AMERICA!
The nation’s 250th anniversary told through the sounds and stories of composers who made their home in America.
friday, September 18, 2026
6:30 pm — 9:00 pm
Doors & Bar Cart: 6:30 PM
Performance: 7:00 PM — 8:45 PM (with intermission)
Dupont underground
19 Dupont Circle Northwest
Washington, DC, 20036
Event Details
Counterpoint opens Season 3 with AMERICA! The 250th-anniversary program explores migration, resistance and reinvention through the music of composers who came to America.
Composers Lera Auerbach, Bartók, Schoenberg, Rachmaninoff and Tan Dun carried folk traditions, political histories and personal memories across borders as they forged new artistic identities. Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances transform collected Transylvanian melodies for ensembles; Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon channels Lord Byron’s text to protest tyranny; nostalgia pulsates through Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolor and Auerbach’s Piano Trio No. 2 unfolds like a fractured mirror, picking up the pieces between individuality and ensemble, harmony and conflict.
Generous support for this program is provided by Dr. Robert Misbin, Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets, and the Beverly Losch Memorial Fund.
Official event art by David Plunkert.
Program
Sergei Rachmaninoff — Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, No. 10
Béla Bartók — Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56
Lera Auerbach — Piano Trio No. 2, “Triptych - This Mirror Has Three Faces”
Tan Dun — Eight Memories in Watercolor, Op. 1
Arnold Schoenberg — Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op. 41
Performing Artists
Learn about featured composers
