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Albert McNeil

Perfect for High School & University Performances

Fantastic For High School Choral Concerts

University Level Challenging Spiritual Arrangements

"Al McNeil has been a pioneer and advocate for the African American sound. His spiritual vocal arrangements and his long performance career with the Albert McNeil Singers were groundbreakers in the choral field. Did I mention he is also a great human being?"

Allan Robert Petker

Albert McNeil

Choral Spiritual Arrangements

Social Justice

Now more than ever social justice has become an increasing conversation. Music allows us the gift of connecting with one another regardless of skin color or race. Hearing each others stories and struggles through music is what connects us.

Spirituals in Worship

Founded in bibical stories but and personified in physical and emotional hardships, Spirituals remind us of God’s promises to the faithful.

Spirituals in Education

Spirituals allow students to analyze what occurred during the eighteen hundreds.

Our Featured Reviews

Albert MacNeil is a legend in our field; a man who has honored the African-American traditions of the past and brought them into the present with new life and vigor. His decades of excellence as a teacher, scholar, conductor and mentor are reflected in the extraordinary quality of his choral arrangements.

Bradley Ellingboe
Senior Editor, National Music Publishing

About the Albert McNeil Collection

Albert McNeil

Mr. McNeil was born on February 14,1920 in Los Angeles, California. He was adopted by John and Rodia McNeil where he grew up in Watts, California along with his two sisters. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles, and did doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, the Westminster Choir College of Princeton, and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He was director of choral activities for 21 years and headed the music education program at UC Davis. McNeil also taught courses in ethnomusicology at the University of Southern California for 12 years. His mentors have included distinguished names in choral music: Raymond Moreman, Charles Hirt, J. Finley Williamson, Roger Wagner, Howard Swan, and Jester Hairston.

The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers ensemble is his creation, and he has dedicated himself to upholding a choral tradition of excellence with the presentation of the classical spiritual around the world. Under his direction, the group has performed in 70 countries in addition to several transcontinental tours of the United States, Canada, and Hawaii. In addition to his work at the university and conducting the Jubilee Singers, McNeil was author and editor of a series of music education textbooks for Silver Burdett-Ginn Publishing Company. He co-authored an educational packet for Bowman Publishing Company as well. He was director of the Sacramento Chorale for ten years and co-founded the Sacramento Symphony Chorus.

He currently directs the choir of the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship in Los Angeles. In 1991, McNeil was honored by his alma mater, UCLA, as Alumnus of the Year in the area of Professional Excellence. In 1994, McNeil was honored with the title of Honorary Life Member in the Puerto Rican Choir Directors Society. He is on the board of directors for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Chorus America, and the Neighborhood Music School. He served two terms as member of the Choral Panel, the National Endowment for the Arts, and is a Life Member of the American Choir Directors Association, having appeared before that prestigious organization with the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers in 1981, 1985, and 1997.