Saturday,
    November 22, 2014

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.

Poetry will include selections from Dickinson, Whitman, Thoreau, Kerouac, Neruda and others. Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Schumann and Gershwin are some of the composers whose work will be performed by Ms. Laufman in juxtaposition to the poetry.

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 1986-'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 Robin Weigert: Best known for her performance as Calamity Jane in the HBO series "Deadwood", for which she received an Emmy Award nomination in 2004, a Screen Actors' Guild nomination in 2007 and was awarded Hollywood Life Magazine's "Breakthrough of the Year" in 2005, Robin has worked steadily in film and on television for most of the last decade. Robin was named 2013's Festival breakthrough by Sundance's Eric Hynes, for her portrayal of a housewife turned prostitute in the independent film "Concussion". Her performance helped earn the film a Teddy Award in Berlin, A GLAAD Media Award in New York and nominations for an Independent Spirit Award and two Gotham Awards, including one in the category "Breakthrough Actor".   

The rare honor of receiving recognition as a breakthrough twice in the same career (Robin has joked that she aspires to earn the title at least once every decade till she retires) is attributable to the actress' uncanny ability to disappear inside of a character. Whether playing Cate Blanchette's voluptuous roommate in "The Good German", Phillip Seymour Hoffman's tattooed German daughter in "Synecdoche, New York", John Hawkes' true love in "The Sessions", Rene Zellweger's high strung sister in "My One and Only", Julianne Moore's shy lover in "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", Halle Berry's inebriated sister-in-law in "Things We Lost in the Fire" or the stoic Mormon Mother in Mike Nichols' "Angels in America", Robin has been virtually unrecognizable from one film role to the next.