This year’s Beethoven and Banjos residency will present HOLY MANNA. This program invites the audience into the practice of Sacred Harp (“shape note”) singing through listening and participation in this music’s tradition of communal singing, and through reflections on its history and the way it resonates in the contemporary world. The Sacred Harp is a collection of 100s of years of American hymnody (the tradition of hymn composition and performance). Its songs include among the oldest American compositions (dating from the mid 18th-century), through the 19th-century up to 1980s. In HOLY MANNA, we present reflections upon the different threads of music history that come together in The Sacred Harp’s music, and welcome you into its tradition of instrumental music and singing. Musicians performing will include Adam Jacob Simon, Paul Holmes Morton, Clay Zeller-Townson, John Taylor Ward, Mary Bonhag, Bridge Hill Kennedy, Evan Premo, Emi Fergusson, and Laurel Premo.