|concert
 Vocal Arts Society:
Gerald Finley (baritone) and Julius Drake (piano)

The Vocal Arts Society, founded in 1990, presents accomplished singers, often in the early stages of their careers, with a wide repertoire, and collaborates with local, national, and international institutions.

The Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is one of the leading singers and dramatic interpreters of his generation, with award-winning performances as well as recordings with major labels. He boasts a diverse repertoire and has performed at world renowned operas and concert venues.
Pianist Julius Drake specializes in the field of chamber music, working with many of the world’s leading vocal and instrumental artists, both live and via recording. He appears at all the major music centers and is a professor at The Royal Academy of Music in London and visiting professor at The Royal Northern College of Music.
Gerald Finley and pianist Julius Drake collaborate regularly, appearing throughout Europe and North America.

Program:
Robert Schumann / Maurice Ravel

Wednesday March 17 | 07:30 pm | Embassy of Austria | 3524 International Court NW | Washington DC 20008
Tickets are $45. For ticket reservations, please call 202-365-9064 or visit http://www.vocalartssociety.org/
In cooperation with the Vocal Arts Society.

| lecture
Leo A. Lensing
Demolition Man: Karl Kraus and the  “Deconstruction” of the Coffeehouse Myth
 

No other great culture is as intimately associated with the coffeehouse milieu as what has come to be known as “Vienna 1900,” the era of Freud and Wittgenstein, of Klimt and Schiele, of Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal, of Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann. Yet the Viennese coffeehouse was not merely an architectural project, an actual meeting place or a literary topos. It often represented a hotly contested “marketplace of ideas.” Karl Kraus, whom many consider the greatest satirical writer of the 20th century, undoubtedly enjoyed the sociability and intellectual exchange fostered by the coffeehouse. But he also viewed this typically Viennese institution as a symbolic location of dubious reputation.  The coffeehouse figures in his work – from the early satirical sketch A Literature Demolished, which took its inspiration from the razing in 1897 of the famous Café Griensteidl, to his great anti-war drama The Last Days of Mankind (1922) – as an often comic stage upon which cultural superficiality and ideological corruption reveal themselves.
 
Leo A. Lensing is Professor of Film Studies and German Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. His scholarly work has focused on the literature and visual culture of fin-de-siècle Vienna. His latest book, Peter Altenberg: The Self-Invention of a Poet, documents the literary beginnings of the coffeehouse writer par excellence. He is currently at work on a biography of Karl Kraus.

Friday March 19 | 07:30 pm | Embassy of Austria | 3524 International Court NW | Washington DC 20008
Admission free. RSVP required: 202-895-6776 or http://www.acfdc.org/events-registration

| concert
The 25th edition of Schubert, Schubert and Schubert
THE AURYN QUARTET with Menachem Pressler (piano), Michael Tree (Viola) and Niklas Schmidt (cello)

Friday March 19 | 08:00 pm | Georgetown University´s Gaston Hall | 37th & 0 Streets NW | Washington, DC 20057

Program:
Schumann – Fantasiestücke for Cello and Piano op.73
Schubert – Arpeggione Sonata for Cello and Piano
Schumann – Piano Quintet E flat Major op. 44  

Saturday March 20 | 08:00 pm | Georgetown University´s Gaston Hall | 37th & 0 Streets NW | Washington, DC 20057

Program:
Schubert – String Quartet in A minor “Rosamunde” D. 804
Mendelssohn – String Quintet in B flat Major op. 87
Dvorak – Sextet for Strings in A Major op 48

Sunday March 21 | 08:00 pm | Georgetown University´s Gaston Hall | 37th & 0 Streets NW | Washington, DC 20057

Program:
Schubert – Quartet Movement in c- minor D. 703, “Quartettsatz”
Schumann – String Quartet in F Major op. 41, Nr. 2
Schubert – String Quintet C Major D. 956

Admission: $5 or $10 for all three concerts
To order tickets please call 301 699 5440 or e- mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.stompingground.com/schubert and click on admission (on the left side bar) print out the form and send it with your check to P.O. Box 196, Hyattsville, MD 20781
PAID parking: enter the University from Prospect Street and park at the South West Corner Garage (formerly Lot 3)