Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 1994 The FiskJubilee Singers celebrate "the dignity of man. " Quartet, along with Marian Anderson's great teacher, tenor Roland Hayes. Mrs. Lee became the first Black pro­ fe ssional musician at the New York Metropolitan Opera, as vocal coach in 1954-56, hired just before Marian Anderson's 1955 debut, and was profes­ sor at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia fo r over twenty years. She is known as the teacher and inspiration fo r dozens of singers, including Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. Baritone Robert McFerrin studied at EIRNS/Dianne Sare Fisk University himself; there, after see­ ing Marian Anderson perform, he Fisk University Concert decided on the spot, with little knowl­ edge of European music, that he wanted to become a singer of German lieder and 'Let Freedom Sin ' Italian opera. After fu rther studies at g Chicago Musical College, he won the etropolitan Opera baritone The musical program began with New York Metropolitan Opera's MRobert McFerrin and musical the Nashville Boys' Choir performing "Auditions of the Air" in 1953. After Civil Rights leader Sylvia Olden Lee led "Come Bow Down and Worship Him." Anderson's ground-breaking debut as a tribute to the dignity of man at Fisk They were fo llowed by the Fisk Jubilee the firstBlack artist at the Metropolitan, University Memorial Chapel in Singers, directed by Delisse Hall, McFerrin became the fi rst African­ Nashville, Tenn. on Nov. 10, on the singing "Oh, Freedom," "Precious American male artist at the Met the fo urth anniversary of the fa ll of the Lord," and "Wasn't That a Mighty same year (1955), singing Amonasro in Berlin Wall, and in celebration of the D ay.?" Verdi's Aida, and starring in Rigaletta birthday of Friedrich Schiller, the Poet and other roles. of Freedom. McFerrin, Olden Lee Perform Featured in the program were the Then Robert McFerrin and Slyvia Nashville Boys' Choir and the Fisk Olden Lee took the stage to perform Jubilee Singers. Dr. Reavis Mitchell, of from Schumann's Dichterliebe, Amelia Bo nton the office of the President of Fisk, "Cortegiani" from Verdi's Rigaletta, and y opened the concert by noting that Fisk a selection of Hall Johnson spirituals. ivil Rights heroine Amelia was the first university fo unded after Both McFerrin and Olden Lee have C Boynton Robinson was honored in the Civil War to make the best Classical ties to Fisk's Classical tradition. Mrs. Selma, Ala. on Nov. 14, at a ceremony education available to African­ Lee's great-grandfather, Nelson Merry, held at the National Voting Rights Americans: "The program presented was the only Black fo under of Fisk, Museum and Institute, which opened a here tonight, is in that tradition of the which was set up by the American month-long Living History Exhibit to Fisk Jubilee singers, and of those who Missionary Society in 1866. A slave who celebrate her commitment to Civil had fo unded our University." gained his freedom, Merry also founded Rights. Mrs. Robinson, who is now the The Fisk Singers are named after the the Spruce Street Baptist Church in vice-chairman of the Schiller Institute, Old Testament Jubilee, the fiftieth year, 1855, the major Black church in was surrounded by seventy-five fa mily in which all slaves were to be freed and Nashville until the 1960's. Liz Merry, members, friends, and associates during all debts fo rgiven; in the United States, Mrs. Lee's grandmother, was one of the the afternoon program, which fe atured 1864 was known as the "Yea r of the original Jubilee Singers. Mrs. Lee's an exhibit organized around the theme Jubilee." By 1874, after traversing the mother, Sylvia Olden, was a piano stu­ "Footprints to Freedom." u.s. and Europe, the group of eleven dent at Fisk and one of the finest sopra­ The event recalled the nearly fifty singers, eight of them ex-slaves, had nos of her day. Her fa ther, J. Clarence, years of fighting fo r justice fo r all raised the money to build the school. was a singer in the fa mous Fisk Americans, which began in the 1930's, 74 © 1994 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited..