Jubilee Singers, performed in Ipswich, ca. 1887 (Image courtesy of Picture Ipswich)
The Fisk Jubilee Singers were an African-American capella ensemble, meaning that they sang in a group or solo without accompanying instruments. Members were either emancipated slaves or the children of such. The original group began in 1871 singing slave songs and plantation melodies to audiences as a way to raise money for the Fisk University for emancipated slaves in Nashville, Tennessee. Their popularity grew and they toured America, England, Europe and Australia.
The Jubilee Singers visited Ipswich on several occasions to the delight of audiences here. Their repertoire consisted of spiritual songs such as Nobody knows the trouble I see, In Jordan River, I’ve been redeemed, and Sweet, Bye and Bye,
On the night of Monday 14 October, 1879, the New Princess’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company and Lewis’s Original Georgia Jubilee Singers performed at the School of Arts in Ipswich. They opened with the moral and religious drama adapted from Mrs Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ or ‘Life among the Lowly’. The Ipswich Herald and Advertiser, 14 October, 1879 noted that ‘the singing was a special feature in the entertainment, the songs and choruses being splendid’.
Another occasion on Thursday, 25 August 1887, The Ipswich Herald and Advertiser reads ‘From the opening number “Steal away to Jesus” to the last “The Lord Bless me” they took hold of the listeners at once. The Celebrated Fisk Jubilee Singers have come, they have sung, and they have conquered’.
In August of 1889, the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their second and final tour of Queensland, en route to India, China and Japan. They sang to crowds of people at the Ipswich School of Arts, changing the program and adding new glees, new quartets and new solos from modern composers. The group consisted of nine vocalists, four gentleman and five ladies – three of whom were sopranos, two contraltos, two tenors and two bassos together with the pianist, Miss Leota F. Henson. The first half of the program showcased the slave songs and old plantation melodies while the second half pieces were more well-known popular songs. The singers were raucously encored. The Fisk Jubilee Singers still continue to perform their spiritual songs today.