About the Distinguished Artists Series
27th Season!

Launched with the opening of Alumni Hall in 1991, the USNA Distinguished Artist Series has presented the world’s finest classical and cultural performers to the Academy with an eclectic mix of Opera, Ballet, Orchestra, and diverse national ensembles as part of a comprehensive program developed by the Naval Academy’s Senior Leadership to enrich the education of midshipmen through exposure and involvement with fine arts. 

Over the past 26 years, we have hosted 121 world-class performances to include the National Ensemble of Republic of Guinea, Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Radio Symphony, Bolshoi Symphony, Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Central Ballet of China, Moscow Virtuosi, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Georgian State Dance Company, London City Opera, Ballet de L’Opera de Bordeaux, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Ballet, Venice Baroque Orchestra, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Krasnoyarsk Dance Company of Siberia, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Ballet, Royal Drummers of Burundi, Hamburg Symphony, Ballet Folklórico de México, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and Band of Coldstream Guards, Warsaw Philharmonic, Dublin Philharmonic, Orquestra de Sao Paulo, Virsky Ukrainian Dancers, Merchants of Bollywood, Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, German State Philharmonic, and the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China to name only a few.

The existence of this flagship cultural program at the Naval Academy has long symbolized an institutional commitment to the educational role of the fine arts and the importance of cultural awareness – and we are thrilled to present our best season yet!

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Jessica Lang Dance
Friday, October 20, 2017

Founded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) is a Long Island City-based dance company dedicated to creating and performing the work of Jessica Lang. JLD enriches and inspires audiences by immersing them in the beauty of movement and music.  Since the company's inception, it has performed at world renowned venues and festivals including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Joyce Theater, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, The Music Center, Northrop Auditorium, Winspear Opera House and Palacio de Bellas Artes, among others. The company's performances have been named among the best dance events of the year by major publications in Dallas, Chicago, Kansas City and Boston.

In 2014, JLD made its debut at nearby Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts with Scape, set to John Adams' Violin Concerto and played live by violinist Leila Josefowicz with the National Symphony Orchestra.

USNA is proud to welcome Jessica Lang Dance!

“New York choreographer Jessica Lang has a knack for conceiving a complete universe in each dance- distinctive in its look and mood, sound and atmosphere...Lang's visual sense is remarkable, and it has come to characterize her aesthetic." —Laura Bleiberg, LA Times

“Her choreographic restraint is a joy – solicitous partnering, an unforced cleaving of space – and the balance that she strikes between lyricism and gravity is as satisfying as it is true to its source." —Luke Jennings, The Guardian

“Lang has a gift for conveying emotion with exquisite simplicity." —Sarah Kaufman, Washington Post

“Renowned for her visionary scenic collaborations with designers and artists, and her genre-bending contemporary ballet style, Lang creates striking compositions that resist categorical definition." —Angeleno Magazine

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45th Annual Spring Oratorio
Friday, April 20, 2018

Durufle: Requiem

Requiem - by 20th-century French master Maurice Durufle, is one of the composer’s most cherished works.  Composed in 1947 at the end of World War II and based upon hauntingly beautiful plainchant, the elegantly restrained setting is unique among requiems.  Breaking away from the operatic and highly dramatic Requiem settings of Berlioz and Verdi, he instead focuses not on visions of hell and damnation, but on images of rest and peace.
 
Accompanying the Requiem will be additional sublime choral and orchestral works featuring the Women's Glee Club and Dr. Cindy Bauchspies.

Join us for beautiful evening of music performed by the critically acclaimed USNA Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra!