“Alabama: Here We Stay” is a collaborative performance project between the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Alabama composer, performer and music historian Bobby Horton, celebrating 2011 as “The Year of Alabama Music” and honoring the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Horton, one of the country’s leading authorities on music of the Civil War era, has worked closely with the ASO to create a concert program that tells the stories of soldiers from Alabama, both Confederate and Union, through the music they loved.

Music will include traditional songs of the Civil War arranged by Gary Smoke for Horton and the ASO, including “Rose of Alabama,” “Tombigbee River,” “The Battle of Shiloh Hill,” and “Home Sweet Home.” Through an engaging combination of live music, storytelling and audience participation, communities all over the state will learn about Alabama’s role in the Civil War and the lasting impact of music on the human spirit in the past, present and future.