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Smithsonian Year of Music

Photo by Diana Davies

A Towering Figure in Music: Pete Seeger's Centennial

An interview with Curator and Producer Jeff Place about Pete Seeger, the celebrations for Seeger's 100th birthday, and the retrospective album recently released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

“Marian Anderson” by Beauford Delaney, oil on canvas, 1965. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, J. Hardwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art; Photo by Travis Fullerton ©Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator

Barrier-Breaking Opera Singer, Marian Anderson, Featured by National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian Music interviews Curator Leslie Ureña, of the National Portrait Gallery, about the upcoming exhibition, "One Life: Marian Anderson."

Sonic Blossom /2013–present / Lee Mingwei / Ongoing participatory performance installation with chair, music stand, costume, and spontaneous song / Installation view at “Lee Mingwei: Sonic Blossom,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015 /Photo: Anita Kan.

Lee Mingwei on Music and Sonic Blossom

In anticipation of the National Portrait Gallery’s presentation of IDENTIFY: Sonic Blossom by Lee Mingwei, the artist discusses the role of music in his practice with the Portrait Gallery’s associate curator of photographs, Leslie Ureña.

Promotional image, The Stormy Man, directed by Umetsugu Inoue, Image © 1957 Nikkatsu

Japan, Jazz, and Movies at the Freer|Sackler in April

On April 6, in honor of this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, the Freer Gallery of Art will host the third after-hours event in our new Freer Film Fridays series. The evening will include food, drink, and a performance by up-and-coming jazz drummer Tomohiro Mori’s trio—all leading up to a classic Japanese movie about dueling jazz drummers, The Stormy Man.

Pandereta (Plena Drum), Puerto Rico, 20th Century Division of Home and Community Life, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Gift of Teodoro Vidal

Reflections on the Puerto Rican Plena, Post-Hurricane Maria

Some musical genres are just particular—particular to a region or a community, without aspiring to be universally relevant or to commercially conquer new audiences. I think of the plena this way, an island-born genre that is performed throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora to nourish a collective sense of identity, memory, and feeling. It is a rhythmic, tambourine (pandero/pandereta) and voice-based genre that was created to share local stories (often described as a spoken newspaper). Its beat, mobile instrumentation, and participatory singing make it perfect for processions, as well as impromptu concerts and protests. The plena is a genre with songwriters who really have something to say about the historical and contemporary experiences of Puerto Ricans on and off the island. It is similar to other regional genres, like the gaita zuliana from Venezuela or Trinidad’s calypso, which are deeply steeped in the political and social contexts of their listeners.

Harper's Bazaar celebrated the centennial of George Washington's 1789 inauguration with a cover featuring the first president dancing the minuet at his inaugural ball.

Music at the White House: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries

A guest post by Elise Kirk, author of Music at the White House

Trumpet owned by Louis Armstrong, 1946, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Louis Armstrong: The First Great Jazz Soloist

August 4, 2016 marked the 115th birthday of music icon Louis Armstrong. Armstrong’s immediately recognizable style and playful sense of humor helped to make him one of the single most important—if not the most important—figures in American music history. Here are three key aspects of Armstrong’s life and music.

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