Atlanta Music Festival

Congratulations to Jane Thorpe, Chair, Atlanta Music Festival, who will be honored at Emory University's Creativity and Arts awards event on January 26. 2017 Arts Advocate Jane Thorpe, Atlanta Music Festival... Other honorees: Brenda Bynum Sheila Cavanagh Colin, Lynn and Beatrix Clark Bill Eley Clint Fluker Pellom McDaniels III Malina Rodriguez Sue Schroeder

The rafters were ringing tonight at the Atlanta Music Festival! With 1200 voices from the pews and 200+ brilliant collegiate and adult singers in the chancel, we raised the roof with "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and with a commissioned anthem based on "Bound for the Promised Land." The celebration beautifully bore testament to the fact that the arts can be common ground for all people and that, in the wise and wonderful words of festival artistic director and Emory professor Dwight Andrews, the arts can truly translate, transcend, and transform.

Tickets still available for Friday's concert at www.atlantamusicfestival.org -- has there ever been a greater need for people to come together around their common love of music?

It's not too late to get tickets for a wonderful concert that carries forward a century-long tradition of believing that music offers common ground and uplifting inspiration among all people. This Friday night, November 18, at Emory University.

The Atlanta Music Festival is featured in an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The article tells the story the story of the concert, with its first performance in 1910, and its organizers, who sought to find common ground among the races through music. It is as powerful a message in 2016 as it was in 1910. The article is here: http://www.ajc.com//festival-promo/lm40zIJVVkEwWhOOXZBEbN/ Information about tickets and festival events is here: http://www.atlantamusicfestival.org/#music-festival

Please join us for a fabulous concert that continues a historic tradition.

This amazing concert will be the climax of a wonderful week of musical programs, panel discussions, and even a legal seminar. The arts touch every aspect of our society in many beneficial ways. Check this out!

Southern Seasons magazine, Early Fall 2016, highlights the Atlanta Music Festival beginning on page 35 at the link below. The article features distinguished performer Jessye Norman and tells how the festival can engage all Atlantans in the power of the arts and music to enhance community. https://issuu.com/southernseas/docs/southernseasonsfall2016

Forum: The Music and the Peoples is the Same: Arts, Race, and Social Transformation Renowned Atlanta actress Brenda Bynum and Emory composer and jazz musician Dwight Andrews are joined by groundbreaking artist Fahamu Pecou, photographer and ethicist Carlton Mackey, and Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch in considering the legacy, impact, and future of the arts as a force for positive social transformation. Thursday, November 17, 2016, 4:00 PM, Cannon Chapel, Emory Universi...ty http://www.clatl.com//fahamu-pecou-elevates-black-bodies-i

Conservatory Music Program for Students: Leading up to the November 18 Gala Concert, during this year’s Festival week, five hundred Atlanta elementary students will perform Lift Every Voice and Sing at historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. A portion of the proceeds from the Festival funds a year-round Conservatory providing music education to underserved youth in Atlanta, promoting better racial understanding and cultivating the future cultural community. This summer students enjoy musical instruction at the Conservatory.

2016 Festival Committee members, host committee, and performers.

Featured performer for the 2016 Atlanta Music Festival - Jessye Norman. Known for her sumptuous sound and her joy of singing, Jessye Norman is arguably the most honored CLASSICAL SINGER of her generation. She has been vested with the United States' highest award in the performing arts, The Kennedy Center Honor, received The National Medal of Arts from President Obama, HOLDS THE TITLE of Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as well as OFFICIER OF THE Legion d'Honneu...r in France, where an orchid has been named for her by the National Museum of Natural History. She is an honorary Ambassador to the United Nations and has been awarded forty honorary doctorate degrees. Her recordings have won multiple awards in FRANCE, GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, THE UNITED KINGDOM ALONG WITH FIVE GRAMMIES. She has conquered, AMONG MANY OTHERS, the stages of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall with twenty-three solo recitals at THE SALZBURG FESTIVAL and with opera performances at The Metropolitan Opera as well as the great houses of Europe. She serves on the trustee boards of several organizations including The New York Public Library. In her hometown of Augusta, Georgia, The Jessye Norman School of the Arts has entered its fourteenth academic year. The school provides tuition-free instruction for talented middle school students with a widely diverse program of study, including photography. Her memoir, STAND UP STRAIGHT AND SING! was published in 2014. Photo Credit, James Alexander.