Four Freedoms Choral Festival

Music Celebrations Presents
Four Freedoms Choral Festival
Washington, D.C. & Manassas, Virginia
April 22-24, 2016
at the
Hylton Performing Arts Center

Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his 1941 State of the Union Address with an eye toward America’s involvement in the European war. In the speech, he presented his case for aid to Great Britain and for increased production of war materials. In helping Britain, President Roosevelt stated, the United States was fighting for the universal freedoms that all people possessed. As America entered the war these “four freedoms” — the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear — symbolized the benefits of world-wide democracy for which America would fight, and became a monument to our modern conception of universal human rights.

Music Celebrations International is pleased to present a special choral event dedicated to those freedoms, and to the great man behind them – the Four Freedoms Choral Festival. This event in Manassas, Virginia conceived to salute the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will take place during the 75th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor – a monumental event in Roosevelt’s presidency, and in American history. The festival will feature a combined force of mixed voices singing en masse with a professional orchestra in Merchant Hall at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia.

Dr. Gary R. Schwartzhoff, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, will provide artistic direction for Four Freedoms Choral Festival. A special commissioned work by Ethan Wickman, renowned composer and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, will premiere at the festival performance. The commissioned work will include text from Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and other presidential speeches, as well as additional inspirational texts that reflect on the freedoms of speech and worship, and freedoms from want and fear.

The Four Freedoms Choral Festival chorus will be anchored by The Master Singers, Gary R. Schwartzhoff, conductor. The Master Singers is a community chamber ensemble from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The ensemble has traveled to Italy (2006) and London and Paris (2009). The Master Singers participated in a festival honoring John F. Kennedy (2013) in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Master Singers frequently collaborate with noted composers, including Dan Forrest, James Mulholland, Z. Randall Stroope, Timothy Takach, and Jeffrey Van, commissioning new works annually. In 2015-2016, The Master Singers are pleased to work with Zachary Moore as composer-in-resident. The Master Singers will premiere In Infamy, by Moore at The Four Freedoms Choral Festival.