In 1873, the Fisk Jubilee Singers embarked on a gruelling international tour that changed the course of history. Their remarkable story is told in a new oratorio
In 1873, a choir of African American students – all but two of them former slaves – set off for London on a fund-raising tour. Recommended by Mark Twain, who wrote “I would walk seven miles to hear them sing again ... they reproduce the true melody of the plantations”, the Fisk Jubilee Singers went on to give concerts across Europe and beyond, thereby introducing spirituals to the world.
In England, the prime minister William Gladstone invited them for a private breakfast. Queen Victoria put in a special request for them to sing Steal Away, and it has become part of Nashville folklore that it was the Queen’s delighted praise that gave the choir’s Tennessee hometown the soubriquet Music City.
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