This live recording of the Atlanta Music Festival 2016 comprises a unique combination of music, literature, and history, addressing the African American journey from slavery to an as yet unachieved dream of a "more perfect union." Beginning with Atlanta school children singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, the CD proceeds with music and spoken dialogue extolling "liberty and justice for all" through the words of Barack Obama, James Dickey, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Langston Hughes. Of special note are the performances of the beloved Jessye Norman singing songs by Duke Ellington and spirituals. The Atlanta Music Festival has its origins in the Atlanta Colored Music Festival, begun in 1910, four years after the Atlanta race riots, by Rev. Henry Hugh Proctor to promote racial reconciliation through the arts.

Artists

Atlanta Music Festival Childen's Choir, Ben Leaptrott (piano), Steven Darsey (conductor, Dwight Andrews, Timothy Miller (tenor), Meridian Chorale & Orchestra, Robert M. Franklin, Taylor Branch, Julia Dennis (soprano), Spelman College Glee Club, Kevin P. Johnson (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano), Damien Sneed (piano), Morehouse College Glee Club, Vega Quartet, Brent Runnels (piano), Megan Brunning (soprano), Cynthia Shepherd (soprano), Brent Davis (baritone), Arietha Lockhart (soprano), Wanda Yang Temko (soprano), Spelman & Morehouse College Glee Clubs, Chancel Choir of the First United Church of Christ, Steven Darsey, B.E. Boykin, David Morrow