About the Fisk Jubilee Singers®…
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 student choral ensemble and took it on tour to earn money for the University. The group left campus on October 6, 1871, and 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 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 Great Chicago Fire. When they reached Columbus, the next city on tour, the students were physically and emotionally drained. 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, Chapter 25. Continued perseverance and beautiful voices began to change attitudes among the predominantly white audiences. Eventually skepticism gave way to standing ovations and critical praise. Gradually they earned enough money to cover expenses and return to Fisk.
In 1872, they sang at the World Peace Festival in Boston and at the end of the year President Ulysses S. Grant invited them to perform at the White House. In 1873, the group grew to eleven members and toured Europe for the first time. Funds raised that year were used to construct the school’s first permanent building, Jubilee Hall. Today, Jubilee Hall, designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior in 1975, is one of the oldest structures on campus. The beautiful Victorian Gothic building houses a floor-to-ceiling portrait of the original Jubilee Singers, commissioned by Queen Victoria during the 1873 tour as a gift from England to Fisk.
About the Conductor…
G. Preston Wilson, Jr., is the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers® in the school of humanities and behavioral social sciences at the historic Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. A native of Durham, North Carolina, Wilson returned to Fisk and to the Fisk Jubilee Singers®, in which he sang under the direction of the late Paul T. Kwami. After graduating from Fisk University and Bowling Green State University, Wilson began teaching at various schools in the Toledo Public Schools system in Toledo, Ohio. His longest tenure was at Start High School where he oversaw five choral ensembles, the school dance team, and served as an advisor for the African American Culture Club.
In June 2021, Wilson graduated from the University of Missouri, earning a doctorate in music education. He then served as the assistant professor of music education at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, before returning to his alma mater. Wilson is the chair of diversity initiatives for the Tennessee American Choral Directors Association and serves on the board of directors for the Nashville African American Wind Symphony, the Music City Review, and Vocal Arts Nashville.