For Immediate Release
March 10, 2026
Ann McNair, Conspirare Managing Director
512-740-6932
amcnair@conspriare.org
CONSPIRARE AND CRAIG HELLA JOHNSON JOIN FORWRD-ATX AND FIRST AUSTIN FOR FREE COMMUNITY SING EVENT
“Raise Our Voice: A Night of Joyful Solidarity Through Song” set for March 26 in Austin
AUSTIN, TX — Conspirare and GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Craig Hella Johnson will join FORWRD-ATX and First Austin for Raise Our Voice: A Night of Joyful Solidarity Through Song, a free community singing event on Thursday, March 26, 2026 from 7–8:30 PM at First Austin Church.
Rooted in America’s rich and powerful legacy of collective song, Raise Our Voice draws on a tradition that has accompanied some of the United States’ most significant moments — times of celebration and unity, and times of grief, protest, and calls for justice. From the labor movement to the civil rights era to today, Americans have always found strength by singing together. Raise Our Voice stands proudly in that tradition.
Participants will come together to sing songs that have carried communities through struggle and triumph — alongside music written for this very moment. There will also be songs to sing together for the pure joy and power of it, celebrating what it feels like to fill a room with shared sound and shared conviction. All are welcome – no singing experience required!
GRAMMY®-winning Craig Hella Johnson will lead the gathering alongside the Conspirare Symphonic Choir and an ensemble of Austin musicians including vocalist Laura Mercado-Wright, pianist Austin Haller, guitarist Mitch Watkins, and percussionists Thomas Burritt, Tim O’Brien, Michael Rivera-Gonzalez, and Bella Scott.
“I know in my bones that collective singing is one of the most powerful things human beings can do for one another — shared breath, shared sound, shared conviction, bodies resonating together,” says Hella Johnson. “When a community raises its voices, something shifts. We embolden one another. We bear witness. We discover our own agency. I want every person who walks through that door to leave knowing their voice matters and that none of us stand alone.”
Offered in advance of No Kings 3 and inspired in part by the Singing Resistance movement that has emerged in Minneapolis, Raise Our Voice is open to all and free of charge.
Join Us!
Raise Our Voice: A Night of Joyful Solidarity Through Song
Thursday, March 26, 2026 from 7-8:30 pm
First Austin, 901 Trinity St.
See also FORWRD AUSTIN’s Raise Our Voice Press Release.
