Enjoy an evening concert showcasing some of the finest jazz musicians in the D.C. area, playing the music of iconic women throughout jazz history, all in the spectacular setting of Hillwood’s gardens. 

Join us for the fourth summer of Jazz in the Gardens in the spectacular setting of Hillwood’s gardens! Listen to the music of legendary women singers and pianists in jazz history, including Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, Nancy Wilson, and Geri Allen. Featuring vocalist Christie Dashiell, a favorite at jazz festivals nationwide. This evening features the Marshall Keys Quintet and is presented by executive producer Donna Limerick.

PROGRAM TIMELINE 

5:30-6:30 p.m. | Explore Hillwood

• Enjoy Hillwood’s mansion, gardens, and greenhouse, and exhibition, Fragile Beauty: Art of the Ocean.
• Visit the museum shop and Merriweather To Go

6:30-7:30 p.m. | Concert on the Lunar Lawn

• Please bring your own lawn chairs or picnic blankets.

8 p.m. | Hillwood closes

PROGRAM GUIDELINES 

• This program takes place outdoors on the Lunar Lawn. (Please see the inclement weather plan below.)
• Please bring your own lawn chairs or picnic blankets. Picnicking is welcome.
• Merriweather To Go has sandwiches, light snacks, and beverages, including beer, wine, and champagne available by the glass or bottle.
• Hillwood’s liquor license does not allow patrons to bring in outside alcohol.

INCLEMENT WEATHER PLAN  

If inclement weather occurs, the program will be postponed to Thursday, September 19 with ticket purchasers notified of the change by 3 p.m. If inclement weathers persists, the concert will be livestreamed on Thursday, and all ticket purchasers will be notified and sent a link to the performance by 3 p.m.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

Marshall Keys plays the saxophone with a sense of grace and emotion that is wholly without cliché. He is a versatile musician with an expansive range, known for having a solid, soulful tone and for improvisations that begin simply before developing into elaborate, smartly constructed melodies. Keys received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and was commissioned by the Smithsonian to perform the music of Wayne Shorter. He was guest performer and lecturer at the Romare Bearden Exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. He has toured Africa and Central and South America for the State Department as a Jazz Ambassador and has played jazz festivals in the US, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Mexico, Panama, and Indonesia. Keys’s recent endeavors include playing in the Washington National Cathedral Band and collaborating with saxophonist Paul Carr in the Carr/Keys project. He has worked with many of the world’s fine musicians including but finds the vibrant jazz community in Washington DC to be a continuing source of inspiration and motivation.

Donna Limerick, an award-winning documentary producer for over 25 years produced news and entertainment programs for National Public Radio, WETA-FM, and others.  She is President and Executive Producer of North Star Communications, a radio syndication company. She has partnered on projects with Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Her television and radio production credits, include Quincy Jones, Nancy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, and other jazz masters. 

Donna was the Concert Producer for “Evolution of the Blues,” written by vocalist Jon Hendricks. It debuted at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1996 and moved on to a worldwide tour featuring Jon Hendricks, Joe Williams, Diane Reeves, Abbey Lincoln, Kevin Mahogany, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove. 

She is currently a lecturer/consultant with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for a permanent exhibit about her mother Mae Reeves (1912-2016), a pioneer hat designer and entrepreneur. Her clients included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and Marion Anderson. Donna Limerick has been the executive producer for Jazz in the Gardens at Hillwood since the series began in 2021.