Upliftment
or, Spirituals: the new that grew in spite of white
projected for 2025

African-American Spirituals are Sacred Ground. Things are “rightest” when they come from pure places, untainted by hopes of fame or adulation of others…places of faith…places of survival…places of grief…places of sorrow…places of perseverance.

Spirituals were not written for an audience; they were created for personal and universal survival of Enslaved People. Personal in that internalizing and singing these songs might have lightened a daily load, even if slightly. Universal in that the texts in many of those songs were code language that would signal that freedom was coming.

André Thomas, renowned choral conductor and scholar, reminds us that itinerant preachers would preach to the slaves to deliver the message of “Slaves, obey your masters.” What these spiritual hucksters didn’t foresee was that the Enslaved People would find heroes in the scriptures, like Moses, Joshua, Daniel, and David. The preachers wouldn’t know that their attempts to subjugate incited a musical canon that has triumphed to this day and will continue to do so.

In this concert, we’ll explore the raw material provided by Whites to fuel the Spiritual, address the musical cross-pollination that occurred in the formation of Spirituals, and enjoy some Spirituals newly arranged.