A JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
presented by Opera Saratoga
Saturday, June 19th, 2021
2:00 pm

A FREE live streamed event from Caffe Lena.

Presented in partnership with Opera Saratoga, America Sings is a new monthly series meant to amplify the voices of artists from racial groups historically underrepresented on the concert stage. Each month, America Sings will feature a combination of music across the genres of classical, jazz and popular music featuring an array of diverse, internationally acclaimed artists. This month we are proud to present a program celebrating Juneteenth. The program was curated by bass-baritone Carl DuPont, a distinguished alumnus of Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist Program, who is now on faculty at Peabody Conservatory where he teaches voice and a survey course on “Art Song by African American Composers.”

Musical selections include songs by H. Leslie Adams, Tim Amukele, Margaret Bonds, Uzee Brown, Moses Hogan, Betty Jackson King, Rosephanye Powell, Florence Price, and Hale Smith.

Spoken word selections include excerpts from The Declaration of Independence, The Emancipation Proclamation, and The General Orders which actually notified the enslaved people that they were free.

The program will also include first-hand diary accounts and poetry from formerly enslaved people, as well as newspaper copy of the observation of the first Juneteenth celebrations. The program will be performed by Festival Artists from Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist Program, who include notable emerging Black singers alongside artists who come from a wide range of other racial backgrounds.

For more information, click HERE.
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