Emmy-nominated actress Robin Weigert joins Mother/Pianist Dionne Laufman for concert

Robin Weigert, best known for her Emmy nominated portrayal of Calamity Jane on HBO’s award-winning series “Deadwood,” will join her mother, pianist Dionne Laufman, for “The Secret Subject of Every Story,” a special evening of poetry and music, on Saturday, November 22, at 8 pm. The concert is presented by Washington Conservatory of Music at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle at Massachusetts and Western Avenues in Bethesda, Md., and is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome at the door.

A small book of poems published after her early death is the only written record left of Marilyn Joselit Laufman, who was Robin Weigert’s grandmother and Dionne Laufman’s mother. Robin and Dionne use the magic of music and recitation to conjure Marilyn, a woman whose unique artistry as a poet, dancer and mother is sewn inexorably into Robin’s and Dionne’s relationship with their art forms and each other. As a result, the evening becomes three generations of women talking with one another through three different art forms.

Themes of pain, joy, love, loss, healing, childhood, and solitude will be explored as the duo embraces the redemptive power of art and the bliss of relinquishing control and allowing oneself to accept things as they are, known and unknown. The evening features poetry by Dickinson, Whitman, Thoreau, Kerouac, Neruda and others. Piano music by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Gershwin and more, will be performed by Ms. Laufman in juxtaposition to the poetry. This concert was created especially for the Piano Plus! Concert Series in celebration of the Washington Conservatory’s 30th Anniversary. A free Wine and Words Q&A reception follows.

About Robin Weigert: Robin Weigert can be seen in a recurring role as the stiletto-heeled power house attorney Ally Lowen on the FX hit series “Sons of Anarchy.” Before moving to Los Angeles to join the cast of Deadwood, Robin enjoyed a nearly decade-long stage career in New York, where she performed on and off Broadway, received nominations for Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards for her work in Richard Nelson’s “Madame Melville,” and shared the stage with actors including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Cherry Jones, Patti Lupone and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to name a few.

She recently returned to New York to play the eponymous Angel in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.” Robin’s first break in film came when Stephen Soderbergh cast her as the platinum blonde Teutonic hussy Hannelore in “The Good German,” starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. She played the neurotic sister to Rene Zellweger in “My One and Only,” the strung-out stripper Olive in Charley Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” and Julianne Moore’s kind but clueless lover Trish in “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.” She played opposite John Hawkes in “The Sessions”, which won the Audience Award and the Best Ensemble Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and starred in the role of Abby in “Concussion,” honored as an official selection for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

About Dionne Laufman: Dionne Laufman is a prize-winning pianist and chamber musician. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, she has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. Engagements outside the United States have included performances in Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Bern, The Hague, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Montreal. In the Washington area, she has appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Phillips Collection, the Dumbarton Concert Series, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Barns at Wolf Trap, the Textile Museum, Meridian House, and with Artists To End World Hunger.

A co-founder and a faculty member of the Washington Conservatory of Music, she performed on The Embassy Series in Washington, D.C., at the embassies of Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, New Zealand and Mexico. Her performance of “Fantasy for Piano” was broadcast over the Voice of America from the Kennedy Center; the composer Lawrence Moss wrote the piece for her.

A pupil of eminent pianists Leon Fleisher, Konrad Wolff, Frank Glazer and Katja Andy, Ms. Laufman has recorded for Opus. 1 Records. From l986-’89, she was pianist and co-director of the Summer Serenades Chamber Music Festival at Strathmore Hall, which featured commissioned new works. She has been a repertory member of several area chamber music ensembles including The Washington Music Ensemble, The Capitol Chamber Ensemble, and the National Chamber Ensemble.

About The Washington Conservatory of Music: The Washington Conservatory of Music is a nationally accredited community music school serving students of all ages and offering free professional concerts for the community. Families with children are encouraged to attend concerts and may sit in the balcony for easy viewing and exit.

Parking is provided in the church lot and on-street on Massachusetts and Western Avenues.

For more information, visit www.washingtonconservatory.org.