TUESDAY

Audiences gasp when breathtakingly beautiful Angela Hagenbach walks onstage. It comes as no surprise to learn that the willowy songstress once had a successful career as an international fashion model. In a textbook illustration of life’s inequity, she also happens to be a first-class jazz singer, a creative songwriter, and an intelligent businesswoman. A decade ago, Hagenbach launched her music career in Kansas City, Mo. Four years later, she founded Amazon, her own record label, which to date has released five CDs on which she interprets jazz standards, Latin music, and originals. In late 1998, she and pianist Joe Cartwright were chosen by the United States Information Agency to visit Africa as American cultural ambassadors. The duo launched the tour with their D.C. debut on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, a star-is-born evening that climaxed with an enthusiastic audience demanding multiple encores. This year, the USIA has again deputized Hagenbach and Cartwright, this time with bassist Steve Rigazzi in tow, to perform in Jordan, Israel, Uganda, Ethiopia, Oman, India, Thailand, and Malaysia. And, once again, the tour kicks off with a free Millennium Stage concert. If you can’t be there in person, your computer will provide you with a front-row seat for Hagenbach’s no doubt triumphal return to D.C., via live streaming video and audio, at http://kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/broadcast.html. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, at the Kennedy Center’s Grand Foyer. Free. (202) 467-4600. (Joel E. Siegel)