Editor’s Pick: Wolf Trap’s June Highlights
Wolf Trap is back up and running with a powerful roster of June acts to kick off the summer perfectly.
A ragtag assortment collectively known as “The Original Kings of Go-Go” will kickstart summer at Wolf Trap as the first concert out of the gate in the Filene Center. Headlined by Big Tony and Trouble Funk, the Saturday, May 28, concert features a homegrown lineup of performers celebrating the official music of D.C.
Also performing are E.U. with Sugar Bear, Junkyard Band, and DJ Wroyal, and “the Queens of Go-Go Fitness.”
The season’s official launch happens the following night, when “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band performs a free program of concert band favorites followed by fireworks (5/29).
Once the calendar ticks over to June, the stage at Virginia’s famed outdoor amphitheater, nestled in America’s only national park for the performing arts, will be lit up every weekend and many weeknights, beginning with a Friday night “Celebration” featuring Kool & the Gang backed by funk and soul stalwarts Morris Day & the Time (6/3).
It will be followed the next evening by Black Violin, the classical-meets-hip-hop strings duo of Wil B. and Kev Marcus, with an opening set from the Grammy-winning gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama (6/4).
The first weekend in June also offers the return of Steven Blier of the New York Festival of Song for a matinee recital in the nearby Barns, featuring a trio of 2022 Wolf Trap Opera Filene Artists with the program “Musical Mediterranean” (6/5).
Later in the month comes “Broadway In The Park,” the second annual musical theater collaboration with Signature Theatre, this year starring Tony Award winners Kelli O’Hara (The Gilded Age) and Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), plus an ensemble of Signature stars including Nova Y. Payton, Rayshun LaMarr, Bobby Smith, Vincent Kempski, Kevin McAllister, and Donna Migliaccio (6/24).
Also noteworthy is the first “Juneteenth Celebration” since the date became an official federal holiday, with another program offering hip-hop and classical mashups, this time from the acts Thee Phantom and the Illharmonic Orchestra (6/19).
On the eve of that holiday comes Trombone Shorty’s Voodoo Threauxdown, a “once-in-a-lifetime” tour featuring a handful of the best music acts from New Orleans, led by Shorty’s band Orleans Avenue with special guests Tank and the Bangas, Big Freedia, Cyril Neville the Uptown Ruler, and the Soul Rebels, plus a tribute to funk pioneers The Meters led by founding bassist George Porter Jr. alongside Dumpstaphunk (6/18).
Additional under-the-stars summer-night highlights next month include the Wolf Trap debut of indie-folk collective The Head and the Heart (6/9), two nights of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt with special guest Lucinda Williams (6/10-11), and a double dose of double-bill concerts.
The first pairs Scottish indie-pop veterans Belle and Sebastian with the more recently acclaimed Japanese Breakfast, led by Korean-American artist Michelle Zauner (6/15). The second brings together the “queen of crossover country-rock” Sheryl Crow with newer alt-country sensation Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (6/16-17).
The month closes out with performances including the touring production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (6/21-22), The Black Crowes (6/23), Steely Dan (6/25-26), and Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers (6/30).
Wolf Trap is at 1551 Trap Road in Vienna, Va.
Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.
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