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Founded in 1965, Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) is a non-profit arts presenting organization offering a wide-range of performances throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Both emerging and internationally established artists appear with WPAS in over 100 public engagements and arts education activities each year. WPAS also runs educational programs.

Italic text==History== WPAS was founded in 1965 by Patrick Hayes (1909-1998). Hayes had managed the National Symphony Orchestra in early 1940s Washington and also founded the Hayes Concert Bureau as a profit-making venture in 1947. According to his 1998 obituary in the New York Times, Hayes was “one of the last of the American impresarios and virtually the only presenter of musicians, singers and dancers in Washington before the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1971.

The Hayes Concert Bureau presented well-established performing artists, while also introducing and boosting the careers of promising up-and-coming artists. Actively striving to end segregation in Washington, Hayes “brought the business people together to desegregate the lunch counters and theaters downtown.” Hayes  presented such performers as Arturo Toscanini, Marian Anderson, Vladimir Horowitz, Andrés Segovia, Maurice Chevalier and the Metropolitan Opera, at DAR Constitution Hall, The  George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, Loews Capital Theater, the National Theater, the Washington Coliseum and other venues. Other world-class performers Hayes brought to Washington included the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein, dancers Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Vladimir Horowitz, Leontyne Price, Judy Garland and Louis Armstrong, as well as the Dance Theater of Harlem, Martha Graham Dance Company and others.

In 1965, Hayes established Washington Performing Arts Society as one of the nation's first non-profit, independent, professional arts organizations and named his friend the baritone Todd Duncan as chairman of the board. The organization expanded under the Presidency of Douglas H. Wheeler from 1982 to 2002 and under President Neale Perl, 2002 to the present.

Organization
After more than four decades, the organization continues to present a range of art forms, including classical (orchestras, chamber ensembles, vocalists, pianists, string artists, choruses), world dance and music (traditional art from Europe, the Pacific rim, Africa, and the Americas), traditional American music (jazz and gospel), dance (modern and post-modern dance), and performance art (new performance/theater and spoken word).

WPAS continues to operate under the leadership of a President and a Chief Operating Officer, who are advised by a board of local business and arts leaders. Support committees include the all-volunteer Women’s Committee and a Lawyers’ Committee. WPAS presents an annual fundraising gala in the spring. Funding also comes from subscriptions, private donations and grants.

WPAS has a full-time, year-round professional administrative staff of approximately 30 individuals working in the areas of programming, marketing, finance, development and education. WPAS has its own box office, from which most event tickets are available by phone or online.

Performances
Each year, WPAS presents several subscription series at multiple venues the Washington, D.C. region including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington, The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland and the Warner Theatre near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. A new venue of the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue near Washington’s Chinatown district was added for the 2009-2010 Season. Individual tickets are also available following the sale of subscription tickets.

ARTISTS PRESENTED: Classical performances: WPAS today continues its tradition of presenting the world’s great orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Budapest Festival Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as star classical singers such as Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Renée Fleming and Susan Graham. World-renowned pianists such as Murray Perahia, András Schiff, Garrick Ohlsson and Yefim Bronfman are also frequently presented by WPAS at both the John F. Kennedy Center Concert Hall and The Music Center at Strathmore.

WPAS’ Hayes Piano Series was established in 1966 in honor of WPAS founder Patrick Hayes’ wife, pianist and teacher Evelyn Swarthout Hayes. Maurizio Pollini, Murray Perahia, Alfred Brendel and Yefim Bronfman made their Kennedy Center debuts on the Hayes Piano Series, which continues to include some of the world’s finest emerging pianists such as Jeremy Denk, Till Fellner and Simon Trpčeski. The series is usually staged at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Begun in 1987, WPAS Kreeger String Series features the world’s most promising string players in the mold of Kreeger Series alumni Gil Shaham, Hilary Hahn and others, many of whom have gone on to perform main stage recitals with WPAS and elsewhere. A discussion with the artists and WPAS President Neale Perl follows most performances.

For the 2009-10 season, WPAS established an Encore Series featuring classical artists such as pianist Yuja Wang, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Main stage classical string performers frequently presented by WPAS include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Joshua Bell.

Jazz performances: WPAS has a long history of presenting both up-and-coming and well-established jazz performers including Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, saxophone player Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock,and others. Emerging jazz and world music performers of promise such as Esperanza Spalding, Vijay Iyer and Anoushka Shankar have also been on the WPAS roster.

