The 25th anniversary of Strathmore will offer newly created works, a 17-concert history of keyboard music, a celebration of Broadway song and a good deal more.  Strathmore, which started out in a historic Montgomery County mansion in 1983, expanded in 2005 to include the Music Center where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra makes its second home. (The BSO's Strathmore season was previously announced.) The center and the mansion will be much in use for the 2008-2009 anniversary season.

Among the classical music highlights is the area premiere of Theresienstadt, a program named for the concentration camp of that name where notable Czech/Jewish musicians were interned. Vocal and instrumental music by composers who were sent from Theresienstadt to their deaths at Auschwitz will be performed April 30, 2009, in a concert at the Music Center featuring
stellar mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter (pictured), violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Bengt Forsberg.

Other notable classical artists include the Warsaw Philharmonic (with dazzling pianist Valentina Lisitsa), the brilliant vocal ensemble Chanticleer, the distinguished Academy of St. Martin in the
Fields (with incisive violinist Julia Fischer), the always engaging Post-Classical Ensemble (in its first children's program) and the fine Bach Sinfonia (performing Purcell's King Arthur).

Concerts by Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune and other stage veterans will salute the Broadway
musical throughout the season. Pop stars at the center include Natalie Cole and such vintage performers as Arlo Guthrie, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian and Neil Sadaka. Take Joy, an original, holiday-themed Strathmore production with original songs by Roger Ames and narrative by Elizabeth Bassine and Nick Olcott will be premiered in December.

Musical activity at the mansion includes a three-century survey of keyboard-based music and styles, running from October to April. Artists include J. Reilly Lewis, Soheil Nasseri, Baltimore's Monument Piano Trio and the duo of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/pianist William Bolcom and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris.

For more information on the 2008-2009 Strathmore season, call 301-581-5100 or click here. 

(Photo courtesy of Strathmore: Anne Sophie von Otter)