Concert Items (5 total)
America's Reunion on the Mall
This festival celebrating American cultural diversity was held on the days leading up to the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton. It was organized by the Inaugural Committee, with support from the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of…
US Marine Band's First Public Concert
On August 21, 1800, the Marine Band gave its first public concert in Washington on a hill overlooking the area which became the National Mall. At the time, the band probably consisted of two oboes, two clarinets, two French horns, a bassoon, and a…
First Watergate Barge Concert
At sunset on July 14, 1935, Dr. Hans Kindler conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in the first performance at the Watergate steps near the Lincoln Memorial. The orchestra played from a specially contracted barge anchored in the Potomac near the…
First Performance at the Sylvan Theater
The first performance at the Sylvan Theatre on the Washington Monument grounds took place on the evening of June 2, 1917. Artist and philanthropist Alice Pike Barney Hemmick founded the theater, believing that Washington needed a nationally supported…
Marian Anderson concert at the Lincoln Memorial
African American contralto Marian Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. A peaceful crowd of seventy-five thousand people stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument to attend the free…