A Capitol Fourth
Encyclopedia
A Capitol Fourth is a free annual concert performed on the west lawn of the United States Capitol Building
in Washington, D.C.
, in celebration of the Independence Day
. Broadcast live on PBS
and NPR
, the concert is viewed and heard by millions across The United States and the world, as well as attended by more than half a million people at the Capitol. The concert traditionally features the National Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of Washington
, who provide much of the music during the show for various celebrity artists. A celebrity host and a variety of guests entertain and pay tribute to their country throughout the evening.
and featured performances by Hayden Panettiere
, Elliott Yamin
, Yolanda Adams
, Little Richard
, Dierks Bentley
and Bebe Neuwirth
. The musical West Side Story
was also honored in a musical tribute.
with performances by Huey Lewis and the News
, 2006 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks
, Jerry Lee Lewis
, Brian Stokes Mitchell
, Harolyn Blackwell
, and Hayley Westenra
.
. Performers and segments included Aretha Franklin
; Barry Manilow
; a taped greeting from President Barack Obama
; Big Bird
and the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street
; Natasha Bedingfield
; the cast of Jersey Boys
; Andrew von Oeyen
and Michael Feinstein
duetting on two grand pianos during an abbreviated performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue
".
served as music director following the death of Erich Kunzel. Jimmy Smits again hosted, and pointed out that A Capitol Fourth was celebrating its 30th anniversary. Performers included David Archuleta
, Gladys Knight
, Darius Rucker
, Lang Lang
, John Schneider
and Reba McEntire
. Schneider paid tribute to Kunzel, finishing his performance by embracing Kunzel's Austrian wife of 44 years, Brunhilde, who was in attendance.
; Kelli O'Hara
; Matthew Morrison
; Steve Martin
and the Steep Canyon Rangers
; Josh Groban
; and Little Richard and the cast of Million Dollar Quartet
.
by the National Symphony Orchestra (complete with cannon fire from the United States Army Presidential Salute Battery and the concluding verse sung by the Choral Arts Society) and the National Park Service
's fireworks
show above the Washington Monument
. Following the 1812 Overture, a series of John Philip Sousa
's best-known marches are played.
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, in celebration of the Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
. Broadcast live on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, the concert is viewed and heard by millions across The United States and the world, as well as attended by more than half a million people at the Capitol. The concert traditionally features the National Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington
The Choral Arts Society of Washington is a major choral organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1965 by Norman Scribner, it is regarded as one of the premier symphonic choruses in Washington and the United States.-Concerts:...
, who provide much of the music during the show for various celebrity artists. A celebrity host and a variety of guests entertain and pay tribute to their country throughout the evening.
2007
The 2007 broadcast of A Capitol Fourth was hosted by Tony DanzaTony Danza
Tony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
and featured performances by Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
, Elliott Yamin
Elliott Yamin
Elliott Yamin , born Efraym Elliott Yamin, is an American singer known for his hit single "Wait for You" and placing third on the fifth season of American Idol....
, Yolanda Adams
Yolanda Adams
Yolanda Adams is an American Grammy- and Dove-award-winning Yolanda Adams is an American [[Grammy Awards|Grammy]]- and [[Dove Awards|Dove]]-award-winning...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley is an American country music artist who has been signed to Capitol Records Nashville since 2003. That year, he released his self-titled debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's Modern Day Drifter, are certified platinum in the United States. A third album, 2006's Long Trip...
and Bebe Neuwirth
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife , on both the TV sitcom Cheers , and its spin-off Frasier...
. The musical West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
was also honored in a musical tribute.
2008
On Friday, July 4, 2008, the 28th annual broadcast of A Capitol Fourth aired live on PBS and NPR. The 2008 show was hosted by Broadway, film, and television actor Jimmy SmitsJimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...
with performances by Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
, 2006 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks
Taylor Hicks
Taylor Reuben Hicks is an American singer who achieved fame in 2006, when he won the fifth season of American Idol. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released...
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell is an American stage, film and television actor. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s...
, Harolyn Blackwell
Harolyn Blackwell
Harolyn Blackwell is an African-American lyric coloratura soprano who has performed in many of the world's finest opera houses, concert halls, and theaters in operas, oratorios, recitals, and Broadway musicals...
, and Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
.
2009
On Saturday, July 4, 2009, Smits again hosted the program, along with music director Erich KunzelErich Kunzel
Erich Kunzel, Jr. was an American orchestra conductor. Called the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune, he performed with a number of leading pops and symphony orchestras, especially the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra , which he led for over 44 years.-Early life and career:Kunzel was born to...
