Chorus
Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
The DCJS offers deep, human connection and learning for a wide swath of our Ithaca community. Our year-round residents stand as the origin of our group and still serve as dedicated and enthusiastic participants in our work. They are parents, professionals, and retirees from a wide variety of faiths and belief systems. Some have extensive musical backgrounds and some do not, but all bring commitment and spirit to our endeavor.
Participation in the DCJS also serves as an educational opportunity for numerous Ithaca College students who have been part of the singing group since the fall of 2012. They have conducted songs for our concerts, created original arrangements, performed solos, run sectional rehearsals, and provided voice lessons, all while finding a deeper sense of belonging and connection beyond the boundaries of campus life.
Finally, the DCJS has expanded its reach to touch the lives of Ithaca’s youth. Children from the Southside Community Center’s Afterschool Program have performed with us, as well as students from Boynton Middle School, Ithaca High School, and the Vitamin L Children’s Chorus. Our own Dorothy Cotton Youth Singers was launched just prior to the pandemic and we are excited to reconvene this group in the second half of 2022 in order to widen the impact of this powerful, authentically American music.
Our diverse community singers will continue to seek ways to educate and inspire our community through sharing this repertoire. It is a privilege to come together in Dorothy’s name to pursue this meaningful and moving work.
While the main focus of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers is to share the music of the "Negro Spirituals" with others, there is a substantial educational piece that is woven into the fabric of our singing. At our concerts, our director Baruch Whitehead often introduces the different songs with narration about their hidden meanings, history, or significance to enslaved Africans of the time. Sometimes we have a more formal presentation of some aspect of the history of the spirituals. For example, at our May, 2012 concert, Paula E. F. Younger presented a narrative about the connection between the words of some of the spirituals with the Underground Railroad, which offered a secret route to freedom in the North for African slaves; she did another presentation about Sojourner Truth in connection with a song featuring her words, which the DCJS performed at the Ithaca College program celebrating Black History Month on February 22, 2013.