Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora

The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers

The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers (AMJS), known as "America's foremost Negro choir," have played a significant role in the development of African American sacred music traditions in the United States and are among the most honored singing ensembles in the world. The AMJS was founded by choral director Albert McNeil. McNeil was inspired by the story of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, an all black college choir founded in 1871, made up of four black men and seven black women who gained international fame traveling throughout the United States and Europe giving concerts singing four-part a cappella arrangements of sacred songs called spirituals. In 1968, the AMJS went on their first European tour. Since then, they have travled the globe on 18 sold-out European tours, 12 tours of the United States and Canada, and tours of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America. They were selected three times to serve the U.S. State Department and USIS Cultural Exchange Program, traveling to East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, India, North and West Africa, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

Hear the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers perform "I Wanna Be Ready," "In Dat Great Gettin Up Mornin," "O Happy Day," "John the Relevator," "Precious Lord," and "Go Down Moses."
Learn more about the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers in the Albert J. McNeil Collection and the Virginia L. White Collection.

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