Free Concert with the Harvard Glee Club and Fisk Jubilee Singers

Harvard Glee Club & the Fisk Jubilee Singers
Thursday, March 19, 2026 | 6:30 PM
Free Admission

Join the historic Harvard Glee Club, America’s oldest collegiate choir (founded in 1858), under the direction of Andrew Clark, for an inspiring evening of choral music in collaboration with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, conducted by Ahkeem Lee.

This dynamic program spans centuries and styles, with selections ranging from early American and Renaissance works by William Billings and Samuel Webbe, to masterworks by Brahms, Madetoja, and Carl Orff. Audiences will also experience powerful 20th- and 21st-century voices including Florence Reece, Stephen Sondheim, Trevor Weston, and Brandon Williams, alongside spirituals and newly arranged works written especially for the Harvard Glee Club.

From sacred choral traditions to contemporary social commentary, this free concert celebrates the enduring power of music to unite generations and communities.

HARVARD GLEE CLUB REPERTOIRE TO BE SELECTED FROM:

Chester (1770/1778) | William Billings (1746-1800)

Glorious Apollo (1787) | Samuel Webbe (1740-1816)

L’amour de Moy (15th century) traditional | arr. Alice Parker (1925-2023)

Alto Rhapsody, op. 53 (1869) | Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

De profundis (1925) | Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947)

Which Side Are You On? (1931) | Florence Reece (1900-1986)

Not While I’m Around from Sweeney Todd (1979) | Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)

These Things Shall Never Die (2013) | Brandon Williams (b.1984)

Selections from Bonhoeffer (2015) | Thomas Lloyd (b.1952)

My Lord What a Morning | Traditional Spiritual

As Children Walk Ye in Gods Love | R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)

arr. For the Harvard Glee Club by Marques L.A. Garrett (2025)

Sounds (2024) | Trevor Weston (b. 1967)

selections from Carmina Burana (1937) | Carl Orff (1895-1982)

The Harvard Glee Club, America’s oldest collegiate choir, is a tenor-bass choral ensemble founded at Harvard University in 1858. Guided by the four cardinal virtues of glee, good humor, unity, and joy, the Glee Club aims to cultivate and sustain the art of tenor-bass choral music across centuries of tradition. The ensemble performs at home at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre and on both domestic and international tours, with recent performances across Western Europe, the Dominican Republic, Korea, Japan, and throughout the United States. A student-run and -managed 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Glee Club provides members opportunities for leadership and arts management including planning tours, organizing concerts with collaborating universities, and marketing performances. While traditionally drawing on repertoire from the collegiate, folk, and sacred choral traditions of Europe and North America, the Glee Club has also commissioned contemporary composers representing a broad array of experiences and styles, including Bongani Magatyana, Molly Joyce, Karen Thomas, Morten Lauridsen, Robert Kyr, and Sir John Tavener. The Glee Club features a student-led a capella subset, Glee Club Lite, which further broadens this rich repertoire with music from the popular, musical theater, and jazz traditions.
To learn more about the Harvard Glee Club, visit www.harvardgleeclub.org.

Andrew Clark is Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University, where he leads the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, and other ensembles, and teaches conducting, choral literature, and music and disability studies. Since 2010, he has guided the Harvard Choruses in acclaimed performances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and internationally across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

Committed to equity, access, and community engagement, Clark has built partnerships with schools, correctional institutions, healthcare facilities, shelters, and senior communities. He has organized residencies with distinguished artists including Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sweet Honey in the Rock, and has commissioned and premiered more than fifty new works, launching the Harvard Choruses New Music Initiative to support student composers.

Praised as “first rate” (Boston Globe), his ensembles have collaborated with major orchestras and artists including the National Symphony, Boston Pops, Handel and Haydn Society, Stephen Sondheim, and Dave Brubeck. Previously, he led the Providence Singers and Tufts University choral program. Clark holds degrees from Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon, and Boston University.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are vocal artists and students at Fisk University in Nashville, TN., who sing and travel worldwide.

The original Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871 and were instrumental in preserving this unique American musical tradition known today as Negro spirituals.

They broke racial barriers in the US and abroad in the late 19th century and entertained Kings and Queens in Europe. At the same time, they raised money in support of their beloved school.

In 1999, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were featured in Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, a PBS award-winning television documentary series, produced by WGBH/Boston.

In July 2007, the Fisk Jubilee Singers went on a sacred journey to Ghana at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy. It was a history making event, as the ensemble traveled to Ghana for the first time and joined in the celebration of the nation’s Golden Jubilee, the 50th independence anniversary.

In 2008, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected as a recipient of the 2008 National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artists and patrons of the arts. The award was presented by President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, during a ceremony at the White House.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue the tradition of singing the Negro spiritual around the world. This allows the ensemble to share this rich culture globally, while preserving this unique music.

Dr. G. Preston Wilson, Jr. serves as Director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers® and holds the Mike Curb Endowed Chair at historic Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. A Durham, North Carolina native and 2010 graduate of Fisk, he is a proud alumnus of the Jubilee Singers, having performed under the late Dr. Paul T. Kwami. During his undergraduate years, the ensemble received the National Medal of the Arts, the nation’s highest artistic honor.

Dr. Wilson earned a Master of Music in Choral Music Education from Bowling Green State University, where he was named a Presidential Graduate Scholar, and later completed a Ph.D. in Music Education at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on urban music education and culturally responsive pedagogy, and he has published and presented nationally and internationally on issues of music, identity, and equity.

Before returning to Fisk, Dr. Wilson taught in the Toledo Public Schools, directed multiple choral ensembles, and remained deeply active in church music ministry. A dedicated educator, scholar, and conductor, he continues the rich legacy of the Fisk Jubilee Singers while inspiring new generations through performance, research, and community engagement.

Dr. Wilson is an active member of ACDA, NAfME, College Music Society, and several honor societies and fraternities.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Classical Movements