Pop Goes the 4th!: “With Voices Raised,” Boston Pops

Hatch Shell at the Boston Esplanade
July 4, 1999

Critical Response

“Rich in spirit and melody, ‘With Voices Raised’ was most dramatic in quoting American liberators from Abigail Adams and Sojourner Truth to Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. The texts were first delivered by Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, and Johnny Lee Davenport, whose evangelical words of black leaders seemed to bring the piece to conclusion. But then Senator Edward Kennedy strode out to quote his late brother, President John F. Kennedy. ‘We can help make the world safe for diversity,’ he said, closing with the line, ‘We are all mortal.’ It was a move that tugged the heart strings.”
—Paul Robicheau, The Boston Globe (July 5, 1999)

Performance on YouTube

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