Jazz Performance: The Great American Songbook
Join us for an evening of classic American jazz!
Jazz vocalist Lena Seikaly has been named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers” and “brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post). A Washington, DC native, Seikaly is widely recognized as one of the leading jazz voices in the Mid-Atlantic region, and has earned national attention for her soulful style, emotional depth, and celebration of the Great American Songbook, the most influential popular songs and jazz standards from the early to mid- 20thArea century. Accompanied on piano by Tony Nalker, a highly accomplished jazz pianist, composer, and arranger based in the Washington, D.C. area and well recognized for his versatility across genres including jazz, pop, Broadway, and classical.
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PARKING NOTE: The parking garage will be closed for the Spring Friends Book Sale.
For more information contact LibraryPrograms@arlingtonva.us
This program supports the Library's celebration of Arlington250.
- Date:
- Thursday, April 16, 2026
- Time:
- 6:30pm - 7:30pm
- Location:
- Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
- Library:
- Central Library
- Audience:
- Events for Adults Events for High Schoolers Good for Adults Age 55+
- Categories:
- Arts & Culture
- Calendar:
- Arlington Public Library
About the Musicians:
Lena Seikaly (vocals) is a Washington, DC area-native, and has been named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers" and "brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post). She was one of eleven semi-finalists for the prestigious 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition in L.A., and is an alum of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program in DC, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride, and the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program in Maryland. As both a bandleader and featured artist, Lena has headlined at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai (China), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Strathmore Music Center and Mansion, Blues Alley, various Smithsonian venues, and DC’s famed Westminster Church, as well as West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, the Southern Theater and Lincoln Theater (Columbus, OH), Elkhart Jazz Festival (Elkhart, IN), Mel Bay Jazz Festival (St. Louis, MO), Chestertown Jazz Festival (Chestertown, MD), DC Jazz Festival (Washington, DC), and Center City Jazz Festival (Philadelphia, PA). She has performed alongside Byron Stripling, Sean Jones, Cyrus Chestnut, Norman Simmons, Christian McBride, Walter Blanding, Michael Feinstein, Duduka da Fonseca, as well as the USAF Airmen of Note, U.S. Army Blues, Columbus Jazz Orchestra, Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Capitol Bones Big Band, and the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra.
Tony Nalker (piano) performs widely in Washington, D.C., currently serving as jazz pianist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra Pops. From 1989-2016 Tony was the pianist in the Army Blues, the premiere jazz ensemble of the U.S. Army, and served as the group’s enlisted leader. Nalker played for the highest levels of the U.S. government and military and performed on USO tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as State Department sponsored musical diplomacy tours to Russia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Nalker has also composed works for various settings, including a commission by The National Gallery of Art for a children’s multimedia work about Henri Matisse, a Jazz Mass commissioned by St. Paul’s Nantucket, and a musical adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Tony is the pianist for Hal Leonard Publishing’s Jazz Play-Along series which has produced nearly 200 CD’s/books. He received his undergraduate degree from James Madison University and an M.A. from the University of Iowa.