Skip to main content

Join us New Years Eve at 8:30 pm for United In Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America airing live on PBS.

Explore our Guide to United in Song

Learn more about the artists, their performances, and the locations featured at Mount Vernon and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Patti LaBelle - Lady Marmalade

Performing Lady Marmalade with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Patti LaBelle is an American singer, songwriter, and actress and is known around the world as the Godmother of Soul.  In a career that has spanned over seven different decades, she has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. LaBelle has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.

The two-story piazza is the Mansion's most distinctive architectural feature. Extending the full length of the back of the house, it also has a practical function—catching the river breezes on a hot and humid Virginia day. The Washingtons treated the piazza as an outdoor room, serving afternoon tea here to visitors and family members.

Virtual Tour of the Piazza

 

Learn More:

Patti LaBelle

Maestro Luke Fraizer

Welcome featuring Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming is an American operatic soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, and film.

Renée Fleming

Morgan James - Traveling Thru

Performing Traveling Thru with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Morgan James is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She has appeared in numerous Broadway shows, including Motown: The Musical, Godspell, and The Addams Family.

Learn More:

Morgan James

Jean-Yves Thibaudet - Concerto in F- III. Allegro Agitato

Performing Concerto in F- III. Allegro Agitato with the National Symphony Orchestra with Maestro JoAnn Falletta performing on the Greenhouse at Mount Vernon and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

For more than three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed world-wide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today's finest pianists.

George Washington's Greenhouse is one of the largest buildings on the Mount Vernon estate, was designed to not only protect plants from the winter cold, but also to house enslaved workers assigned to the Mount Vernon farm.

Explore the Greenhouse

 

Learn More:

Jean-Yves Thibaudet

National Symphony Orchestra

Joshua Bell - Verano Porteño

Performing Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer) from Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

With a career spanning almost four decades, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era.  He plays on an iconic Gibson Stradivarius.

Learn More:

Joshua Bell

Juanes - Bailando en la Oscuridad

Performing Bailando en la Oscuridad (Dancer in the Dark) on the South Lane at Mount Vernon.

Juanes is a Colombian musician and singer-songwriter and winner of twenty Latin Grammy Awards and two Grammy Awards.

The South Lane at Mount Vernon features original outbuildings such as the Wash House, Stables, Smokehouse, and Clerks Quarters.

Virtual Tour of the South Lane

 

Learn more:

Juanes

Brian Stokes Mitchell - Make Them Hear You

Performing Make Them Hear You with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Brian Stokes Mitchell is an American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate.

Learn More:

Brian Stokes Mitchell

Renée Fleming - How Can I Keep From Singing?

Performing How Can I Keep From Singing? with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Renée Fleming is an American operatic soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and has won four times.

Learn More:

Renée Fleming

Soloman Howard - Shenandoah

Performing Shenandoah on the East Lawn at Mount Vernon.

Soloman Howard is the winner of the Kennedy Center’s 2019 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, Soloman Howard is a graduate of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and garners high praise from the press for his vivid performances on the great opera and concert stages of the world.

George Washington once wrote, "No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this."  The East Lawn, overlooking the Potomac River provides a breathtaking view that has been preserved by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association with help from our preservation partners in Maryland.

Virtual Tour of the East Lawn

 

Learn More:

Solomon Howard

Audra McDonald - Climb Ev'ry Mountain

Performing Climb Ev'ry Mountain with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Audra McDonald is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win all four acting categories.

Learn More:

Audra McDonald

Yo-Yo Ma - Vocalise

Performing Vocalise with the National Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Maestro JoAnn Falletta.

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist. Born in Paris, France to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, United States, Ma was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from The Juilliard School and Harvard University and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world.

Learn More:

Yo-Yo Ma

Jamie Barton - Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix

Performing Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix (Softly awakes my heart) with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Jamie Barton is an American mezzo-soprano. She won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in June 2013. She is also the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award.

Learn More:

Jamie Barton

Josh Groban - The Impossible Dream

Performing The Impossible Dream with members of the America Pops Orchestra.

Josh Groban is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, with over 22.3 million records.

Learn More:

Josh Groban

Joshua Bell - Nocturne in E Minor

Performing Nocturne in E Minor with the National Symphony Orchestra with Maestro JoAnn Falletta in the New Room at Mount Vernon.

With its two-story-high ceiling, detailed architectural ornamentation, and stylish furnishings, the New Room intended to convey unpretentious beauty and fine craftsmanship, qualities Washington believed communicated the new nation’s values. The General summed up his ambitious goals for the room in a letter written while he was away fighting in the Revolutionary War: “I would have the whole executed in a masterly manner.”

Virtual Tour of the New Room

 

Learn More:

Joshua Bell

Anna Deavere Smith - Getting to Our More Perfect Union

Honoring those enslaved at Mount Vernon, Anna Deavere Smith's narrative performance highlights efforts to understand our past in order to strive for a more perfect union.

Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. Smith is a recipient of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013). In 2015 she was selected as the Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University.

Virtual Tour of the Slave Memorial

 

Learn More:

Anna Deavere Smith

Denyce Graves - Deep River

Performing Deep River with members of the America Pops Orchestra performing at the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon.

A native of Washington, DC, Denyce Graves is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who has performed at opera houses around the world along with presidential inaugurations and at the memorial honoring victims of 9/11 at the Washington National Cathedral.

Learn More:

Denyce Graves

Juanes - Para Tu Amor

Performing Para Tu Amor (For Your Love) with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Learn More:

Juanes

Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell - Wheels of a Dream

Performing Wheels of a Dream with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Learn more:

Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell

Audra McDonald and Renée Fleming - Look to the Future

Audra McDonald and Renée Fleming share thoughts for the future and how George Washington's farewell address to the country can serve as a guiding light for us to create a more perfect union together.

Learn More:

Patti LaBelle - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Performing Somewhere Over the Rainbow with the America Pops Orchestra with Maestro Luke Frazier performing on the Piazza at Mount Vernon.

Learn More:

Patti LaBelle

National Symphony Orchestra - Fanfare for the Common Man

Performing Fanfare for the Common Man at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts featuring fireworks over Mount Vernon.

Learn more:

National Symphony Orchestra

Special Thanks

A very special thanks to David M. Rubenstein, American businessman, philanthropist, and chair of the Washington Cabinet for his support of United in Song.

Plan Your Visit

Located just south of Washington, DC in Virginia, Mount Vernon is the home of our nation's first president, George Washington. It is held in a public trust by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association who accepts no government funding to share their ongoing education mission.

Learn More