Scholars of early American studies gathered in the atrium of the LaPenta School of Business to open the Fall 2022 conference of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) with a concert of revolutionary era music on Sept. 22.  

Much of the music played came from the Early American Music Database, an ongoing initiative of the Colonial Music Institute from the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. Students in the history department at Iona University have had the chance to work as interns on this database, helping compile its data.  

The concert was introduced by Dr. Michael Crowder of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and Dr. James Ambuske from the Washington Library. The concert started with a performance from the vocal and instrumental ensembles of an original piece by Dr. Adam Rosado of the music department inspired by Thomas Paine’s “American Crisis.” Dr. Rosado conducted the instrumental ensemble through the “American Crisis” piece and other selections from the database.  

The concert was then turned over to Dr. Hilary Jones, who explained the differences between the 18th century flute and today’s flute and played a couple of short selections from the database. After a question-and-answer session with Dr. Jones, attendees of the conference were invited to a reception to mark the opening of the conference which would continue until Sept. 24.