On May 3 of this year, GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter and activist Pete Seeger would have been 100 years old. In honor of his life and legacy, Smithsonian Folkways and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival have announced “Smithsonian Folkways & the Spirit of Seeger!: A family concert honoring the life and legacy of Pete Seeger." This special celebration concert will take place June 30 in Washington, D.C.
The lineup for the event includes The Bright Siders, a new group fronted by Americana singer/songwriter Kristin Andreassen, Mexican-American singer/songwriter Sonia De Los Santos, Dan and Claudia Zanes, and GRAMMY-nominated children's music artist Elizabeth Mitchell with her group You Are My Flower. The performances will focus on Seeger's work engaging children with music making, including renditions of songs made popular by Seeger, plus original songs inspired by Pete’s influential catalog of music for young people.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/X9cm10ju6b">https://t.co/X9cm10ju6b</a> Sharing "If I Had A Hammer" with Cambalache for Pete Seeger's 100th birthday.<a href="https://twitter.com/Folkways?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Folkways</a> is releasing an anthology of one of America’s most quintessential, celebrated, & influential musicians. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/spiritofseeger?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#spiritofseeger</a><br><br>Check it out: <a href="https://t.co/4ewGBUIkoA">https://t.co/4ewGBUIkoA</a></p>— Aloe Blacc (@aloeblacc) <a href="https://twitter.com/aloeblacc/status/1125177337803182082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2019</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Seeger once said, “Singing with children in the schools has been the most rewarding experience of my life,” something he leaned into on his 1954 album American Folk Songs for Children and with his 1974 visit to "Sesame Street."
The announcement of the celebration concert follows the May 3 release of Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, which includes an array of children’s music alongside hundreds of other classic and unreleased tracks from his massive body of work.
The celebration concert will run from 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. on June 30 at the National Mall. For additonal information, visit the Folkways website.
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