Poets & Patriots Recital—Live Stream & CD Release on Feb. 17

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Pianist Jeannette Fang, a piano competition gold medalist, will perform Cull’s “SSB” with Brilliant Variations and Blind Tom’s remarkable “Battle of Manassas”

Join us on Monday, February 17 at 8:00 p.m. to celebrate the release of our landmark recording project—Poets & Patriots: A Tuneful History of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The recital will be streamed live via uStream (click here) and anyone near the University of Michigan’s campus can see the show live at Stamps Auditorium on Michigan’s North Campus (more info).
Some of the star talents in our project, including internationally renowned operatic tenor Scott Piper and pianist Jeannette Fang, gold medal winner in the top division of the Seattle International Piano Competition, along with Jean Bernard Cerin, Kate Nadolny, and Leann Scheuring, will perform their contributions to the project live, while musicologist Mark Clague narrates the history of the song and how it moved from a London club anthem to the official national song of the United States of America.
The Poets & Patriots recording project traces the history of the Anacreontic melody from 1775/76 in London to Francis Scott Key’s truce ship in the Cheasapeake Bay and then from Key’s song celebrating a vital, if unexpected, victory over the British “In Defence of Fort McHenry” through the song’s transformation as the official national anthem of the United States of America. The program will feature the world premiere of a unique piano-vocal setting of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Atlanta School composer Michael Gandolfi, from the conclusion of his tone poem Chesapeake: Summer of 1814.
Poets & Patriots will be available from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other online retailers. You can download the free CD booklet. K-12 teachers can receive a unique bonus track, combining our recordings of the melody’s source tune and Francis Scott Key’s first sheet music imprint by joining our Star Spangled Teachers Network (click here).

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