Harry T. Burleigh Society And Fisk Jubilee Singers Celebrate Leaders Of Concert Spiritual Tradition At Carnegie Hall

At a time when black people were prohibited from walking through the front doors of public spaces, composer and soprano Ella Sheppard (1851-1915) and the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed on international stages for industry barons, cultural icons, and Queen Victoria. That trailblazing work was furthered by composer and baritone Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949), whose compositions - crossing racial, religious, and class lines - served to bridge the sound and identity of America. Sheppard and Burleigh's barrier-breaking contributions to the foundation of the American music tradition will be examined in an upcoming concert and conference hosted by the Harry T. Burleigh Society on March 2 and 3 at Carnegie Hall.

The two-day concert and conference structure was devised to enable performers, audiences and academics to connect with each other, as well as with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and descendants of Burleigh and Sheppard. Organizers hope the experience of hearing these works performed will invigorate recognition of African American contributions to the Western art music canon.

"We believe that enabling the broader accessibility of Burleigh and Sheppard's work will help honor generations of black music-makers and scholars in the legacy of Western art music," said Burleigh Society Executive Director Dr. Marti Slaten. "With reverence to these artisans of democracy, we are eager to engage scholars, artists, and institutions."

"We're at a point in our society where Americans are questioning what constitutes truly American culture," added Burleigh Society President Lynne Foote. "The works of Burleigh and Sheppard are emblematic of the richly complex reality of the American past, as they were creators and gatekeepers who were not white and wealthy."

The Burleigh Society concert and conference will be part of the current international conversation addressing the need to disrupt the canon of Western classical music, expanding ideas of who is included in a canon that has historically obscured the virtuosity and ingenuity of women and people of color.

"During a period of overt state-sanctioned anti-black violence, in a world of inordinate wealth disparity, Burleigh and Sheppard spearheaded the concertization of spirituals, creating a new genre of music with courage, power, and longevity on the global stage," said Dr. Slaten. "That genre melds the music of enslaved Americans with Bel Canto singing and the written transmission steeped in Western art music culture, despite the overwhelmingly white-dominated music publishing world of the era."

The March 2 concert in Zankel Hall will trace the development of African American art song from choral arrangements of Negro spirituals to pieces for solo voice and piano, showcasing seminal works such as Burleigh's song arrangement of "My Lord, What A Morning", as well as spirituals Sheppard concertized, including "Steal Away," considered a pivotal piece in the emergence of the concert spiritual genre.

The performance will feature the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the current incarnation of a collegiate chorus whose original members, including Ella Sheppard, became the first American choir - of any racial background - to tour Europe. The transatlantic performances of those eleven singers were immortalized in an 1873 Havel portrait commissioned by Queen Victoria, thought to be the only life-sized portrait of black Americans in the 19th century. In the March 2 concert, the current singers will perform in Victorian dress, portraying the singers depicted in the Havel painting - and reminding audiences of the many parallels that still exist between that era and our own.

The following day, the interdisciplinary conference, which is free and open to the public, will examine the intersection of power, race, and virtuosity in America in the era of Black Lives Matter. "More than The Promise of The American Myth: Rethinking Burleigh and Sheppard in The Second Gilded Age" will feature a keynote address by Dr. Daphne Brooks, Professor of African American Studies, Theater Studies, American Studies, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, and an international authority on African American expressive culture on the stage.

"While Burleigh and Sheppard are far from needing to be 'rediscovered,' the impact of their contributions to American music is undervalued," said Dr. Slaten. "Challenging that evaluation is central to the work of the Burleigh Society."

"And it feels particularly fitting to host these events in Carnegie Hall, where Burleigh performed in 1892," added Foote. "We're delighted to continue the long arc of Burleigh's socially courageous work and share the inherent beauty of his music with attendees."

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Upcoming Events

Saturday, March 2 Concert
7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
Fisk Jubilee Singers Sing Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals

The Harry T. Burleigh Society and the Fisk Jubilee Singers celebrate the leaders of the concert spiritual tradition, performing spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh and inspired by original Fisk Jubilee Singer and composer Ella Sheppard.

Tickets: burleigh.info/march2conc

Sunday, March 3 Conference
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Weill Terrace at Carnegie Hall
More Than the Promise of the American Myth: Rethinking Burleigh & Sheppard in The Second Gilded Age

A keynote address by Dr. Daphne Brooks (Yale University) precedes sessions on "The Concept of the Concert Spiritual and Black Art Music," "Institutionalizing Concert Spirituals," and "Family Legacies: The Sheppards, Burleighs, and their Contemporaries." Additional presenting scholars and artists include Lucy Caplan, Lynne Foote, Dr. Crytal deGregory, Dr. Paul T. Kwami, Kenneth Overton, Dr. Jean Snyder, and Dr. Louise Toppin.

Registration: burleigh.info/march3conf

Wednesday, May 8 Concert & Lecture
7:30 p.m.
Langston Hughes Auditorium at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Harry T. Burleigh's Influence on Symphonic Music

The Harry T. Burleigh Society and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra's second collaboration will showcase the symphonic influence of Harry T. Burleigh, with performances by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Increasingly credited as influencing some of the spiritual-inspired thematic material for the "New World Symphony" and "American String Quartet" of Dvorak, Burleigh's work also influenced other composers of the 20th century. The program includes William Grant Still's "And They Lynched Him on a Tree," marking the first time the piece has been performed in New York City since 1957, as well as spirituals by William Levi Dawson and Burleigh, and the New York City premiere of Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 2.
Tickets: burleigh.info/may8conc

About Harry T. Burleigh
Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) played a leading role in American music and culture in the twentieth century. Celebrated for his arrangements of spirituals, Burleigh was also the first African American composer to create a significant body of art song. An international roster of opera and recital singers performed his works and praised them as among the best of their time. A descendant of slaves born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Burleigh pioneered work that preserved and transformed the African American spiritual in an era complicated by changes in race relations, class expectations, and musical tastes. As a music editor, he facilitated the work of other black composers; as a role model, vocal coach, and mentor, he profoundly influenced American song; and in private life he was friends with Antonín Dvo?ák, Marian Anderson, and Will Marion Cook. Participating in the Western art song tradition as both a composer and singer, the publishing industry as an editor for G. Ricordi, and serving as a charter member of ASCAP, Burleigh forged a decades-long career as a baritone soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church and Temple Emanu-El. (Biography excerpted from Dr. Jean Snyder's Harry T. Burleigh: From the Spiritual to the Harlem Renaissance.)

About Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers (@FiskJubileeSing) are vocal artists and students at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, who sing and travel worldwide. The original Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced 'slave songs' to the world in 1871 and were instrumental in preserving the unique American musical tradition known today as Negro spirituals. They broke racial barriers in the US and abroad in the late 19th century and entertained Kings and Queens in Europe, while raising money in support of their beloved school. In 2008, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected as a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for artists and patrons of the arts. The award was presented by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, during a ceremony at the White House. The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue the tradition of singing the Negro spiritual around the world, sharing this rich culture globally while preserving its unique music.

About The Harry T. Burleigh Society
The Harry T. Burleigh Society (@burleighsoc) is a non-profit organization that advances studies of black art music through scholarship and performance. Grounded in African American history and culture and committed to social justice, the Society continues Burleigh's radical legacy of disrupting boundaries and challenging social norms. Fortified by the beauty and bravery of his model, the Society consciously shapes arenas where encounters between disparate racial, religious, generational, national, and creative groups can thrive. Founded on the 150th anniversary of Burleigh's birth, the Society follows generations of African American music-makers and intellectual laborers, working to center their foundational contributions to American music.