The Harvard Summer Chorus celebrates its 90th anniversary with Freedom’s Song: American Voices at 250, marking the 250th anniversary of the United States and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Conducted by Andrew Clark, Harvard’s Director of Choral Activities, the program brings together powerful American works that reflect the nation’s ideals, tensions, and enduring creative spirit.

The concert opens with William Schuman’s A Free Song, the work that earned Schuman the first Pulitzer Prize for Music—a bold affirmation of democratic ideals drawn from the poetry of Walt Whitman. Lukas Foss’s Psalms follows, a work of striking vitality and radiant stillness, moving fluidly between rhythmic energy and moments of quiet transcendence. Dan Locklair’s Since Dawn sets Maya Angelou’s poem On the Pulse of Morning, written for President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural in 1993, offering a message of renewal, resilience, and collective responsibility. Rosephanye Powell’s Quiet Revolutionary honors the legacy of the late Eileen Southern, Harvard professor and pioneering scholar whose work reshaped the study of African American and American music. The program also includes the first movement of Hallelujah Junction by John Adams ’69, whose propulsive, rhythmically charged music captures the restless energy and invention of contemporary American life.

Together, these works trace a musical arc across two and a half centuries of American imagination—celebrating voices that challenge, inspire, and continue to shape the nation’s unfinished promise.

The ensemble is open by audition to Harvard Summer School students, Harvard affiliates (ID holders), and members of the community, including local high school and college students. High School students, College students, and Community Members will be asked to submit a video recording singing a piece of their choice. Video auditions are due on June 14. ​Harvard Summer School stud ents audition live at Sanders Theatre in the evening of June 23.

Participation is free for Harvard Summer School enrolled students, and costs $100 for Current Students (scores only), and $175 for Community Members

The culminating performance is scheduled for the evening of Friday, July 31 in Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall.

Rehearsals are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 to 9:30 pm, in Sanders Theatre, starting Thursday, June 25.