UVA University Singers present an America250 Celebration

Founded by Thomas Jefferson, UVA holds a special place in connection to the founding of the United States and our 250th celebrations. Likewise, composer Randall Thompson (who served on UVA faculty for 5 years in the 1940s) wrote several pieces, including the Testament of Freedom inscribing this connection – a connection which has continued with contemporary settings of "We Hold These Truths" by Judith Shatin and J. Todd Frazier. This concert – conceived as an America250 celebration with unique Virginia ties – will feature these two settings (with UVA professor emeritus Judith Shatin in the audience), as well as excerpts from Thompson’s A Concord Cantata (depicting the earliest battle of the Revolutionary War), and Testament – which sets the words of Jefferson, and was premiered on the Old Cabell Hall stage. In addition, selections will include a window to 19th century challenges – with music including H.T. Burleigh’s arrangement of…