Jessye Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type.

By the composer's own admission this cycle (1905) was an attempt to do for Negro melodies what Brahms, Dvorak and Grieg had done for their own native folk music. Each Melody is a tiny theme and variations with the original melody is clearly stated at the outset. The first seven are based on folk tunes from Africa and the remainder on American Negro songs. 

He called himself an Anglo-African and fought against race prejudice all his short life. He incorporated black traditional music with concert music. The first performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was described by the principal of the Royal College of Music as 'one of the most remarkable events in modern English musical history'.

Slave Songs of the United States was a collection of African American music consisting of 136 songs. Published in 1867, it was the first, and most influential, collection of spirituals to be published.

Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are vocal artists and students at Fisk University in Nashville, TN., who sing and travel worldwide. The original Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871 and were instrumental in preserving this unique American musical tradition known today as Negro spirituals.

A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong.