Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers 2016-2017
Baruch J. Whitehead, Artistic Director
Daniel Block, Student Conductor
Oliver Scoot, Accompanist
Soprano
Alto Continued
Bass/Baritone
Eloise Barrett
Sherley-Ann Belleus
Susan Brown
*Juliana Child
Mihee Choi
Juliette Corazón
^Enaw Elonge
Christine Evans
Catherine Exantus
Mary Beth Grant
Brittany Jaromin
Susan Long
Kathleen Lilly
^Lorraine E Maxwell
Janet Morgan
Anna O’Connell
Michelle Peterson
Stella Rivera
Asha Sanaker
Martha L. Smith
Moriah Tebor Shaw
*Aquiala Walden
Amber Ward
Judelle White
^Laura White
Cordelia Wilson
Paula E F Younger
Candace Collmer
Laurie Damiani
*Darius Elmore
Barbara C. Harrison
Thea Hollman
Susan Kelley
Rhoda Linton
Carolyn McMaster
*Alison Melchionna
Markeisha Miner
Hannah Morris
Tina Nilsen-Hodges
April Peress
Joan Spielholz
Anna Steinkraus
Heather Stewart
Maggie Storm
Alicia Swords
Gillie Waddington
Christian Brand
Tad Brennan
Ken Brown
Hayden Bustamante
Brian Cutler
Johnathan Fulcher
Jim Grant
Peter Kelly
Roosevelt Lee
^William Leichty
Giancarlo Levano
Art Lustgarten
*Marshall Pokrentowski
Tim Shenk
Josiah Spellman
Holden Turner
*D’quan Tyson
Stephen Westin
*Michael White
Joshua Williams
Alto
Josephine A Allen
Mara Alper
Monipel Ansong
Laura Batten
D’Laney Bowry
*Annie Brady
Judy Clay
Tenor:
*Daniel Block
*Andrew Carr
David Caughery
Millicent L Clarke-Maynard
Bill Fry
Vicki Gayle
Wendy Henderson
Barbara Kane Lewis
Bill Klepack
Mark Piechota
Susan Robinson
*Student Assistant
^On leave
The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS), which was founded in 2010 by Dr. Baruch
Whitehead, associate professor of music education at Ithaca College, is dedicated to the
preservation of the Negro Spirituals. This group of community singers, directed by Dr.
Whitehead, was named in honor of current Ithaca resident Dorothy Cotton, the civil
rights pioneer who served as education director for the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. DCJS has more than 80 members of
different ages (18 to 78), heritages and backgrounds, including more than a dozen Ithaca
College voice students who perform many of the solos.
The mission of DCJS is to preserve and share the Negro Spiritual and use its themes of
sorrow, despair and hope to promote racial healing and social justice. Education is an
additional focus – during concerts, Director Whitehead often introduces the songs with
information about their hidden meanings or history or their significance to enslaved
Africans of the time.
These spirituals have a unique ability to convey perseverance and hope and to pull people
together to gather strength to get through difficult times. In 2007 the U.S. Congress
officially designated African American spirituals a “national treasure."
DCJS will make its debut in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts this coming Mothers Day May 14, 2017.
Sankofa, “Go back to fetch it,” is a symbol of the wisdom of learning from
the past to build for the future.
Dr. Baruch J. Whitehead is an associate professor of
music education at Ithaca College and the founding
director of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, which is
dedicated to the preservation of the Negro Spiritual. He
also founded the Orff-Schulwerk certification program,
a music education that views music as a basic system
like language, at Ithaca College and Marshall
University and is the Director of the annual Orff
Certification Training Course at Boston University.
His other areas of expertise include diversity in music
education; gospel music and its preservation within
mainstream musical settings; African-American music;
and the music of the Civil Rights Movement.
Dr. Whitehead has been a featured speaker/workshop presenter at many state, national
and international conferences, including the International Arts and Humanities
conference in Honolulu; MENC, NYSSMA, NJMEA and the American Orff-Schulwerk
Association national conferences; the West Virginia Orff-Schulwerk Association, Twin
Tier Orff Association and the Texas Orff-Schulwerk Association; the International Music
Education Conference in Tenerife, Spain; the Society of Music in Porto Alegre, Brazil;
the World Music Village in Helsinki, Finland.
The author of several academic papers, Dr. Whitehead is author of the chapter on music
of the Civil Rights Movement in the book “Music and Conflict Transformation:
Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics,” (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2008).
As the founding director of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers since 2010, Dr.
