The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, a traveling company of 12 to 15, a resident group of 29, have garnered international acclaim and focused worldwide attention on the vast body of folk music termed "African-American." Thirty-six years ago (1968) the Singers undertook their first European tour. Today, after 18 sold-out European tours, 12 tours of the United States and Canada, tours of the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America, they are among the most honored singing ensembles in the world. They were selected three times to serve the U.S. State Department and USIS Cultural Exchange Program in areas of the world, known in those days as "behind the Iron Curtain," including East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, India, North and West Africa, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Founder-Director Albert McNeil is well-known to the national choral community, having been honored on four occasions with "Command Performances" before the prestigious American Choral Directors Association in 1981 in New Orleans, in 1985 at their Salt Lake City Convention, at their 1997 convention in San Diego, California, and most recently in February, 2000, at Los Angeles during the ACDA Western Division Convention held on the campus of Loyola-Marymount University. The Singers were headliners at the First Choral Festival in Jaffe (yafo), Israel, in April, 1988. In 1989, on Martin Luther King Sunday, they performed with the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the program aired by CBS Radio and Television. They have had collaborative concerts with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Dale Warland Singers, Chanticleer, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and Pro Musica of El Paso. In the summer of 1992, The Singers made their first Far East Tour of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. That season they went on to Spain to complete concerts at the XXIII Semana de Musica de Camara in Segovia, in the Real Coliseo Carlos III in El Escorial, performing not only their regular fare of Spirituals, but the Siglo de Oro Espanol (Renaissance music of Victoria and Morales).
Early in 1998, the Singers performed in concert version excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess with the Honolulu Symphony, returning to Honolulu after an exciting tour of the Big Island of Hawaii, and Kauai, to a sold-out audience in the recently renovated Hawaii Theatre. During their winter tour, they were invited to record a program for the award-winning radio program "Saint Paul Sunday Morning" aired via National Public Raldio and heard in virtually every state in the country. The program generated hundreds of letters from across the country and Canada. The Men of the Jubilee Singers appeared on New Year's Eve, 1998, before a worldwide TV audience emanating from Shanghai, China, and heralding China's greeting of the new millennium.
In January, 1999, the Singers appeared in Carnegie Hall for Mid-America Productions where they sang works by Nunes-Garcia and Lawrence Farrow. They returned in the Spring of 1999 to Argentina and Uruguay for a series of concerts. The season 1999 concluded with their fourth tour of Japan and finally Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). During the 1999 European tour, they performed in Austria's prestigious Mozarteum (Saltzburg) and Switzerland's new concert hall in Zurich, The Kultureise. Spring, 2000, they completed yet another tour of Spain with a major concert in the National Recital Hall, Madrid. In July, 2000, they gave a major performance in the John Anson Ford Theatre, Los Angeles, and were invited again to represent North America in Taipei, Taiwan, at the International Choral Festival. They performed for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Montgomery County Community College in February, 2001. The 2000-2001 season concluded with performances in St. John's Cathedral in Denver, Colorado, Bethel College in Newton, Kansas, and concert performances of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess with the Pasadena "Pops" Orchestra, Pasadena, California.
The 2001-2002 season opened with a tour of Brazil in November, 2001, with major performances in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and Rio. In January 2002, the Singers began an East Coast Tour commencing in Philadelphia and ending in Atlanta's Spivey Hall (on the Clayton State College Campus). Despite the cold of March, 2002 the Singers began a three-week tour in Denver and performed in seven mid-western states (Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota) In October, the Singers returned to Japan for their fifth tour of the land of the rising sun. A return to Spain in November 2002, closed the season with return performances in The National Recital Hall, Madrid; Barcelona's Palau de Musica, and a debut performance in Las Palmas' magnificent concert hall on the Gran Canarias, one of the seven islands in the Canary Islands over seven hundred miles off the coast of Morocco.
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Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit Fix Me Jesus The Word Was God I Will Arise And Go To Jesus Lit'le Lamb, Lit'le Lamb I Know I've Been Changed Lord, We Give Thanks To Thee Somebody's Knockin' On Yo' Do' This Little Light Of Mine John, The Revelator My Long White Robe See Datee Babe Lit'l Boy Wonderful Counselor |
The 21 mixed-voice singers of Director Albert McNeil sing the powerful, emotion-packed spirituals that have been sung, recorded, rearranged and interpreted, and re-recorded for over 150 years. In these14 songs we have a mixture of the simplicity and complexity of arrangements by Moses Hogan, Jester Hairston, Lena McLinn and Albert McNeil, to the unique settings of young composers and arrangers like Stacey Gibbs, Richard Jackson and Augustus O. Hill. Undine Smith Moore's "Lord We Give Thanks to Thee" was written as a tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Fisk University's original Jubilee Singers. Hogan's "Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit," Hill's "Fix Me Jesus," McLinn's "Lit'le Lamb, Lit'le Lamb," Gibbs' "Somebody's Knockin' At Yo' Do'" and "See Dat Babe," McNeil's dynamic "John the Revelator" and Hairston's joyous "Wonderful Counselor" are particularly fine. Authentic, timeless music sung with passion and fire by one of the great Gospel ensembles!
Listen to The Word Was God in Real Audio
| 3054 CD $14.98 |
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Siyahamba'ekukhanyet'kwenkhos Dry Bones Glory, Glory Hallelujah Open The Window Noah He's Got The Whole World In His Hands Hallelujah! (Been Down Into The Sea) Sometimes I feel Like A Motherless Child Oh Mary Don't You Weep Jesus Lay Your Head in da Winder The Word Was God Oh Make Me Holy All My Trials Walk Together Children John the Revelator Rocka My Soul |
An LA-born native Californian, Albert McNeil earned Bachelors and Masters degrees at UCLA and did his doctorate studies at USC, the Westminster Choir College of Princeton and the Univ. of Lausanne, Switzerland. He has been conducting groups and church choirs for most of his adult life, and has dedicated himself to upholding a tradition of choral excellence as Founder/Director of the McNeil Jubilee Singers in 1968. Since then the Singers have earned international acclaim for their vast repertoire of African-American folk music, focusing on the rich genre known as Negro Spirituals as well as gospel, secular folk songs, calypsos and other African-Caribbean and African vocal forms. Their repertory also consists of concert works by distinguished African-American composers and arrangers along with Classical Opera, Sacred Music and Musical Theater. The 15 selections in "Best of Jubilee" draw on the best performances of one of the most honored choral ensembles. It's understandably hard to pick favorites, but the South African freedom song "Siyahamba'ekukhanuen'kwenkhos" (We are marching in the light of God), "Glory, Glory Hallelujah," "Open the Window, Noah," "Hallelujah! (Been Down Into The Sea)," "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep," "Oh Make Me Holy," "All My Trials," "Walk Together Children" and "Rocka My Soul" are particularly fine. Inspirational and moving songs, every one the best of the best!
Listen to Open The Window Noah and Rocka My Soul in Real Audio.
| 2893 CD $14.98 |
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Treat yourself to seven, rousing spirituals by Albert McNeil, who is well-known to the national choral community, having been honored on four occasions with "Command Performances" before the prestigious American Choral Directors Association in 1981 in New Orleans, in 1985 at their Salt Lake City Convention, at their 1997 convention in San Diego, California, and most recently in February, 2000, at Los Angeles during the ACDA Western Division Convention held on the campus of Loyola-Marymount University.
| 3336 SHEETMUSIC $8.50 |
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