David and Ginger Hildebrand perform eighteenth-century songs—including ballads, marches, and songs inspired by women—in costume with period instruments for our 2020 Independence Day concert. The Hildebrands have performed for our traditional “Second Day of July” concert for several years. The date is inspired by John Adams—the father of American independence if ever there was one—who predicted that “the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.” The second of July is the day the Continental Congress adopted Richard Henry Lee’s resolution “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States . . . and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” The Hildebrands generously recorded this concert for us to keep up our “Second Day of July” concert tradition going.
View the Concert Program Give us your feedback
About the Performers
David and Ginger Hildebrand specialize in researching, recording and performing early American music. Since 1980 they have presented concerts and educational programs throughout the country for museums, public schools and universities. In 1999, along with dance historians Kate van Winkle and Robert Keller, they founded the Colonial Music Institute, which conducts and promotes research and educational outreach in the fields of early American music and dance.