Audiences around the globe know Quinn Kelsey as Verdi’s twisted jester Rigoletto and the savage Roman police chief Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca, to name just two of the baritone’s signature roles. Here’s a rare chance to experience his sumptuous voice and insightful artistry in the intimacy of a recital. Kelsey’s artfully constructed program, entirely in English, features selections from Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs, Langston Hughes and Shakespeare sets, and, as its second half, the Songs of Travel of Ralph Vaughan Williams, perhaps the closest that English song has come to its own Winterreise. Vocal Arts DC, long associated with the Kennedy Center, has moved its events to the First Congregational United Church of Christ in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, in the heart of the city’s business and cultural district. Thank goodness it’s there. —Matthew Gurewitsch