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|| Venue Information ||
Philadelphia, PA
Date: January 8, 2006
Venue: Kimmel Center/Verizon Hall
Venue Web Site: www.kimmelcenter.org
Seating Capacity: 2500
|| Highlights ||
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the host city for the third installment of the Library’s “Song of America” concert tour with Thomas Hampson. The tour activities began on Saturday, January 7, 2006, with the Library of Congress’s Veteran’s History Program, held at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Attendees at the program included Librarian of Congress Dr. James H. Billington, Deputy Librarian General Donald Scott, Veteran’s History Project historian Tom Wiener, and Five Star Council member General Julius Becton.
A master class, conducted by Thomas Hampson, was also held on Saturday, January 7, 2006, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. Participants in the master class were voice majors from the neighboring Curtis Institute of Music. To foster the collaboration with the Curtis Institute, a joint display of manuscripts from the collections of the Library’s Music Division and the archives of the Curtis Institute was presented at the reception immediately following the master class. This combined display afforded the public the rare opportunity to view simultaneously the flute part of Samuel Barber’s “Song for a New House,” which resides at the Library of Congress, and the orchestral version (scored for voice, flute and piano) that resides at the Curtis Institute.
The concert, featuring baritone Thomas Hampson and pianist Wolfram Rieger, was held at the Kimmel Center on Sunday, January 8, 2006. The program opened with Francis Hopkinson’s “My Days Have Been so Wondrous Free.” The first extant art songs in the United States are credited to Hopkinson, a friend of George Washington and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hopkinson, the only American-born composer for whom there is evidence of having written songs prior to 1800, penned “My Days Have Been so Wondrous Free” in 1759. Scored for voice and harpsichord, this song by Hopkinson is America’s earliest surviving secular composition.