. Performers and segments included Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
; Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
; a taped greeting from President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
; Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
and the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
; Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Anne Bedingfield is a British pop singer and songwriter. Bedingfield debuted in the 1990s as a member of the Christian dance/electronic group The DNA Algorithm with her siblings Daniel Bedingfield and Nikola Rachelle...
; the cast of Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
; Andrew von Oeyen
Andrew von Oeyen
-Education:He began piano lessons at age five in Los Angeles with Sara Banta and made his solo orchestral debut at age ten. At age 16, he made his debut with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic...
and Michael Feinstein
Michael Feinstein
Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...
duetting on two grand pianos during an abbreviated performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
".
2010
Jack EverlyJack Everly
Jack Everly is an American conductor and music arranger who serves as Principal Pops Conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra as well as Music Director for the Symphonic Pops Consortium.Born...
served as music director following the death of Erich Kunzel. Jimmy Smits again hosted, and pointed out that A Capitol Fourth was celebrating its 30th anniversary. Performers included David Archuleta
David Archuleta
David Archuleta, is a former United States Air Force Airman of Okinawan stationary troops and is currently an American male kickboxer.-Biography:...
, Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
, Darius Rucker
Darius Rucker
Darius Rucker is an American musician. He first gained fame as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carolina along with Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld and Dean Felber...
, Lang Lang
Lang Lang
Lang Lang may refer to:* Lang Lang , Chinese pianist* Lang Lang, Victoria, a town in Australia* Lang Lang River, a river in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia* A character from the Japanese manga Steam Detectives-See also:...
, John Schneider
John Schneider (television actor)
John Richard Schneider III is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Bo Duke in the 1980s American television series The Dukes of Hazzard, and as Jonathan Kent on Smallville, a 2001 television adaptation of Superman.Alongside his acting career, Schneider performed as a...
and Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
. Schneider paid tribute to Kunzel, finishing his performance by embracing Kunzel's Austrian wife of 44 years, Brunhilde, who was in attendance.
2011
Jimmy Smits again served as host, and Jack Everly again directed the National Symphony Orchestra. Guest performers included Jordin SparksJordin Sparks
Jordin Brianna Sparks is an American pop / R&B singer-songwriter and actress. She hails from Glendale, Arizona who rose to fame as the winner of the sixth season of American Idol. Sparks won when she was 17 years old, making her the youngest winner in Idol history...
; Kelli O'Hara
Kelli O'Hara
Kelli O'Hara is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.O'Hara has been nominated for three Tony Awards: for her performance as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza; for her performance as Babe Williams in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Pajama Game, where she starred...
; Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
; Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
and the Steep Canyon Rangers
Steep Canyon Rangers
The Steep Canyon Rangers are an American bluegrass band from Brevard, North Carolina.In 2008, the band received a nomination from International Bluegrass Music Association for "Album and Gospel Performance of the Year"....
; Josh Groban
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...
; and Little Richard and the cast of Million Dollar Quartet
Million Dollar Quartet (musical)
Million Dollar Quartet is a jukebox musical written by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott. It dramatizes the Million Dollar Quartet recording session of December 4, 1956, among early Rock and roll stars Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, and newcomer Jerry Lee Lewis...
.
Traditions
The concert finale begins with a rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture1812 Overture
The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture or the Overture of 1812 is an overture written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of...
by the National Symphony Orchestra (complete with cannon fire from the United States Army Presidential Salute Battery and the concluding verse sung by the Choral Arts Society) and the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
's fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
show above the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
. Following the 1812 Overture, a series of John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
's best-known marches are played.
The National Artistic Achievement Award
The National Artistic Achievement Award is presented during the program.- 2003: John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
- 2004: No award given
- 2005: Gloria EstefanGloria EstefanGloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan; known professionally as Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those...
& Emilio EstefanEmilio EstefanEmilio Estefan, Jr. is a Cuban-American of Lebanese ancestry who is a musician and producer. Estefan's first taste of celebrity came as a member of the Miami Sound Machine, but he is also recognized as the producer of many famous singers. He is the husband of singer Gloria Estefan... - 2006: Stevie WonderStevie WonderStevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
- 2007: No award given
- 2008: No award given
- 2009: No award given
- 2010: Reba McEntireReba McEntireReba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
- 2011: Josh GrobanJosh GrobanJoshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...