Last 40 seconds of the performance of "An Exhortation" at the inauguration
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6616064

Feature article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 20th, 2009
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/don_rosenberg/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/123244393185790.xml&coll=2

Feature article in the SF Chronicle, January 17th, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/17/MN5L159LLV.DTL

Youtube video of a performance at City Hall, January 15th, 2009

"An Exhortation" was composed for the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Susan McMane, conductor,
and the San Francisco Boys Chorus, Ian Robertson, conductor,
and was premiered at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, January 20th, 2009.

Click here to hear an MP3 recording of the performance.

An exhortation is an address or communication emphatically urging someone to do something.

An Exhortation

America, we have come so far.
We have seen so much.
But there is so much more to do.

Let us ask ourselves:
If our children should live to see
The next century
What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call.
This is our time
To reaffirm that fundamental truth
That out of many, we are one;

That while we breathe, we hope;
And where we are met with doubt,
We will respond with that timeless creed
That sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.

-Barack Obama

Victory Speech, November 4th, 2008

David Conte at the rehearsal before the performance in Washington.

from left to right, Jimmy Kansau (SFBC instructor), Ian Robertson (SFBC conductor), and David Conte.

David with Margaret Secour, (SFBC instructor).