Brief History
The Kalamazoo Sacred Harp Singers group was created following visitor Warren Steel’s singing school at Kalamazoo College on February 8, 1997. Zaide Pixley organized this event for the freshman class under that year’s theme: “Goin’ South.” Experienced singers from Ann Arbor, Goshen, and Chicago attended to give the day a real Sacred Harp sound. The event was publicized in the Kalamazoo Gazette.
Martha Beverly requested the registration cards from that day and gathered together singers twice in the spring of 1997 to sing at K College. After taking the summer off, in September 1997 we began to sing monthly on third Sundays at the Beverly home, which continues.
The Kalamazoo Annual All-day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds began on the third Sunday of July 1999.
- 1999 – 1st annual singing
- 2019 – 21st annual singing
- For three years we canceled our all-day singing because of COVID-19
- 2026 – 25th annual singing (28th anniversary of our first annual all-day singing)
Will Fitzgerald added twice-monthly Sacred Harp Workshops in September 2024 on Monday evenings, which provide quick learning of the shape notes and have added new singers to our group.
Earlier History
Singer Marjorie Harrington dug up some early news articles about Sacred Harp singing in Kalamazoo.
- "Oldtime singing gains new followers" (February 2, 1997)
- "Get in 'shape' at WMU singing convention" (July 11, 1999)
- "Second annual 'Sacred Harp' event is Sunday" (July 13, 2000)
- "Music from the Sacred Harp: Using only the voice, singers keep musical tradition alive" (July 13, 2002)
- "Sacred Harp Singers join together in 'democratic music-making'" (July 13, 2008)
Earlier Singing Schools in Southwest Michigan
Marjorie Harrington also found an advertisement from March 5, 1847 offering copies of The Sacred Harp, along with evidence of singing schools throughout the region later in the nineteenth century. It is not always clear whether these schools used shape notes.
In 1858, violence broke out at a singing school in Allegan!
In 1871, F. V. Streeter held a singing school for children and a separate one for adults, with the familiar structure of rudiments followed by songs. He was also prepared to direct musical conventions. Two years later, he had become “the well-known Professor of Music” and had added a separate Glee Class.
By 1877, Prof. G. B. Whelan was offering a singing school in Kalamazoo. Anson Baird had “a most successful singing school” with “a full house every night, and the best of order” in Alamo. Residents were very proud of it. Meanwhile, people in Vicksburg were “very anxious to have a singing school.”
Through the 1880s, there is evidence of singing schools in West Cooper, Charleston, East Ross, Galesburg, Kalamazoo, and even on Easter Sunday at Jackson Prison.
A singing school in Comstock was declared desirable in 1886 and again in 1889. There was considerable local confusion about who would run it and when—documented in reports one, two, and three—but it was finally established by early 1890. The class sang from Emerson’s Royal Singer, a round-note book.
More context is available in Jean Lincoln’s 1939 book Music in Michigan Before 1860.