About this Event
East City Bookshop welcomes author and musician Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch for a discussion of her book, Declassified. Arianna will be joined in conversation by Washington Arts Ensemble's Natalia Kazaryan.
Note on Format: This hybrid event will have both an in-person component with limited seating as well as a virtual broadcast via Zoom Webinar. Both in-person and virtual attendees will be able to pose questions to the authors during audience Q&A.
COVID-19 Information: Please note that East City Bookshop continuously monitors public health guidance to ensure the safety of customers, authors, and our staff and reserves the right to adjust in-person events. Masks and proof of vaccination are required for all in-person attendees.
ABOUT DECLASSIFIED
The best masterclass in classical music you never knew you needed.
Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch’s life-long fascination with classical music has taken her through Juilliard and into the shiny world of symphony halls and international concert tours. She’s loved classical music her whole life. But she’s also hated classical music her whole life. After all, if you can like Beyoncé without liking Bieber, you can certainly like Brahms without liking Bach—especially since they were born 148 years apart and the thing we call “classical music” is really just centuries of compositions shoved into one hodge-podge of a genre.
In Declassified, Warsaw-Fan Rauch blows through the cobwebs of elitism and exclusion and invites everyone to love and hate this music as much as she does. She offers a backstage tour of the industry and equips you for every listening scenario, covering: the 7 main compositional periods (even the soul-crushingly depressing Medieval period), a breakdown of the instruments and their associated personality types (apologies to violists and conductors), what it’s like to be a musician at the highest level (it’s hard), how to steal a Stradivarius (and make no money in the process), and when to clap during a live performance (also: when not to). Declassified cheekily demystifies the world of High Art while making the case that classical music matters, perhaps now more than ever.
ARIANNA WARSAW-FAN RAUCH earned a bachelors degree and masters in music from the Juilliard School and has performed as a classical violinist in top venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Ravinia, Verbier, La Jolla Summerfest, and Aspen Music festivals. She has toured with such legendary artists as jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and Sir James Galway. Declassified is her first book.
NATALIA KAZARYAN, acclaimed by The New York Sun for her “prodigious ability" and hailed as a “marvel among marvels” by Nice-Matin, is co-founder of the Washington Arts Ensemble. She is also a board member of the International Alliance for Women in Music and she holds an adjunct piano faculty position at Howard University. Dedicated to giving equal platform to female composers in her public appearances, she notably curated and performed a recital of all women composers at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, a performance The Washington Post named “one of the best classical concerts of the summer 2019.” A frequent collaborator with members of the National Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Kazaryan often appears at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
East City Bookshop, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast, Washington, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 32.00