Photo by Doug Moss Members of the VA-National Medical Chorale and Symphony Orchestra as it performs a bevy of classical, popular and patriot music before a Pentagon audience for broadcast to overseas troops, over the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Radio and Television Service.

Bill Kurtis of the A & E Television Network and Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000, will co-host the 90-minute program featuring operatic soprano Harolyn Blackwell, operatic baritone Thomas Beard, Gospel recording artist Larnelle Harris and Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Giuliano of the U.S. Army’s world-renowned Singing Sergeants.

‘‘Sadly there is a lot of division in our nation at this time,” explains founder and Director Victor Wahby, M.D., Ph. D. ‘‘We are inspired by Benjamin Franklin's exhortation to a divided Constitutional Convention ‘...humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings.’ It is our sincere and heartfelt desire that this program may contribute to national healing, reconciliation and unity.”

A non-profit organization that originated in 1991 as the VA-National Medical Musical Group, this organization has become the largest medical musical group in the United States with members from nearly every state who travel to concert sites at their own expense. Many are associated with the Department of Veterans Affairs or with medical practices, teaching or research.

In addition to annual Veterans Day concerts in major cities throughout the U.S. and a unique performance in 2006 at the Pentagon which was broadcast to our nation’s Armed Forces throughout the world, the VA-NMMG has performed at the White House, United Nations, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Symphony Center and the Las Vegas Hilton Theater. Overseas performances stretch from Great Britain, Greece, France, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and The Vatican to the far reaches of Russia, China and New Zealand.

A recipient of the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor Society Bob Hope Award, the VA-NMMG’s mission is to perform ‘‘Music with a Message” of inspiration, healing and national unity.

Admission to the Patriot Day Memorial Ceremony is free and early arrivals will enjoy pre-concert entertainment which begins at 6:30 p.m. The Basilica is located on the campus of Catholic University at 400 Michigan Ave. NE in Washington, D.C., just three blocks from the Brookland-CUA Red Line station. For more information please call (888) 636-7364 or (202) 797-0700 or visit the organization’s Web site: www. medicalmusical.org.