About

American Classics was created during the winter of 1995-1996 when song duo Mary Ann Lanier & Sylvie Stewart (The Camptown Ladies, performing with pianist Robert Humphreville), voice and piano duo Benjamin Sears & Bradford Conner, and pianist Margaret Ulmer banded together around their love of American music. Originally a summer series at the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, American Classics also added concerts for American Music Week and the holiday season to their schedule. Concerts of songs and piano music, in solo and group programs, ranging from the Colonial Era and William Billings, through Civil War songs of Stephen Foster and Henry Clay Work, to beloved parlor songs of the late nineteenth century, onto Ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood highlighted the first seasons.