A Few of Our Favorite Things...

A collection of our favorites from across the arts and humanities

From musical theater to music in space, our media collections reflect the breadth and depth of the performing arts in America and around the world. These are some of our staff favorites--we'd love to hear yours!

Video Series

OK Go @ the Kennedy Center

The band rocks the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage

Website

Drop Me Off in Harlem

Drop Me Off in Harlem will give students the opportunity to explore the art, music, and people that changed Harlem from a neighborhood into a historical landmark

Series

The Story Behind The Song

Discover how history is full of surprising stories of people doing amazing things

Audio

Ben Burtt: The Sounds of Star Wars

Meet Ben Burtt, Sound Designer for films like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and WALL-E.

Website

Perfect Pitch

Batter up! This multimedia exploration introduces students to the most enduring all-stars of the orchestra: the instruments.

Website

Art of the Explosion: Fireworks

This multimedia exploration explores the science and art of pyrotechnics and chronicles the making of Cai’s Tornado: Explosion Project for the Kennedy Center.

Audio

Voyager: Art/Space

There's music floating in Outer Space--two disks filled with songs that are floating out beyond the planets that are most distant to Earth.

Audio Slideshow

Beethoven Rocks!

Part 1 of the Beethoven Rocks series: Get to know Classical music's biggest star

Audio Series

The Music of Sound

Learn how composers and sound designers use their tools to create or enhance mood in a film or commercial.

Video Series

slamKC

Student-poets perform original spoken word pieces at the Kennedy Center with the The Roots

Website

Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppets

Discover the secrets behind the art of shadow puppetry in this multimedia exploration, designed for grades 5-8, which explores this age-old art form through animations, videos, interactive activities, and more.

Audio Series

Arabesque: Music of the Arab World

A 3-part audio series that explores different aspects of Arab music: the musical instruments of the Arab World; what makes Arab music unique; and the styles of music in the Arab World.

Audio Series

Touchdown Songs: Music & Football

Music and football are intertwined as we'll hear in this series, narrated by NFL Films composer Tom Hedden.

Audio Series

Sounds of China

Chinese music dates back thousands of years and sounds different from Western music thanks to important differences in tone, musical scale, pitch, instrumentation and individual instruments. With instruments crafted from a wide variety of materials, including, bamboo, silk, gourd, clay and stone—-and played in a diverse range of styles, from single voices to richly melodic orchestral pieces--Chinese music is as varied as the people who create it.

Video Series