Event Information
Venue(s):
Steinway Hall
Price: $.50; $.75 reserved
Performance Forces:
Vocal
Record Information
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
26 February 2025
Performance Date(s) and Time(s)
20 Nov 1873, Evening
Program Details
Given in aid of the Hampton Institute of Hampton, Virginia.
Performers and/or Works Performed
Citations
1)
Announcement: New York Post, 19 November 1873, 2.
“These unique and original vocalists, who are still engaged in raising money for Hampton College, Virginia, will give two concerts—on Thursday and Friday nights of this week—at Steinway Hall. They sing the strange untutored melodies of the southern negroes, often rendering them with peculiar pathos and effect. These curious entertainments were first introduced to the notice of a northern public by the Jubilee singers, who have been most cordially received in England. The Hampton students were next in the field, and in the wild and picturesque quality of their melodies are superior to their predecessors. A third troupe, from North Carolina, has been travelling lately through the Eastern States, meeting with good success, and illustrating their songs by the peculiar gesticulations and dances in vogue in their vicinity.”
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 20 November 1873, 9.
3)
Review: New York Post, 21 November 1873, 2.
“Among those interesting interpreters of nature’s music who are known as the Hampton Singers there are several individuals gifted with voices which the most favored of operatic artists might envy. Notable among these is a basso whose volume and depth of tone are without a parallel in any singer now before our public. The contralto, too, is equally gifted. Last night at Steinway Hall, where this troupe of colored people gave a concert, the excellence of these two vocalists was specially [sic] observable.
During the summer season the Hampton Singers have been in Virginia. We presume they have improved the time, for they certainly come back to us better singers than they were before. In shading and in contrast of tone they now equal several of our more vaunted musical organizations, while they preserve their unaffected demeanor and the wild quaintness so characteristic of their melodies. They represent our only school of original American music—a type of weird melody which in a few generations will disappear entirely. Their remaining concerts at Steinway Hall this and Monday evening should attract the liberal patronage of all who enjoy a unique style of music, as well as of all who are interested in the condition and prospects of the freedmen.”
4)
Review: New-York Times, 21 November 1873, 5.
Brief. “The Hampton singers gave a concert at Steinway Hall last evening, and will give another entertainment at the same place to-night. Their efforts have so often received attention that they do not require notice at present.”
