National Symphony Orchestra Rehearsal

Today I made my first visit to the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts (The Kennedy Centre) in Washington DC.

On the banks of the Potomac river, it is a huge and very imposing building which was planned from 1958, constructed in the late 1960's and opened in 1971. 

 It was named in honour of John F Kennedy who had supported the building of the centre but of course never saw its completion.

There are two halls leading to the Grand Foyer - the Hall of States (featuring the flags of the 50 US states, 5 US territories and the District of Columbia) and the Hall of Nations (featuring the flags of each country with which the US has diplomatic relations).

The Grand Foyer is exactly that!  It is 630 feet long and the three main auditoria - the Eisenhower Theatre, the Opera House and the Concert Hall open off this area.

The Concert Hall is the largest auditorium, seating 2,400 people.  It is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and my trip this morning - on a coach organized by the Reston Association 'over 55's' group - was to attend their open rehearsal.

Photography was forbidden and so I only took this one rather poor shot in the concert hall - I should also confess that the exterior shots and the wide angle shot of the concert hall are from the web as I was unable to take them today.

The rehearsal was for tonight's performance and so the orchestra ran through each piece and then revisited small sections where the conductor was not quite satisfied at the end.  

Overall the performance seemed very polished and was very spirited and entertaining.  The violinist was a very young woman making her debut with the orchestra and she played beautifully.

A wonderful venue and one that I hope to visit again - if only to attend the Millenium Theatre performances which take place each day at 6pm throughout the year and are free of charge!