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Heritage Voices

Music / Sound, Performance

Washington Revels Heritage Voices is a multicultural, multigenerational community of performers committed to telling the American story via traditional American music such as parlor music, work songs, folk tunes, spirituals, hymns and more.

About the Artist

Heritage Voices performs outdoors at historic sites, in small spaces like meeting rooms at local libraries, on stages with seating for hundreds, and everywhere in between. The ensemble uses concerts and interactive performances that blend music, history, and spoken word to present the richness and diversity of American song, with songs that commemorate events in American history. Currently, the group’s repertoire has expanded beyond the American Civil War period to include music from other events in American history, including the Civil Rights Movement. Often supplemented by local instrumentalists, the ensemble has performed in historical venues ranging from large outdoor spaces to the most intimate indoor parlors and concert halls. Heritage Voices has performed at multiple, themed local events such as Montgomery Heritage Days (2013, 2024); a collaboration with Capitol Hill Chorale for the “Mother Ann: Simple Gifts of Shaker Music concerts (2024); the Echo Arts Festival presented by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture (2024), and the Washington National Cathedral for its annual Flower Mart (2023, 2024). The ensemble, originally formed for the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, has been featured at a number of historic sites and concert venues, including the National Archives, Fort Ward Park in Alexandria, Virginia; Fort Stevens and President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, DC; Glen Echo Park in Maryland; and at Montgomery County’s Heritage Days events. You can also hear members of this group on Washington Revels’ recording, Hard Times Come Again No More, as well as on the soundtrack of the documentary film, Life in a War Zone: Montgomery County during the Civil War 1861-1865.

Heritage Voices website Heritage Voices

Artist's Statement

The ensemble uses concerts and interactive performances that blend music, history, and spoken word to present the richness and diversity of American song, with songs that commemorate events in American history such as the Civil Rights Movement. Since its early days, Heritage Voices has performed at multiple, themed local events such as Montgomery Heritage Days (2013, 2024); a collaboration with Capitol Hill Chorale for the “Mother Ann: Simple Gifts of Shaker Music concerts (2024); the Echo Arts Festival presented by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture (2024), and the Washington National Cathedral for its annual Flower Mart (2023, 2024). Depending on the request we can customize an existing script and music selections to fit the time period or create a new script that captures local history. One such set of programs that utilized extensive local history was for Heritage Voices’ performances at the Washington Revels Juneteenth Festival of Freedom in 2023 and Heritage Days at Glen Echo Park in 2024. At the time, Heritage Voices was expanding its repertoire to include music from the Civil Rights Movement era. These concerts, which chronicled the movement by Howard University students and local Glen Echo residents to protest the segregation of the then-Glen Echo Amusement Park, were created using Freedom Songs from the Civil Rights Movement, quotes from civil rights leaders, and oral history to create an interactive performance.

Featured Work

Photos

Heritage Voices performing at the Echo Arts Festival held by Glen Echo Park.
Members of Washington Revels Heritage Voices perform on the stage of the Glen Echo Bumper Car Pavilion in June of 2024.

Videos

  • President Lincoln’s Cottage

    See more information about President Lincoln’s Cottage
    President Lincoln’s Cottage hosted the Heritage Voices of the Washington Revels in this special spring event. A visit from President Abraham Lincoln highlighted this program of American folk songs, spirituals, patriotic music, and readings.
    Medium: Video

Music/Audio

Booking

Booking Price: > $5,000

Heritage Voices is an incredibly flexible group to host. Depending on requirements our booking prices range from $1,200 to $9,000. Toni Goldberg is Heritage Voices booking contact and her email is HVBooking@revelsdc.org

Programming Arrangement
Developing our programs is a collaborative process. We meet with the requesting organization to determine themes, music and program focus, and have partnered with composers, historians, educators and community organizations to achieve programs that fit the needs of the communities we serve.

In the absence of a program for which we would provide a description for the group, we request the ability to provide a flyer for the audience to take home. There is an expectation of communication between the event coordinator and our on-site Stage Manager to start and end the performance successfully.

From a stage production perspective, we require appropriate sound enforcement for the space and time for a sound check before audience access to the space, a safe (ideally flat) floor or ground, and a designated place to perform where the audience can see us. With our costumed shows, we also provide period appropriate props as needed for our performers. For concert dress/contemporary shows, chairs from the venue are to be provided. An average Heritage Voices event includes 3 microphones, a music stand or podium, basic stage illumination, and 3-5 chairs. There is no set minimum or maximum stage space required, though we expect a safe and reasonable square footage for the number of performers booked. We would not anticipate a playing space smaller than 12’x16’ in most circumstances but can accommodate as needed within reason. If the selected program includes pieces where a walking stick is expected to keep beat, that has to be acceptable on the designated performance flooring.

Backstage, we require a reasonably accessible dressing room/green room appropriate for the size of our group, reasonably accessible restrooms, and a lockable space for the performers’ belongings during the performance. At events in non-theatrical facilities, appropriate spaces have included catering kitchens, repurposed classrooms, and personal offices. If booked for an outdoor event, there must be appropriate coverage from the weather in our performance space, whether that be a tent or permanent structure. At all events, the average temperature of the backstage spaces should be between 67- and 75-degrees Fahrenheit, and if the performance is outdoors in a non-climate-controlled area, performers should be able to come and go right before and after the performance in inclement, very cold, or very hot weather. Snacks and drinks are to be provided by the client for contracts 4 hours and under, and a full meal is added for contracts beyond four hours.

Heritage Voices performs outdoors at historic sites, in small spaces like meeting rooms at local libraries, on stages with seating for hundreds, and everywhere in between.