8 Best Performing Arts in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C.

Overlooking the Potomac River, the gem of the Washington, D.C. performing arts scene is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. The best out-of-town acts perform at one of three performance spaces—the Concert Hall, the Opera House, or the Eisenhower Theater. An eclectic range of performances is staged at the center's smaller venues, which showcase chamber groups, experimental works, cabaret-style performances, and the KC Jazz Club. But that's not all. On the Millennium Stage in the center's Grand Foyer, you can catch free performances almost any day at 6 pm. And the REACH, a major indoor-outdoor, state-of-the-art expansion designed by Steven Holl and completed in 2019, provides a dynamic, open-air, collaborative space and a pedestrian bridge that connects with the other presidential memorials on the National Mall.

On performance days, a free shuttle bus runs between the Kennedy Center and the Foggy Bottom–GWU Metro stop.

From fall to late spring, this 200-voice choir, founded in 1965 by Norman Scribner, performs a musical array, ranging from classical to tango to Broadway hits, at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington National Cathedral, and other venues. Three Christmas concerts are also scheduled each December, and there's a popular choral tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. during the winter season. 

Acts ranging from the Bolshoi Ballet to U2 to B.B. King have performed at this 3,702-seat venue, one of Washington's grand old halls. It's well worth a visit for both the excellent performers it attracts and for its awesome architecture and acoustics. The design of the performance hall makes for an intimate concert space and great views from every angle of the venue.

A nearly 1,500-seat theater on the campus of George Washington University attracts students and outsiders alike to its pop, classical, and choral music shows, modern dance performances, musical theater, and lectures by high-profile political and celebrity speakers.

Under the leadership of music director Gianandrea Noseda, the orchestra performs classic works by repertoire including classical and popular concerts, commissioned work, and genre-mixing collaborations at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap National Park in summer, and on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol (Memorial Day, Labor Day, and July 4) with some of the world's most renowned talent appearing as guest artists.

The company's classical and contemporary dances are performed from September through June, with works by choreographers like George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Marius Petipa, Sir Frederick Ashton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and more. The main shows are mounted at the Kennedy Center, Harman Center for the Arts, Warner Theatre, and THEARC in Southeast D.C. Each December, the company also performs The Nutcracker at the Warner Theatre.

Founded in 1956, the Washington National Opera presents a diverse repertory of grand operas plus world premieres, international tours, live recordings, radio broadcasts, and innovative education and community-engagement programs. The operas are performed across three main venues of the Kennedy Center in their original languages with English subtitles. In 2012, the WNO created the American Opera Initiative, which commissions young composers and librettists to write short chamber operas. In 2002, the WNO also started the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington National Opera, one of the nation's most competitive professional training programs, providing two years of intensive study to a carefully selected cadre of young singers and collaborative pianists.

One of the city's oldest arts organizations stages high-quality classical music, jazz, gospel, world music, modern dance, and performance art in major venues around the city. Past shows have featured the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Yo-Yo Ma, the Chieftains, Herbie Hancock, and Savion Glover.