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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Period musicians David and Ginger Hildebrand will perform music of the American Revolution at the Lyceum on Thursday, June 18, in a concert marking the 250th anniversary of American independence and honoring Alexandria's four sister cities.
The program, presented by the Alexandria Sister Cities Committee, begins at 7 p.m. at the Alexandria History Museum at the Lyceum, 201 S. Washington St. Performing in period attire, the Hildebrands will play and discuss music connected to the city's sister cities — Caen, France; Dundee, Scotland; Helsingborg, Sweden; and Gyumri, Armenia — alongside the patriotic songs, ballads and dance tunes of the Revolutionary era.
The pairing has a historical basis. Scottish music was widely influential in the American colonies, and after France entered the war on the colonists' side, celebrations honored French commanders such as the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Rochambeau. The Hildebrands will demonstrate the instruments of the period, including harpsichord, hammered dulcimer, violin, and Spanish and English guitars, drawing on both the formal and folk traditions of early American music.
The husband-and-wife duo have researched, recorded and performed early American music since 1980, appearing at Mount Vernon, the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives and Colonial Williamsburg, and contributing period music to PBS programs including the series "Liberty! The American Revolution." In 1999 they co-founded the Colonial Music Institute, now directed by the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Ginger Hildebrand holds a master's from the Peabody Conservatory, where David Hildebrand teaches American music history; he also holds a doctorate from the Catholic University of America and wrote "Musical Maryland," published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2017.
The concert is part of the "Alexandria Commemorates America's 250" campaign, the city's yearlong slate of programming around the nation's semiquincentennial. The Lyceum, an 1839 Greek Revival landmark that served as the nation's first Bicentennial Center in 1976, anchors that effort as the city's official America250 hub for 2026.
Tickets are $20 and available online at shop.alexandriava.gov. The venue seats 120, and tickets were still available as of Tuesday. No printed ticket is required; attendees' names will be held at the door.
