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Lara Downes & BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL
COMMON GROUND
Chart-topping pianist and cultural visionary Lara Downes is joined by Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell for a revelatory program of music and conversation celebrating the shared human experiences and journeys that connect as as Americans, regardless of time and place. Creating a gathering space for all of us to reflect on the long arc of history and recognize our capacity for empathy and community, Lara and Stokes turn to the music of composers from Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington to Jason Robert Brown and Christopher Tin, exploring the timeless truths and beauties of American music “beyond category”.
PROGRAM INCLUDES:
Aaron Copland: from Old American Songs
John Bucchino: Grateful
Harold Arlen: Over the Rainbow
Leonard Bernstein: Some Other Time
Duke Ellington: New World A-Comin’
Rodgers/Hammerstein: You’ll Never Walk Alone
Stephen Sondheim: Not While I’m Around
Cy Coleman: The Best Is Yet To Come
Cole Porter: Just One Of Those Things
Maury Yeston: New Words
Christopher Tin: Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Jason Robert Brown: Hope
Mitch Leigh: The Impossible Dream
STOKES AND LARA PERFORM “HOPE” BY JASON ROBERT BROWN LIVE IN THE WNYC STUDIOS, 2025
STOKES ON NPR “AMPLIFY WITH LARA DOWNES”, 2024
