ITHACA, N.Y. — The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) will present a Holiday Celebration Concert Saturday, Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. in Ford Hall at Ithaca College.
The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee singers, founded in 2010 by Dr. Baruch Whitehead, associate professor of music education at Ithaca College, IS, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that is dedicated to the preservation of the Negro Spirituals and the use of its themes of sorrow, despair, and hope to promote racial healing and social justice.
The chorus hosts about 80 members of different ages (18 to 78), heritages and backgrounds, including some 20 Ithaca College voice students who perform many of the solos; numerous Cornell deans, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees; and a host of community members.
DCJS is named in honor of civil rights pioneer Dorothy Cotton, an Ithaca resident who worked in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inner circle as education director in the 1960s. In 2007 the U.S. Congress officially designated African American spirituals a “national treasure.”
The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers sponsors include The Community Foundation of Tompkins County, the Community Arts Partnership, the Tompkins County Tourism Program, and the Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County.
The concert is free with donations suggested.
Featured image provided.