Fisk Jubilee Singers Concert Scheduled for February 27

Hear the Grammy-award winning Fisk Jubilee Singers, who first introduced the world to the African American spiritual in 1871, in concert on February 27, 2025. This free and public concert is presented as part of the “Sacred Music and Race” workshop led by Dr. Karen Shadle and Archbishop Shelton Fabre. The concert begins at 6:15 p.m. in St. Bede Theater at Saint Meinrad Archabbey on Thursday, February 27.

Fisk University opened in Nashville in 1866 as the first American university to offer a liberal arts education to “young men and women irrespective of color.” Five years later, the school was in dire financial straits. George L. White, Fisk treasurer and music professor, created a nine-member choral ensemble of students and took it on tour to earn money for the University. The group left campus on October 6, 1871. Jubilee Day is celebrated annually on October 6 to commemorate this historic day.

The first concerts were in small towns. Surprise, curiosity, and some hostility were the early audience responses to these young black singers who did not perform in the traditional “minstrel fashion.” One early concert in Cincinnati brought in $50, which was promptly donated to victims of the notorious 1871 fire in Chicago. 

When they reached Columbus, the next city on the tour, the students were physically and emotionally drained. Mr. White, in a gesture of hope and encouragement, named them “The Jubilee Singers,” a Biblical reference to the year of jubilee in the Book of Leviticus. 

For more information about the workshop, the concert, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, visit https://www.saintmeinrad.edu/events?item=15182. The program is sponsored by the Saint Meinrad Institute of Sacred Music.