Show music: From time-to-time, WPAS presents such performers as Michael Feinstein,Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald and Idina Menzel. World and Gospel performances: WPAS has presented a capella gospel singers Sweet Honey In The Rock®  for two decades. The group was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon and has since traveled throughout the world Other world music groups that have been presented by WPAS include The Chieftains, Masters of Persian Music, and Ravi Shankar, among others.

Education and Outreach
WPAS' Education Initiatives provide learning experiences for all ages, through performing arts programs at schools and in the community. Programs include: The Capitol Jazz Project,Concerts in Schools, In-school artist residencies, master classes and lectures, Children of the Gospel Choir, Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition and WPAS Summer Performing Academy, as well as the Embassy Adoption Program.

Concerts In Schools Offered free of charge to schools, the program has a diverse, experienced core of 28 artists/ensembles, who integrate their artistic disciplines with other curricular areas, creating educational and interactive experiences for students. CIS is available to all D.C. public and charter schools, as well as public schools that receive Title I federal funding to serve students from lower-income families in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Embassy Adoption Program A partnership between WPAS and D.C. Public Schools, the Embassy Adoption Program annually connects 1,500 fifth- and sixth-grade students in 52 schools (in all D.C. Wards) with 52 embassies. Embassy officials and teachers design a curriculum based on the culture of the country, the embassy’s resources, D.C. Public School curriculum standards, and the needs of the students. Diplomats visit the schools to discuss their nation’s positions on various world issues with students.

The Capitol Jazz Project Launched in January 2007, the Capitol Jazz Project is a collaboration with Jazz At Lincoln Center and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) that is being implemented in several D.C. middle schools. The program introduces middle school students to core elements of jazz including improvisation, big band arrangement, solo and ensemble performance. A Capitol Strings Project has also begun in area

Launched in the 2010-11 school year, WPAS’ Capitol Dance Project has brought the D.C based professional dance troupe Step Afrika! into Hart Middle School in Ward 8 to present 16 teaching sessions to 8th grade students. Sessions take place during the normal school day, count for credit and include segments on the history of stepping. 35 students enrolled. Step Afrika! was founded in 1994 as the first professional company dedicated to the promotion of stepping, an art form that grew out of the song and dance rituals practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities in the early 1900s. Step Afrika tours throughout the United States, South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean and in 2006 earned the Mayor of Washington, D.C.’s Art Award for their Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education.

The Capitol Strings Project also debuted in the 2010-11 school year at Burrville Elementary School and Bruce Monroe Elementary School. Using the Mark O’Connor curricula for violin, viola and cello WPAS teaching artists instruct students during 16 in-school sessions capped by a culminating performance

In-School Artist Residencies Through the In-School Artist Residency program, local Teaching Artists meet with students over an extended period (typically one session per week for four weeks) for arts-learning activities that are connected to school curricula.

WPAS Partner School Initiative Launched in 2006, three elementary schools serving third through fifth grades are partnered with WPAS during a three-year period in which each school will annually receive two In-School Artist Residencies, four Concerts In Schools events, access to the Student Ticket Program, workshops for teachers, and updates on last minute ticket availability for WPAS main-stage presentations. Through the Student Ticket Program, tickets are offered, free of charge, primarily to elementary school students participating in WPAS’ School Partner Initiative.

Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition Started in 1972 the Feder Memorial String Competition occurs each spring. D.C.-area youth, grades 6-12, compete on violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Prizes go toward private lessons, and scholarships to summer study programs, such as Interlochen Center for the Arts program. Each year, some 85 students compete for 30 awards—ranging from $50 cash prizes to $1,500 scholarships to summer music programs. Winners also receive scholarships for private lessons for six months.

WPAS Children of the Gospel Choir An extracurricular group for children grades 4-12, that involves a free summer vocal workshop (sight-singing, songwriting, vocal development, music theory, and vocal health; a career day with professional artists and arts administrators), a public performance in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on WPAS’ subscription season, and additional performances throughout the DC-area. WPAS Children of the Gospel CHoir performed at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service for President Barack Obama and twice on NBC's Today Show.

Performances at Children's Hospital A partnership with the Children’s Hospital to brings local artists to perform and visit with patients.

Master classes and lectures

Master classes are given by select performers presented by WPAS such as by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and Ron K. Brown.