NSO Opening Gala!

Last night, we headed to the Kennedy Center for the National Symphony Orchestra's annual season-opening gala.

We snapped Dr. Susan DiMarco with her husband, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, with the DoD's Eliana Davidson and Larry Burgess. 

Guests enjoyed a new format this year with the cocktail reception and dinner prior to the concert. Here, developer Jim Abdo and his wife, Mai Abdo, join Shannon Davis and her husband, Davis Construction's Jim Davis, who is overseeing the Kennedy Center's major expansion. 

Following the cocktail reception, guests headed inside to a lavishly decorated ballroom for the three-course dinner. Here PharMed president Rupert Katritzky joins Georgetown's Alexandra N. Sényi de Nagy-Unyom, Office of the Majority Leader's Stefanie Muchow and her mother-in-law, Marilee Muchow. 

Dinner consisted of a late summer panzanella salad with seared salmon over a cauliflower purée. Following the concert, guests enjoyed a dessert buffet and dancing. Here, lawyer Jill Cooper Udall joins her husband, New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, with Virginia Board of Education member Elizabeth Lodal.

Following dinner, guests headed downstairs to the Concert Hall for an amazing performance highlighted by accomplished pianist Lang Lang, performing Rachmaninoff's First Piano Concerto. Here, Ben Masri-Cohen joins his boyfriend, the Secretary of the Army, Eric Fanning, while enjoying the cocktail reception on the Kennedy Center rooftop. 

This year's gala raised more than $1M for various NSO programs. Here, The Hill's Sheila Casey joins former Marine Corps chief of staff Greg Douquet and his wife, writer, lawyer and activist Kathy Roth-Douquet. 

The second half of the concert program saluted the grand opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture with performances by jazz artist Nnenna Freelon, vocalist Brian McKnight, a cappella group Take 6, and many others. Here, Ginny and Irwin Edlavitch join Marilyn Lane, Dr. Louis Levitt, Joan Bialek, Jeremy Levitt, and Melanie and Larry Nussdorf.