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|| Venue Information ||
Overland Park, KS
The Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Region
Date: Nov 12, 2005
Venue: Carlsen Center/ Yardley Hall
Venue Web Site: http://web.jccc.net/carlsencenter/
Seating Capacity: 1341
|| Highlights ||
The Library of Congress launched its inaugural “Song of America” concert tour with nationally acclaimed baritone Thomas Hampson at the Carlsen Center, located on the campus of the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, on Saturday, November 12, 2005. The first program of this scope in the history of the Library of Congress, the “Song of America” concert tour is the pilot project in Librarian of Congress James H. Billington’s campaign to “Celebrate Creativity Across America.”
In addition to the concert, the “Song of America” initiative included “Treasures on Tour,” a display featuring rarely seen manuscripts from the vast collections of the Library’s Music Division. Among the treasures that were showcased at the Carlsen Center the evening of the concert were the original manuscripts of George Gershwin’s folk-opera Porgy and Bess, Aaron Copland’s ballet Appalachian Spring, and Missouri-native Virgil Thomson’s opera, Four Saints in Three Acts. Curators from the Library of Congress’s Music Division were on site to provide historical background for each of the manuscripts on display.
Other Library-related programs brought to the Kansas City Greater Area in conjunction with the “Song of America” tour included “Preserving Your Memories,” a conservation workshop presented by Library of Congress Conservation Specialists; a Veterans’ History Project, where Library staff recorded veterans’ oral histories for the Library’s archives; Teachers’ Institutes at Pembroke Hill School and the Carlsen Center, presented by the Library of Congress’s Educational Outreach team; and a copyright workshop at University Academy, where local students presented their individual works to Dr. James H. Billington for copyright protection and safe deposit at the Library of Congress.