Webcast Live Tonight for the Black History Month celebration from the White House -- 8pm est

** DUE TO IMPENDING WINTER WEATHER FORECAST, MUSIC EVENTS MOVED TO TODAY **


Updated Guidance on “In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement”

Event marks the continuation of White House Music Series by celebrating Black History Month

The 2010 White House Music Series begins TODAY, TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9TH, when the President and First Lady will host “In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement” - a concert celebrating Black History month. Participants include Yolanda Adams, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir, and The Freedom Singers, featuring Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett and Toshi Reagon. Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will be guest speakers for this concert which will feature songs from the Civil Rights Movement as well as readings from famous Civil Rights speeches and writings. The President will make opening remarks at this concert held in the East Room which will be pooled press and streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov starting at 8:00 p.m. ET.

The concert will be televised on February 11th at 8:00 p.m. ET on public broadcasting stations nationwide as part of WETA Washington, D.C.’s “In Performance at the White House” series. NPR will also produce a one-hour concert special from this event for broadcast nationwide on NPR Member stations throughout the month of February, beginning February 12th. The special will be available on www.npr.org/music.

As part of this special event, the White House will host “Music that Inspired the Movement,” a workshop that several of the event’s performers will lead for high school students from across the country TODAY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9TH from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET. The students will come to learn about the continuing relevance of music from the Civil Rights Movement to today’s generation and its original impact in the 1960s. Robert Santelli, the executive director of The GRAMMY Museum, and Smokey Robinson, the legendary Motown singer, will facilitate the workshop. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon will perform; she was one of the original Freedom Singers in the 1960s who traveled around the country carrying stories in song of local Civil Rights Movement campaigns to national audiences.