Whitehead seeks to preserve the formal concert style Negro Spiritual, which he believe
carries the power to promote social justice and racial healing. The chorus will perform at
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Mother’s Day, 2017. He has directs or has
directed the “Unshackled” Gospel Choir in Syracuse, the SUNY Cortland Gospel Choir,
the Voices Multicultural Chorus, among others; has served as a clinician, conductor, and
adjudicator in West Virginia, Florida, Texas, Ohio and Central New York; and taught
marching band and concert band for 15 years.
As a peace activist, Dr. Whitehead presented a peace concert with the famous Israeli
composer and performer Yair Dalal with a group of young people from the Muslim and
Jewish communities. His “Peace Cantata” premiered at the 2006 Martin Luther King
Celebration at Ithaca College. His community service awards include the 2016 Henry
Highland Garnet Lodge #40, Doriantia Chapter award; 2015 Southside Community Spirit
Award; 2014 Martin Luther King Peacemaker Award; and the 2005 Ithaca College
Excellence in Service Award.
He holds a doctorate from Capella University, an M.F.A. from the University of Florida,
and B.A. and B.M.E. degrees from the University of Cincinnati.
Dorothy Cotton
Born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Dorothy Cotton
attended Dillard High School. She was a student at Shaw
University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and transferred
after one year to Virginia State College in Petersburg,
Virginia where she studied English and Library Science.
She received her Master’s Degree in Special Education
and Speech Therapy from Boston University. Dr. Cotton
was the Education Director for the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference for twelve years working directly
with Dr. King and preparing many of what he called “the
ground crew” in various areas. Dorothy served on his
executive staff and was part of his entourage to Oslo, Norway, where he received the
Nobel Peace Prize. She served as the Vice President of Filed Operations for the Dr.
M.L.K. Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. She translates years of
experience and learning in words and song bearing messages of hope. Through
“Songs of the Movement,” laughter, and storytelling, Dorothy synthesizes the
lessons from our history into a hardworking vision for the future. Dorothy gets us to
laugh, sing, and join together to create a more caring and humane world. She is an
educator, a speaker, singer, peacemaker, and a visionary.
Music was important in the Civil Rights Movement. She has taught America, and
many other places, the songs of the Civil Rights Movement, including “We Shall
Overcome.” This theme song of the movement has gone done in history, but it is not
the only one. “We Shall Overcome,” is a song that needs to be understood if one is
to stay faithful to its origin. It can be sung triumphantly, it can be sung prayerfully.
Whether sung prayerfully or in the spirit of triumph, it should be sung with hope and
determination of victory, of achieving positive goals. This song emerged against
oppression. It came out of suffering! Dorothy reminds us that “We Shall Overcome”
was – and should remain – a sacred song, a prayer song. It can be sung with joy and
great anticipation, and always hope. “We Shall Overcome” is hope made flesh. This
is what Dorothy stands for and what she speaks for today. Her witness about
yesterday preserves the lessons from earlier times and shares hope for our challenges
today. We need to learn what we can from the journey of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and find our own strength and our own vision for how each of us can serve in our
own way. She is proud to be associated with the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers and
enthusiastically supports their mission of preserving the Negro Spirituals and
spreading goodwill through music.
Want to Join Us?
2017 Audition Dates:
Wednesday January 18th, 2017 &
Wednesday August 16th, 2017
6-8 p.m. First Baptist Church
309 N. Cayuga St.
Contact Baruch Whitehead at
[email protected]
Come and help us celebrate our
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Debut Concert
March 14th, 2017 6:00 p.m.
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At the Northeast Corner
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Rehearsal Home of the
Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
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Sunday Services at 10:00 am
Followed by Christian Education for everyone
P. O. Box 254
607-273-5800
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Sing it out loud
We are proud to support the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
2016-17 Concert Season.
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St. Catherine of Siena Church
302 St. Catherine Circle
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-257-2493
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Office Hours: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday
Mass Schedule: 5 p.m. Saturday, 9 & 11:30 a.m. Sunday
600
600
to a year of promoting
racial
healing
through
music
with peace, love, justice, and understanding,
the alto section
dorothy cotton jubilee singers
Kathleen Lilley MSW, LCSW
Psychotherapist
Best Wishes
to the
Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
For their 2016-2017 Concert Season
233 S. Albany St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 272-8600
607-266-5300 or www.kai.kendal.org
“The civil rights movement that rearranged the social
order of this country did not emanate from the halls
of the Harvards and the Princetons and Cornells.
Kathleen Lilley MSW, LCSW
It came from simple unlettered people who
Psychotherapist
learned that they had the right to stand tall
and that nobody can ride a
back that isn’t bent.”
233 S. Albany St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 272-8600
620 WestLilley
SenecaMSW,
Street, Ithaca
Kathleen
LCSW
Psychotherapist
- Dorothy F. Cotton
823 Danby Road – Ithaca, NY – 14850
[email protected]
(607) 272-1986
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