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Earlier this month, Associate Professor of Voice Katherine Jolly both moderated and participated in a discussion titled “,” with other internationally renowned African American opera singers, including Florence Quivar, George Shirley, and Ollie Watts Davis. 

The discussion was produced through SongFest, one of the premiere art song festivals in the country and housed at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where Jolly was served on the festival voice faculty for the current season. Through conversation, the four singers shared their musical heritage and their thoughts on the spiritual genre.

“The impetus for the discussion was two-fold,” says Jolly, who states that the purpose of the talk was to highlight “the importance of the spiritual as an American genre in the classical vocal world, as well as the importance of featuring prominent African American singers, given what is going on in America right now.”

Jolly hopes that singers and non-singers alike will be inspired by the discussion and that it will cause them to “dig deeper into the history of the spiritual, engage with the many recordings, and think about the ways in which African Americans have shaped this genre. Like jazz, it is one of the original American art forms.”

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