A free concert is coming to Arlington’s giant Dutch musical monument this weekend.
The annual Freedom Concert will take place from 4-5:30 p.m. on Sunday (May 5) at the Netherlands Carillon, near the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, in the Rosslyn area.
Carillonneur Julianne Vanden Wyngaard will play “a selection of spiritual and secular music” celebrating liberation.
“As the Dutch government is in the midst of its ‘Slavery Memorial Year,’ which remembers the atrocities of slavery and celebrates its abolition, this year’s event will reflect on the meaning of freedom,” a press release says.
Scheduled speakers include Mary Elliot, curator of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; Charles Cuvelier, Superintendent of the National Park Service; and Dutch Ambassador Birgitta Tazelaar.
The Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir will also perform.
The date of the concert coincides with Netherlands’ Liberation Day, celebrating the end of Nazi occupation during World War II. The Netherlands presented the carillon to the United States in appreciation of U.S. assistance during and after the war. The 127-foot bell tower was renovated, with new and refurbished bells, between 2019-2021.