Springfield Symphony Orchestra announces free Juneteenth celebrations featuring Avery Sharpe

Guests enjoy Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s third annual Juneteenth Freedom Day concert at the Springfield Symphony Hall on June 19, 2025.
Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD — On June 19, the walls of Tower Square will reverberate with the sounds of the Juneteenth Freedom Concert and celebrations scheduled throughout the afternoon.

The concert will feature Springfield’s own Grammy award-winning jazz bassist Avery Sharpe and the Extended Family Choir.

Juneteenth, a federal and state holiday, commemorates June 19, 1865, when the Union troops under Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to deliver news to the last community of enslaved people that they were free under the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Juneteenth celebrations will begin on June 18 at 5:30 p.m., when there will be live music at White Lion Brewing Company. A portion of the proceeds of this Juneteenth kick-off party will benefit Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestras programming.

At 11 a.m. on June 19, Mayor Domenic Sarno and State Rep. Bud Williams will conduct the annual Juneteenth flag raising on the steps of City Hall. Moving to Tower Square, at 12:30 p.m., School Committee member Ayanna Crawford will be the mistress of ceremonies for the Juneteenth program of events. The Springfield Prep Dance Team will perform and the inaugural Juneteenth Innovation Panel will take place. Small business vendors will be set up in Tower Square throughout the afternoon’s events.

The concert is scheduled for 3 p.m. The Avery Sharpe Quintet and a quartet of strings will play, while vocals are to be provided by the Extended Family Choir and the Springfield Symphony Chorus.

“I love collaborations because that is what America is about or supposed to be about,” said Avery. Sarno later said, “Avery has never forgotten his home here.”

The concert will be conducted by Kevin Sharpe, Avery’s brother, who has been the Extended Family Choir’s director since its inception in 1996. “It is great to collaborate with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra,” he said. The program’s music will include Lift Every Voice and Sing — widely considered the African American nation anthem — three pieces by Florence Price, African American spirituals, Avery compositions and choral works. Kevin said, “It’s sounding good. It’s going to be a great program. I’m looking forward to it.”

The free concert is organized in partnership with White Lion Brewing Company owner Raymond Berry Jr. and Payton Shubrick, owner of 6 Bricks dispensary. Sarno said Berry and Shubrick have been “good corporate citizens… they always step up.”

While the spirit will be one of celebration, there will also be memorials for Rosemary “Tracy” Woods, founding director of “Art for the Soul Gallery,” and the late Ruby Maddox, co-founder of Gardening the Community and Direct Your Purpose. State Rep. Benjamin Swan and Henry Thomas, III, a longtime leader of the Springfield Urban League, who both died on May 26 will also be remembered.

Sarno said he first learned about Juneteenth several years ago from then-state Rep. Raymond Jordan and community leader Robert “Cee” Jackson. Since then, he said, state Rep. Bud Williams “shepherded through the Juneteenth legislation in the statehouse.” More than a day off, Sarno said, “It’s more important that it is recognized, and the story of history is told.”

Williams said, “Black people have always celebrated Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Juneteenth Day, you call it what you want to call it. We’ve always celebrated it.” He said Springfield has changed since he was a child, when it was “very segregated, very racist.” Now, he noted, the city has a Black superintendent of schools in Sonia Dinnall and Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers is the city’s first Black individual to hold that position.

Referring to the symphony, Heather Caisse-Roberts, president and CEPO of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra said, “This industry is struggling right now. This country is struggling a bit right now. What we can do is bring joy back into the world. We can bring it through music. We can bring it through partnership. We can bring it through collaboration. We bring joy to the world by keeping alive the history, celebrating tradition and also exploring everything that’s new out there.” She said, “We’re so lucky to call Springfield our home.”

Sarno declared, “Plenty of good things are happening in Springfield and you’re all a part of it.”