America Again

America Again, a collection of American music inspired by Langston Hughes's poem Let America Be America Again. Pianist Lara Downes mines the traditions of the concert hall, the American Songbook, jazz, ragtime, and folk ballads to capture the essence of the American dream and the American struggle.

As Hughes wrote in 1938, still so true in our time: "Let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--Let it be that great strong land of love."

This music is a tribute to the generations of Americans who dream the impossible: black and white, men and women, immigrants and pioneers. A uniquely diverse American portrait, featuring music by composers including Harold Arlen, Amy Beach, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Morton Gould, Florence Price, David Sanford, and George Walker.