Fisk Jubilee Singers – Metro Nashville Public Faculties

Meigs Center Magnet College loaded almost 700 college students onto buses Wednesday to attend a efficiency by the Fisk Jubilee Singers on the Tennessee Performing Arts Middle, the place they realized some essential historical past and a few lovely and shifting songs. 

The Jubilee Singers’ interim musical director, Dr. Anthony Williams, taught college students the historical past of Fisk College and the way the Jubilee Singers, a bunch of Fisk college students, had been fashioned as a choral ensemble to lift cash for the Nashville faculty to stay open after the specter of closure within the nineteenth century. Between performances of Negro spirituals, Williams shared a narrative of the student-singers touring to Europe and performing for Queen Victoria of England in 1873.

Stephanie Clemson, a Gifted & Gifted Schooling instructor at Meigs, organized the journey to TPAC for Black Historical past Month. Clemson was thrilled to have many of the pupil physique attend.

“I expressed to the scholars how privileged they’re to have the ability to see this efficiency as a result of the Jubilee Singers are college students, too, they usually don’t carry out fairly often,” Clemson stated.

The Jubilee Singers opened the present with their rendition of a traditional American Negro Religious, “Steal Away,” initially composed by a previously enslaved man, Wallace Willis, in 1862.

Fisk College and TPAC have partnered to deliver these performances to college students from throughout Tennessee for over 15 years, and Meigs college students had been particularly excited to be current. They cheered when the singers concluded their efficiency of an up-tempo track known as “Nice Camp Assembly.”

“The story and artistry of the Fisk Jubilee Singers are on the coronary heart of Nashville,” stated Roberta Ciuffo West, TPAC’s government vp for schooling and neighborhood engagement. “Tennessee Performing Arts Middle has loved a proud partnership with the legendary ensemble over the past 15 years, welcoming pupil audiences to expertise stay and digital performances by the Fisk Jubilee Singers whereas exploring their distinctive legacy. As we have a good time Black Historical past Month, we’re deeply grateful for the chance to share this world-renowned ensemble with new generations of Metro Nashville Public Faculties college students.” 

The expertise for Meigs college students was not solely about studying from the previous but additionally pointing in the direction of the longer term. The Jubilee Singers wrapped up the 13-song present singing William Dawson’s model of “Ain’a That Good Information” and holding a round-robin question-and-answer session with the Meigs college students in grades 5-8, who had been keen to choose the brains of the faculty college students and listen to about their plans.

The Jubilee Singers shared that they aren’t solely singers; their objectives additionally embody attending medical faculty, changing into engineers and entrepreneurs, working in movie manufacturing, composing, and dealing in musical theater.

Williams honored the reminiscence of Dr. Paul T. Kwami, who was the longest-serving director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Kwame, who died in 2022 after 28 years within the function, composed one in all their songs, “Nice Day,” to commemorate the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Jubilee Singers heading out on tour in 1871. This present day is named Jubilee Day on the campus of Fisk College, the place Jubilee Corridor, funded by the singers’ travels and devoted in 1876, nonetheless stands immediately.