Returning Filene Artist, Tiffany Townsend performs Lilacs. DC Native George T. Walker set Walt Whitman’s elegy to Abraham Lincoln “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” in 1996; it was the unanimous choice of the Pulitzer Prize’s Music Jury, and Walker was, as a result, the first African-American composer to be awarded the prize.
The National Orchestral Institute + Festival brings together aspiring orchestral musicians from across the country for a month of dynamic music-making and professional exploration. Chosen by a rigorous, cross-country audition process, these young artists present passionate and awe-inspiring performances of adventuresome repertoire at The Clarice and in the community.