From Mickey Guyton to Alan Jackson, the 2026 National Memorial Day Concert Let the Orchestra Carry the Weight

The 37th annual National Memorial Day Concert aired live Sunday on PBS from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Behind every performance — country, Broadway, classical, and military — was the National Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Jack Everly, celebrating his 17th season as the evening's musical anchor. Ninety minutes. Two hundred and fifty years of American military history. One baton.

Hosted by Gary Sinise and Mary McCormack, the evening moved through 250 years of American military history in sequence — the Revolutionary War, Pearl Harbor, September 11, Vietnam, and the Gold Star Families who live every day with what those wars cost. Each segment had its narrator, its story, its moment of stillness. And between every one of them, the National Symphony Orchestra was there — not filling silence, but shaping it.

This year, the orchestra carried something it had never carried before. Among the evening's musical selections was "The Rise," performed during the World War II veterans tribute — composed by Mac Sinise, Gary Sinise's son, who passed away after a long battle with cancer in January 2024. What Sinise said about it was brief. What he did not need to say was understood by everyone watching.

Mickey Guyton bookended the entire evening. She opened it when McCormack asked the crowd to "please rise, in body or in spirit" — and Guyton delivered the National Anthem into that stillness. Ninety minutes later, she closed it.

Jamey Johnson followed the opening. For anyone who knew his biography — eight years in the Marine Corps Reserve before his music career began.

Laura Osnes was introduced with a simple dedication: "a song for every generation of American heroes." She sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" with the National Symphony Orchestra behind her. On that lawn, in front of that audience, the song needed nothing else.

Blessing Offor followed the Vietnam War veterans tribute. McCormack's introduction was direct: "a song dedicated to all those we just honored." Offor sang to them — "Would you lift me up?" — and the question landed differently on that lawn than it would anywhere else.

Andy Grammer performed "I Will Fight For You" — three words that, on any other stage, might read as a pop hook. Here, facing an audience of people who had lived those words, or lost someone who had, they meant something else entirely.

Alan Jackson appeared from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium — a pre-recorded performance of "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," played alongside footage from September 11. Jackson, 66, has announced his final concert for June 27 at Nashville's Nissan Stadium. For many watching at home, Sunday may have been the last time they heard him sing on national television.

For the finale, McCormack asked every person on the West Lawn to take out their phone, turn on the flashlight, and hold it high for all the heroes. Then Guyton began "God Bless America" — and after the first verse, she stopped leading and started inviting: "Everybody sing!" The full cast joined her on stage. The lawn filled with light. The voices that had performed separately all evening sang the same words at the same time, together with the crowd, under the open sky above the Capitol.

Before the broadcast, Guyton had said simply: "The freedom to be here — we wouldn't be here without them." By the end of the night, that sentence had become a picture.

Then Taps. The National Symphony Orchestra went silent. Twenty-four notes. The West Lawn went still. There is nothing a concert can add after that. The music understood this, and stopped.

The 2026 National Memorial Day Concert streams through June 7 on PBS.org and the free PBS app.

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Alan Jackson