Windham Philharmonic July 4

THE NEW COLOSSUS AND OZYMANDIAS: WHERE ARE WE NOW? WHAT ARE WE TO DO?
The Arts Committed to Unceasing Protest / No Kings, and The Statue of Liberty

The Windham Philharmonic, co-presented with the Brattleboro Post 5 American Legion Band and area high school musicians
Saturday, July 4, 2026 — 3:00 PM — Winston Prouty Campus, Brattleboro — Free and open to the public—Rain or shine

Two pedestals. Two inscriptions. One says: I am Ozymandias, King of Kings — look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair. The other says: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the first in 1818. Emma Lazarus wrote the second in 1883. We are placing them side by side on July 4, 2026: the contrast seems useful.

The Windham Philharmonic joins the Brattleboro Post 5 American Legion Band and area high school musicians for a free outdoor concert on the Winston Prouty Campus — music and words together, in the open air, on the 250th birthday of a country that is currently having a serious argument with itself about what it is.

The program: Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The second and fourth movements of Dvořák’s New World Symphony — written by a Czech composer who heard something in American music that Americans hadn’t yet fully heard in themselves. Plenty of marches, by Sousa and others.

Hugh Keelan on the podium will be joined by players, guests, and audience in a participatory delivery of Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus.” We will learn, rehearse and deliver this together in real time.

Bring a blanket or chair; bring your people! This is a great place for us all to be reminded that the words give me your tired, your poor are not a sentiment. They are a demand.

The concert is free. Donations gratefully accepted. All are welcome: thank you for your participation!