Inviting performers, educators, and all lovers of song to explore connections between poetry and music, between history and culture, through the work of American composers and poets
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Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood Festival
Lenox, MA
Beloved American baritone Thomas Hampson opens the American Songbook to explore the influential people and monumental events that helped create and define “the land of the free.” Guiding the audience through centuries of stories, Mr. Hampson will share personal anecdotes and readings, offering a rich context within which to celebrate America’s history of song. Pianist Lara Downes and The Beyond Liberty Players join him.
University of Michigan (Moore Building)
Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Reflecting on the Past…Reaching toward the Future, II” for composers, performers and scholars. Featuring performances and panels. Hosted by Dr. Louise Toppin, Videmus, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance. This conference focuses on the curation of music of the African Diaspora for future research and performance. Through a series of lectures, panels and performances by leading scholars, composers and performers, attendees will discuss rediscovered operas (Freeman, Perry, Boatner and White); have conversations on the newly created operas on African American themes; hear a workshop performance of Edmonia by William Banfield; discuss sociopolitical musical thought, and the 400 year suite (commemorating 400 years since the beginning of slavery); discuss innovations in art song curation; discuss institutional aspects of diverse faculty and student development; composer discussions about the creation and delivery of African American music; explore the work of composer/preachers; creating sustainable organizations for African American music; discuss the salon for building black musical thought and much more. Featured presentations by Dr. Kyra Gaunt, Dr. Tammy Kernodle, Dr. Naomi André and Dr. Mark Lomax lead an illustrious lineup of presenters and performers.
University of Michigan (Moore Building)
Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Reflecting on the Past…Reaching toward the Future, II” for composers, performers and scholars. Featuring performances and panels. Hosted by Dr. Louise Toppin, Videmus, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance. (See detailed description from Sept. 12, 2019)
Irish poet and composer Thomas Moore used his gifts to champion the cause of Irish freedom, and his many volumes of Irish Melodies were influential across Europe and America.
Transcendentalism was a visionary way of thinking that was widespread in 19th-century American art and thinking. Among those associated with the movement were Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts. Composers who were influenced by Transcendentalist thinking include Edward MacDowell, Charles Ives, and Charles Griffes.
The best-known of the artists who tried to capture the drama of the American West and its inhabitants were the painter Albert Bierstadt and the illustrator/writer/painter/sculptor Frederic Remington.
A production of The Hampsong Foundation. It was produced by Miriam Lewin of Lavine Production Group, with camera and editing by Randi Cecchine. Our thanks to singers Catherine Swindle, Nita Baxani, and Justin Austin; pianist and composer Richard Pearson Thomas; the Stephen Gaynor School in New York City…
