The Western Wind Vocal Sextet Presents MUSIC IN THE TIME OF HAMILTON On June 3

The Western Wind vocal sextet will present Music in the Time of Hamilton on Sunday, June 3 @ 3:00 PM at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street in Manhattan.

Given the current interest in Hamilton, Lynn Manuel-Miranda's hip-hop take on the life and work of Alexander Hamilton, The Western Wind has created this program of American music that was being performed in Hamilton's own time. The program celebrates the extraordinary energy and diversity of the music that was created, sung and played when Alexander Hamilton and his peers were fighting the American Revolution and creating the American Democracy.

The program features music commemorating battles and events of the Revolutionary War including The Liberty Tree sung to words by Thomas Paine, Bunker Hill by Andrew Law (1748-1821), Lamentation Over Boston (the Boston Massacre) by William Billings (1746-1800); the signing of the Declaration of Independence - Ode for the Fourth of July by Horatio Garnet (c.1790); songs celebrating George Washington (William Selby (1738-1798), and Alexander Hamilton's favorite song (How Stands The Glass Around), sung at a banquet the week he was shot by Aaron Burr (who was at also in attendance at the banquet.)

Also featured will be Psalm settings by New York composer James Lyon (1735-1794) organist at Trinity Church (Wall Street), where Hamilton's children were baptized and where he, his wife, sisters and son are buried.

Several signers of the Declaration of Independence were musically adept: especially Francis Hopkinson and Thomas Jefferson. The program includes Hopkinson's songs for voice and harpsichord, and some of Thomas Jefferson's favorite tunes which he played on his violin as well as music from his music library. Also included are early abolitionist songs, hymns by Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as music from the German communities in Pennsylvania.

New Western Wind member Paul An, bass, will join sopranos Linda Lee Jones and Gayla D. Morgan, tenors Todd Frizzell and David Vanderwal and countertenor William Zukof for this concert. More about them at http://www.westernwind.org/about.html. Harpsichordist Rebecca Pechefsky will also join the group.

Tickets for the June 3 concert are $35 General Admission, $25 Student/Senior, and can be purchased online at http://www.westernwind.org. For more concert information, please call 212-873-2848 or e-mail: info@westernwind.org.

Since 1969, the internationally acclaimed vocal sextet The Western Wind has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a cappella music. The Ensemble's repertoire reveals its diverse background - from Renaissance motets to Fifties rock 'n' roll, from medieval carols to Duke Ellington, from complex works by avant-garde composers to the simplest folk melodies.

In addition to maintaining a demanding performance schedule, which has included such venues as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, The Ordway Theater, The Metropolitan Museum, The Frick Museum, The Jewish Museum, Folger Shakespeare Library, Library of Congress, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Western Wind regularly conducts Workshops in Ensemble Singing. The workshops, attended by vocalists ranging from novice to professional, address the particular challenges of singing in small, largely un-conducted ensembles.

The Western Wind has also produced nineteen recordings, eleven of which have been released on Western Wind Records, the group's own record label, distributed in the US and Canada by Albany Music Distributors. Visit them at http://www.westernwind.org/.