Harvey Brough - Freedom Song: When Gospel Came to the Empire

Freedom Song: When Gospel Came to the Empire, tells the true story of the Jubilee Singers.

In 1871 a group of singers from Nashville, Tennessee, took to the road to raise money for their university. But this was no ordinary student choir. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were freed slaves. Their mission was not only to build the first black University after emancipation but to fight for the right of all African Americans to be educated.

A century and a half later, community choir Vox Holloway is teaming up with the Hackney Empire Community Choir and young people from local schools to tell the Jubilee Singers' inspiring story. Working from diaries, historical records and the choir's own songbook, composer Harvey Brough and playwright Justin Butcher have reconstructed their struggles.

The choir is joined by a professional band and soloists on a musical journey which celebrates the power of music to overcome oppression and bring people from all backgrounds together.