The Central City Chorus celebrates the nation’s semiquincentennial with a concert of all-American composers, from William Billings’s Revolutionary War anthem Chester, to traditional spirituals arranged by Moses Hogan and William Dawson, to works by Copland, Barber and Bernstein. Showcasing the diversity of voices in American choral music, the program includes rarely-performed works like Florence Price’s Summer Clouds, which whisks listeners away to a ride on a carousel, and William Averitt’s African American Fragments, set to texts by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes.

“What I’ve chosen is music that highlights the beauty of our shared history, everything from a Navajo prayer to Make Our Garden Grow from Leonard Bernstein,” says Central City Chorus Music Director Dr. Bryan Zaros. “We're all aware the present moment is confusing, and there are a lot of things going on. This concert is completely non-political. There's no time or room for that in our music making. We’re honoring the enduring -- and shared -- American ideals of liberty, hope and unity.”

Price, the first African-American woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony premiered her Symphony No. 1 in 1933), has been gaining overdue recognition in the past two decades, in part because of the astonishing 2009 discovery of a literal treasure trove of her manuscripts and compositions in an abandoned Chicago house that was about to be demolished. Yet, as The New Yorker wrote in a 2018 article about the discovery, “she is mentioned more often than she is heard.” Any performance of her work is still an uncommon treat.

“The Spirit of 1776: A 250th Anniversary Celebration in Song” is offered on Saturday, May 16, at 7:00 PM at St. Paul & St. Andrew Methodist Church at 263 West 86th Street. Advance tickets are $35, $30 for students and seniors, available at eventbrite.com. Tickets are $40 at the door. The audience is invited to a reception following the performance.

The 60-member Central City Chorus has been under Zaros’s direction since 2022. New members are always welcome! Auditions are held on a rolling basis throughout the season. Find more information at www.centralcitychorus.org/auditions.