THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS!!! Our “TeachSSB200!” Indiegogo campaign has been a huge success with $13,497 raised from 144 supporters, totaling 115% of our goal. These funds allow the Star Spangled Music Foundation to publish both our 2-CD Poets & Patriots set of recordings as well as a Star Spangled Songbook including the vocal-choral…
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"The Star-Decorated Flag"—by F.S. Key with a Little Help from Incline Village Elementary
Orchestral conductor and Star Spangled Music Foundation board member Laura Jackson introduced the youth concert version of Michael Gandolfi’s Chesapeake this past week and in the audience were the third graders of Incline Elementary School of Incline Village, Nevada. Music teacher Rita Whitaker-Haun (who performed in the cello section of the orchestra) brought her students…
Jeannette Fang: The Star-Spangled Banner with Brilliant Variations
Our latest Poets & Patriots project video release features U-Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance pianist Jeannette Fang performing “The Star Spangled Banner with Brilliant Variations,” 1861 by Augusts Cull. Published at the outset of the Civil War by Horace Waters in New York City and distributed by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston,…
199th Anniversary Guest Post: Our National Anthems — Author John Shaw
Everybody knows “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It’s our national anthem. We hear it when an American wins a gold medal at the Olympics; we sing it before major league sporting events. It’s almost as familiar as the flag that it’s about. Yet like a lot of familiar things, it has a complicated history, a lot of…
Star Spangled Music Launches Fund & Friend Building Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: SUSAN KEY (310.748-3773) info@starspangledmusic.org Celebrating the National Anthem’s 200th Birthday with the gift of new tools for teachers… Star Spangled Music Foundation has launched a funding campaign to release set of historical recordings and musical songbook in anticipation of the bicentennial of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — the national anthem of the…
SSB — Happy 199 & Counting! (David Hildebrand Guest Post)
199 years ago yesterday Key was still aboard his American flag of truce vessel, waiting for Skinner to finish his work exchanging prisoners. Not until 199 years ago today (Sept. 16, 2013), in the evening would he arrive back on shore and it was the next morning when the “Defence of Fort M’Henry” broadsides were…
Why Sing, Study, Teach & Learn the Banner? It's Who We Are!
On the occasion of the 199th birthday of the US national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner,” I thought it’d be worth taking some time to reflect on the meaning of the song and specifically the question of why it’s important for K-12 education in the U.S.A. My students at the University of Michigan tease me a…
"Banner Moments" Teacher Institute Receives $200K from NEH
Francis Scott Key could not have imagined that his lyric would inspire a month-long NEH summer institute to mark his song’s 200th anniversary, bringing scholars and performers together with thirty K-12 teachers to create inspiring and insightful classroom materials to fuel a nationwide learning celebration. In June and July 2014 “Banner Moments: The National Anthem…
Star-Spangled Music Day —Friday, September 12, 2014
JOIN US TO CELEBRATE A BANNER BIRTHDAY! New—Send your Star Spangled Music Day Pics for a chance to win our Anthem history recordings—New The Star Spangled Music Foundation (SSMF) in partnership with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), America Sings, Resounding Joy, and others are pleased to announce a national Star-Spangled Music Day for Friday,…
Star Spangled Music Wins SAM "Sight & Sound" Grant
Musicologists Mark Clague of the University of Michigan and Susan Key of the Star Spangled Music Foundation were awarded the 2013 Sight and Sound Subvention from the Society for American Music on Saturday, March 10, 2013 for their project “Poets & Patriots: A Recorded History of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’” at the Society’s national meeting…