Severna Park’s David And Ginger Hildebrand Celebrate America’s 250th Through Their Life’s Work

“I feel that we were absolutely born for this moment,” David Hildebrand said just prior to America’s 250th birthday, adding, “We’ve been doing this stuff for so long, living and breathing this stuff, that I feel we are uniquely positioned to be able to tell the story accurately and with passion through this program.”

The program he referred to is a series of more than 30 concerts that he and his wife, Ginger, are performing up and down the East Coast throughout the year in celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial anniversary. And the Hildebrands are uniquely positioned to tell the story of the country’s birth, specifically through early American music, as they have devoted the last three decades of their lives to studying and performing colonial music.

Residents of Severna Park for 40 years, David and Ginger are professional performers, teachers and recording artists. They co-founded and directed the Colonial Music Institute for 20 years, and it now lives on at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Their tour this year included performances on July 4 at the Maryland State House, in the room in which Washington came before Congress to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. There, as they have done around the country, the Hildebrands told the story of the American Revolution through music, seamlessly switching between various period instruments while engaging audiences through song and education.

“It’s not just that we play music; every single piece of music has to be explained, because the music itself is not all that sophisticated. It’s not Chopin, it’s not Beethoven; it’s basically folk songs and dance tunes, but the lyrics to the songs really tell the story, and most people don’t know who the major generals (were) in the battles of the Revolution, what happened where,” David said. “So in this program, we start with the taxes of the 1760s, and songs against taxes, and the fact that some Americans were loyalists and wanted to pay their taxes and others didn’t. … It would take five hours to do a decent, full presentation of this swipe of the Revolutionary era, battle by battle, but we try to compress it.”

Dressed in period clothing, David and Ginger sing and play the violin, harpsichord, hammered dulcimer, reproduction English and Spanish guitars, and other instruments common in 18th century America.

Music is what brought them together decades ago. They met on Ginger’s 18th birthday while performing at parents’ weekend at Dickinson College. David accidentally hit Ginger in the head with a swinging door – a great way to meet women, he joked – and nonetheless Ginger suggested they play music together again soon.

They began playing folk pop of the ‘70s in clubs and bars and fell in love with playing together and with each other. They married in 1983 and released their first album in 1984.

Ginger’s father is a pianist, and she began tickling the ivories at the age of 5. She started learning to play the violin at 7 and became a guitarist at 13. She holds a Master of Music in guitar performance from the Peabody Conservatory. David also plays piano among other instruments and holds a Master of Arts in musicology from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in musicology from Catholic University. His dissertation focused on music in colonial Annapolis.

For 30 years, David taught a graduate seminar at the Peabody Conservatory and continues to advise doctoral students there. Ginger teaches piano lessons at Severn School and taught at the Key School for 20 years. They have two adult children who grew up in Severna Park schools, and they enjoy sailing on the Magothy River.

Their life’s work, in many ways culminating in this year’s 250th celebration, has been specializing in early American music, for which they are nationally renowned. Not only have they performed across the U.S., including 500 programs for schoolchildren; the Hildebrands have also produced seven recordings and consulted or recorded for numerous soundtracks. These works include a six-part series called “Liberty! The American Revolution,” documentaries about Washington and Thomas Jefferson, a live national broadcast on C-SPAN, and recording for CBS for a presidential inauguration.

Reflecting on the couple’s career, Ginger considers the concerts they performed at the Capitol in Williamsburg a major highlight of their profession. Along with two other women from a Celtic band in which she performed, Ginger also played at Walter Reed Hospital every Friday for seven years.

Her experience with veterans is one thing that makes Ginger emotional about the unique privilege of participating in the celebration of America’s 250th, a celebration of freedom and the sacrifices made for it, she noted.

“That we’ve come this far, it’s a great experiment in democracy … (and) we have so much to owe to our veterans,” she said. “The freedoms that we enjoy now are just so broad and we fought for every one of them.”