Saturday and Sunday: The Music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church

Although romantic-era composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) received the same education as her famous younger brother Felix Mendelssohn (best known for the ubiquitous “The Wedding March”), even her own father declared her musical output as “only an ornament” to her calling as a wife and mother. Despite her family’s indifference, she composed more than 400 musical works, though only a handful were published during her lifetime. She never received the recognition of her brother and usually played piano only in private settings. But this weekend Capitol Hill Chorale will present a concert devoted to Mendelssohn Hensel for Women’s History Month. Some of her works, such as “Easter Sonata,” which will be performed at the concert, were wrongly attributed to her brother for many years. In a phone interview, Radharani De, president of Capitol Hill Chorale, told City Paper there is something of a Fanny Renaissance at this moment: Last year, filmmaker Sheila Hayman—Mendelssohn Hensel’s great-great-great-granddaughter—released her documentary Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn and in January the Wall Street Journal published the article “The Rediscovery of Fanny Mendelssohn.” The Capitol Hill Chorale is excited to take part in this renaissance. “We’re pretty excited to be able to finally give her her due, because she was very prolific in her time,” says De, who credits the Chorale’s artistic director Frederick Binkholder for finding overlooked composers to highlight in their programming. “He does a really great job of programming music for us that has not gotten the attention that it should have in the choral world,” says De. “In June, we’ll focus mostly on [musical compositions by] Shaker women, including “Mother” Ann Lee, who was the founder of the Shaker community in the United States 250 years ago.” Capitol Hill Chorale, which has more than 100 members from across the DMV, will be joined by mezzo-soprano soloist Kristen Dubenion–Smith for the Music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Thirty minutes before the concert, Dr. Michael Cooper, biographer of both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, will share a lecture on her life and music. The Capitol Hill Chorale presents the Music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel at 7:30 p.m. on March 16, and 4 p.m. on March 17 at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, 201 4th St. SE. capitolhillchorale.org. $25–$30; pay what you can and streaming options available. —Colleen Kennedy 

Starts Sunday: A Fine Madness Workshop at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Justin Weaks is one of the D.C. theater scene’s brightest young stars—garnering Helen Hayes Awards (2023’s Outstanding Lead Performer in There’s Always the Hudson) and nominations (2024’s Outstanding Supporting Performer for his work in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, for which WCP theater critic Chris Klimek called him “superb”)—and generally offering nuanced, authentic portrayals of characters in plays across the District. His performances are raw, riveting, intimate, and utterly arresting. A member of Woolly Mammoth’s company of artists, he is now writing and performing in A Fine Madness, which reflects on his experiences as a Black gay man living with HIV. Weaks has adapted prose and poems from his personal journals alongside movement and choreography, scientific data, affirmations, audience engagement, and more in this memoir-in-performance. “Receiving my diagnosis was a surreal, scary time with many unknowns. It felt like being sucked into a black hole and I couldn’t escape,” Weaks shared in a recent press release. “Telling my story is a liberating experience and an opportunity to begin moving forward. There is so much joy and life to be experienced and I’m finally ready to live again.” Knowing the beauty of Weaks’ performances when he embodies a fictional character, this workshop of his work in progress is also designed as a site of communal healing. Justin Weaks’ A Fine Madness workshop runs  March 17 through 24 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW. woollymammoth.net. All seats pay what you can, starting at $5. —Colleen Kennedy 

Through March 23: Jo Levine at Studio Gallery

Grasses may be easy to overlook, but to photographer Jo Levine, they offer plenty to contemplate. Levine prefaces her exhibit at Studio Gallery by noting that some grasses seem “bent over in acceptance of their fate”—that is, their inevitable disappearance at the end of the growing season. Yet, she adds, while individual blades of grass will vanish, the broader community of grass serves as “a reminder that life as a whole continues on.” Levine’s Contemplating Grasses consists of just seven images, but each helps support the metaphor. One image offers a pleasant mix of beige, green, and purple strands; another depicts a bundle of wispy shoots poking out from an indifferent, rocky floor. A third shows shoots curling like Katsushika Hokusai’s wave. Levine’s two finest images are “Transition,” a largely monochromatic study in beige that features dying blades of grass in artful curls that suggest those of ribbons for wrapping a gift, and “Nurturing the Future,” a green-and-beige symphony of wind-tousled stalks that has the inescapable texture of velvet. Jo Levine’s Contemplating Grasses runs through March 23 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. Wednesday through Friday, 1 to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. studiogallerydc.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Ongoing: Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea at the National Museum of Asian Art

Spring may be looming, but there’s no bad time for tea. Running through 2026, Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea welcomes guests to explore Japan’s tea-drinking culture through a collection of tea bowls and ceramics on view. This exhibition showcases ceramics built by hand instead of a wheel, a uniquely Japanese process described as “knotting clay.” Sol Jung, NMAA’s Shirley Z. Johnson assistant curator of Japanese art, curated the exhibition. Fired in small indoor kilns at lower temperatures, these tea bowls were created using a “a slow, concentrated effort” by early Raku potters, according to Jung. As a result, these cultural forms have a playful look—often asymmetrical, iridescent, and visibly hand-molded—because “early Japanese potters weren’t aiming for perfection.” Jung’s favorite ceramic from the collection is a shallow black Raku tea bowl titled “Tagoto no Tsuki,” meaning “a moon in each rice field.” The name references a popular mountainous landscape in present-day Nagano. Not only does the bowl’s roundness evoke the moon, but when filled with green tea, it also evokes poetic imagery of the moon reflecting on the watery surface of the rice paddies. Though naming tea bowls was initially uncommon, the practice grew in popularity in the 16th century, demonstrating the evolution of Japanese ceramic artistry. Jung hopes that in addition to enjoying the different types of Raku bowls, guests will see how the knotting clay practice has “led to creative outbursts in the landscape of Japanese visual art over time.” Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea is on view through 2026 at the National Museum of Asian Art, 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW. Daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. asia.si.edu. Free. —Irene Bantigue