Manhattan Concert Productions is pleased to open its 2019-2020 season with America the Beautiful: A Veterans Day Celebration this November featuring the National Festival Chorus, led by Grammy-Award winning guest conductor Jerry Blackstone.

The evening will include classic American works, such as “America, the Beautiful,” “Song of Democracy,” "Shenandoah," "Danny Boy," and "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Jerry Blackstone served as director of Choirs and Chair of the Conducting Department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance for 30 years. In 2006, he received two Grammy Awards ("Best Choral Performance" and "Best Classical Album") as chorus master for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom's monumental Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The recent Naxos recording of Milhaud's monumental L'Orestie d'Eschyle, on which Blackstone served as chorus master, was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award ("Best Opera Recording"). 

The concert also features the Memorial Concert Band of Colonie, conducted by Arthur B. Himmelberger. Selections will include George M. Cohen's "Over There," composed in 1917 on the very day that the United States declared war on Germany, in addition to Edwin Bagley's "National Emblem" and John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

The Cherry Creek Girls’ 21 & Troubadours will also perform a selection of works conducted by Adam Cave & Sarah Harrison.