About

Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers

The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) was founded in 2010 by Dr. Baruch Whitehead, Associate Professor of Music Education at Ithaca College, and is dedicated to the preservation of the Negro Spiritual. This group of community singers was named in honor of Dorothy Cotton, a civil rights pioneer who served as Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where she worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was a longtime Ithaca resident until her passing in 2018.

Currently, the DCJS perform at two semi-annual concerts, as invited participants for numerous community events and organizations (in both Ithaca and beyond), and as part of formal programs at Ithaca College and Cornell University. The programs at Ithaca College and Cornell have been in conjunction with celebrations of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, the Willard Straight Student Demonstration Commemoration, and Black History Month.

In 2007, the art of the Negro Spiritual was acknowledged by Congress as a National Treasure of the United States. The mission of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers of Ithaca, New York is to the preserve the uniquely American art form of the formal concert style Negro Spiritual.

We welcome to our chorus all people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual preference, political views or socio‐economic status. Our singers share a common love of this amazing body of music and the fervent belief that this music still carries the power to bring healing and social justice to our world. The DCJS, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, Ithaca-based organization, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of civil rights leader Dorothy Cotton, and to furthering her message of freedom and hope through music.

DCJS has 100 members, including two dozen Ithaca College voice students. The students perform many of the solos and sing alongside community members of different ages (18 to 82), heritages and backgrounds. The diverse chorus performs local, nationally and internationally, with concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; Toronto, Canada; Arlington, VA; Goldsboro, NC; Utica, Binghamton, and Elmira, NY; and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Dorothy Cotton Youth Singers

The Dorothy Cotton Youth Singers was established in 2019 for youth ages 8-18 to sing together the diverse music from the African-American tradition while promoting the vision of social justice inspired by the work of Dorothy Cotton. The group is directed by Ms. Emily Preston, Associate Director of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following: Community Arts Partnership, the Dorothy L. Allen Black Gospel Music Fund of the Community Foundation, The Erin Aljoe Schlather Memorial Fund of the Community Foundation, The Tompkins County Tourism Program, The Tompkins County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. We are a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit corporation.