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Speakers, Performers Announced For Barack Obama Inauguration

The organizers behind Barack Obama's inauguration have announced who'll be helping swear the President-elect in on January 20. Up to 4 million visitors will be greeted by performances and speeches from poet Elizabeth Alexander, San Francisco's Boys and Girls Choruses, longtime civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, bands from the Marines and Navy, and Aretha Franklin.

"(We're expecting) an event of historic proportion," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said in a statement. "It is appropriate that the program will include some of the world's most gifted artists from a wide range of backgrounds and genres."

Speaking of "a wide range of backgrounds and genres," composer John Williams (best known for his work with Star Wars and Jaws) will have a piece performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill. Williams' music was also used in Obama's election night rally at Chicago's Grant Park.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
12.18.08