calling 1(877)WOLFTRAP; or online at www.wolftrap.org. For more information, call Wolf Trap at (703) 255-1868.

Wolf Trap is metro accessible! Our environmentally friendly Wolf Trap Express Bus travels from the West Falls Church metro stop every 20 minutes starting two hours prior to show time. For more information, please visit, http://www.wolftrap.org/Plan_Your_Visit/Access_by_Metro.aspx.

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