Historic collab: Harvard’s Glee Club, Fisk’s Jubilee Singers

Both are among America’s most storied collegiate choral groups.

Harvard Glee Club, the nation’s oldest (1858), helped establish the university choir as a fixture at U.S. institutions of higher education. The Fisk Jubilee Singers (1871) have garnered national and global fame over the decades, pioneering choral versions of African American spirituals, preserving and presenting the unique tradition to new audiences.

Members of the Harvard group say it once had been club lore that theirs was the nation’s first collegiate choir to tour internationally. That is until they discovered Fisk, which first toured Europe in 1873 (and performed for Queen Victoria), had beaten them by about 50 years.

Oddly enough, until this past spring break, the two groups had never shared a stage over the past 155 years.

“These are two of the oldest choirs in the United States, and two choirs that, I think it’s safe to say, have a bit of historical significance, but they’ve never performed together,” said Andrew Clark, director of choral activities and senior lecturer on music at Harvard. “This has always seemed like an omission, or an opportunity that was worth exploring.”

The performance highlighted a two-day gathering of the groups on Fisk University’s campus in Nashville, as part of the Glee Club’s March 13-21 tour across the American South.

G. Preston Wilson Jr., assistant professor of music at Fisk and director of the Jubilee Singers, emphasized the importance of having two days for the groups to work with one another — especially given the Singers’ typically hectic touring schedule.

“It’s usually concert, concert, rehearsal, concert, and we don’t get to exist as musicians together,” said Wilson ahead of the collaboration. “But we’re going to have time for the students to just engage and eat and have conversation. … That’s what makes our performances meaningful. We can sing notes on the page all day long, but what are we doing after that?”

The visit included a “choral share,” when both ensembles got a chance to work under the other ensemble’s conductor.

Preston McNulty Socha, a College sophomore and this year’s tour manager, said he and other members of the club were inspired by the cohesiveness of the Jubilee Singers, who often perform without a conductor or musical accompaniment.

“They all look around, and they’re so deeply connected to each other,” he said. “Almost every person is both a soloist, a conductor, and a member of the team at the same time.”

He called their rehearsals together a mindset shift. While he said he came in thinking of ensemble singing as slotting into a preformed puzzle, it was different with the Fisk singers.

“It was very much — this is my piece; I’ve embodied this piece. This piece is now a part of me,” he said. “And I have this active ownership and potential to really steward and find the direction or inform where the piece is going.”

At the standing-room-only concert at Spero Dei Church in Nashville, the groups performed individual programs and two numbers together: “Witness,” a spiritual arranged by Jack Halloran, and “Due Glory,” composed by Braxton Shelley, a Yale professor.

Shelley, who formerly taught at Harvard and is a minister and performer, joined the chorus during the performance — with his close friend Wilson soloing.

Wilson, a former member of the Jubilee Singers, said he was excited about the Glee Club collaboration.

“I just want to make sure the people know who the Jubilee Singers are in perpetuity — not just because you read about it in a book,” he said. “Come to our concert, visit our campus, take a tour of our campus, and learn about just how wonderful Fisk is and the Jubilee Singers are. Doing this collaboration with Harvard helps that cause.”

The performance is one of several collaborations between the Glee Club and prominent HBCUs over the past few years. These include a 2022 festival weekend collaboration with The Aeolians of Oakwood University, who performed with the Glee Club and The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College in Sanders Theatre.

It’s Clark’s hope that the Jubilee Singers can soon spend a week at Harvard, as the Aeolians did.

Wilson says he’s ready to go.

“Send the invitation and the welcome wagon,” Wilson said, “and I’ll be up there.”