STAX MUSIC ACADEMY TO PERFORM AT GRAND OPENING OF SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE AND TO BE FEATURED 9/25 ON NBC TODAY SHOW

For the second time in five years, the Smithsonian Institution has invited the Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Music Academy for a performance on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

This most recent invitation is to perform at Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration, highly anticipated grand opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), a century and $278 million in the making.

Others scheduled to perform include Public Enemy, The Roots, Sweet Honey in the Rock, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Morgan State Choir, and many other musical, spoken word, and performing artists.

On Sunday, September 25th, NBC’s Sunday Today show will feature the Stax Music Academy with a segment taped both in Memphis and Washington, D.C. with Emmy Award-winning television journalist Harry Smith. The program airs at 7 a.m. CST. Many of the Stax Music Academy students traveling to the nation’s capital and being featured on the Today show also attend the Soulsville Foundation’s Soulsville Charter School, its academic college preparatory school on the same campus at the original site of Stax Records.

The three-day Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration is scheduled for September 23rd, 24th, and 25th, bracketing the museum’s 10 a.m. dedication on the morning of September 24th, when President Barack Obama will dedicate the museum. The museum officially opens at 2 p.m., followed by an invitation-only gala at The Kennedy Center.

The Stax Music Academy’s Freedom Sounds main stage schedule is:
Friday, September 23, 3 – 3:45
Saturday, September 24, 4 – 4:45 pm (daytime headline act)
Sunday, September 25, 2 – 2:45

While all 28,000 tickets to tour the museum were taken within an hour of being made available, no tickets are required for the outdoor festival. Multiple large video screens will be placed on the National Mall so everyone can view the festivities, including the Stax Music Academy’s performances.