The Kennedy Center

This week Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser announced the Center’s 2012-2013 season, a rich celebration of the arts with an international flair.

Some of the highlights include Nordic Cool 2013, a festival of the Scandinavian arts and cuisine, a holiday performance of “Hansel and Gretel” with performers from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, and Election Night Jam, a non-partisan evening of jazz music and dancing with the incoming results broadcast on a large screen (no word yet on which network the revelers will be watching).

The Theater Season includes touring production of “The Book of Mormon,” “Anything Goes,” “War Horse” and “Jekyll & Hyde” starring “American Idol” Constantine Maroulis, as well as the sixth season of Barbara Cook’s Spotlight series with cabaret performances by such Broadway stalwarts as Donna Murphy, Terri White (“Follies”), Judy Kuhn, Adam Pascal and Maureen McGovern. “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane joins the NSO Pops for “The Songs of Sammy Cahn,” and the Pops series also includes “The Wizard and I: the Music of Stephen Schwartz” with “Wicked” alumni Julia Murney and Jennifer Laura Thompson.

In addition, the 2012-2013 season combines returning favorites (Opera in the Outfield, A Jazz New Year’s Eve and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre) with new and unconventional programming such as the regional premiere of John Adams’ City Noir, the Kennedy Center debut of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, a new production of “Show Boat,” the Songs of Conscience concerts exploring the socially conscious music of Bob Marley and Woody Guthrie, and the inauguration of Beyond the Score, a multi-media exploration of key symphonic works.

Other programming of special interest to the LGBT community include the return of openly lesbian opera singer Patricia Racette in the title role of “Manon Lescaut,” the Fats Waller Dance Party featuring Meshell Ndegeocello at the new Supersized Jazz Club, and performances by openly gay artists such as jazz great Fred Hersch and classical pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Complete information on the Kennedy Center’s 2012-2013 season can be found at kennedy-center.org.