The Schomburg Center

for Research in Black Culture

presents

The Harlem Chamber Players’

11th Annual

Black History Month Celebration

Thursday, February 28, 2019

6:30 PM

Langston Hughes Auditorium

Beethoven’s Weary Blues....Langston Hughes/Ludwig van Beethoven Arranged by Terrance McKnight Terrance McKnight, performer; David Berry, piano

Piano Quintet “Detroit”................................Adolphus Hailstork III (World Premiere) I. Detroit Grit

II. Detroit NocturneIII. Detroit RiseIV. Prayer - In Memoriam Brazeal Dennard

David Berry, piano; Ashley Horne and Jessica McJunkins, violins; Amadi Azikiwe, viola; Wayne Smith, cello

INTERMISSION (15 minutes)

Nobody Know................................................Adolphus Hailstork III(World Premiere commissioned by The Harlem Chamber Players, Text by Herbert Martin in commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of the importation of the first black slaves to America.) Kenneth Overton, baritone; Ashley Horne and Jessica McJunkins, violins; Amadi Azikiwe, viola; Wayne Smith, cello

String Quartet in F Major “American”....................Antonín DvořákI. Allegro ma non troppoII. LentoIII. Molto vivaceIV. Finale: vivace ma non troppo

Ashley Horne and Jessica McJunkins, violins; Amadi Azikiwe, viola; Wayne Smith, cello

Program

Program NotesBeethoven’s Weary BluesArranged and Performed by Terrance McKnightIn his first book of poetry, Langston Hughes describes seeing the consummate blues man on Lenox Avenue. He was talented, lonely, and despairing but with a tinge of ironic humor. One century and one continent removed, that musician could have been Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827).

Beethoven was often desperate for love, community, and good health. He was a visionary musician who once contemplated suicide but instead chose art.

Hughes said that words with music could reach many more people than mere words on paper, and so this arrangement couples Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues” with the first movement from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30.— Terrance McKnight

Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)Weary BluesDroning a drowsy syncopated tune,Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.Down on Lenox Avenue the other nightBy the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

He did a lazy sway . . .He did a lazy sway . . .

To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.With his ebony hands on each ivory keyHe made that poor piano moan with melody.

O Blues!Swaying to and fro on his rickety stoolHe played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Sweet Blues!Coming from a black man’s soul.

O Blues!In a deep song voice with a melancholy toneI heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—

“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,Ain’t got nobody but ma self.I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.He played a few chords then he sang some more—

“I got the Weary BluesAnd I can’t be satisfied.Got the Weary BluesAnd can’t be satisfied—I ain’t happy no mo’And I wish that I had died.”

And far into the night he crooned that tune.The stars went out and so did the moon.The singer stopped playing and went to bedWhile the Weary Blues echoed through his head.He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)Piano Quintet “Detroit” (2018)Detroit, for several decades, was a city where I received many important composing and performance opportunities in the early and middle part of my career. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra even commissioned my second symphony. My cantata Done Made My Vow was performed there more times than any place else. The chorus for those performances was always the outstanding Brazeal Dennard Chorale. He loved his city and was a great mentor to me. The final movement of this quintet is dedicated to his memory.— Adolphus Hailstork

Adolphus HailstorkNobody Know (2018)Text by Herbert Martin“Nobody Know” is a concert aria based on a text by Herbert Martin, American poet based in Dayton, Ohio. It was commissioned by The Harlem Chamber Players to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the importation of the first black slaves to America. The piece depicts a “song from the other cross,” a viewpoint of one of the thieves crucified with Christ on Good Friday, the thief who spoke to Christ.

I take a small cue from that master of ironic humor Langston Hughes. He pointed out that almost everyone wanted to be on the right hand of Jesus. That was the side that everyone agreed the most opportunity existed. Hughes points out that no one was on the left side. That side would be opportune since no one

was there. Why didn’t blacks take advantage? I thought this was an opportunity for the thief who knew he was guilty, and that Christ was the victim. It was a moment of realization for him and a chance not to be missed if at all possible. In this rare moment of crucifixion, the Second Thief is the one who realizes what is before him. He is cast as a black individual who uses language as he has heard it: Nobody Know. It is he who asks: Do Lord, Do Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom! This is an intended echo of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. No one people has written all of history or can claim to have written it all.

The text for this aria is a joining of several references:

Do Lord, Do Lord, remember me…

And

I am a sinner a-rolling through an unfriendly world.And

Nobody knows de trouble I see . . .

It is perhaps accurate to say that the Second Thief because of his self-awareness realizes that he is guilty of what he is accused of and seeks redemption and salvation because he is in the presence of the Divine. He is the exact opposite of the First Thief who skeptically says: If you are the Savior, why don’t you save yourself and us as well?

The truth is we should all side with the Second Thief if given the chance. —Herbert Woodward Martin

Herbert Woodward Martin Nobody KnowO Lord, O Lordhave mercy on me,have mercy on me,according to your love,according to your steadfast love.Blot out my transgression;wash me thoroughly;cleanse me from my ambition.Lord, Lord, My Lord,

do remember me,says the guilty thief.Do Lord,Do Lord, remember me says the guilty thief;when you be way beyond the bluewhen you be way beyond the blue.Remember me,remember me;remember I was a-rollin’,I was a-rollin’, through an unfriendly worldI was a-rollin’ through an unfriendly world.and I’m callin’ Lawd.I have been robbed of everything, even liberty.I am a-seekin to be a new creatureI am a-seekin’ to become a new creature.What’s the matter church?Ain’t you never seen a Cross before?Somebody down there;somebody down there needs to be cast out.

MM MM MM Nobody know the trouble he see;see dem nails in his hands;nobody know his sorrow;see that hole in his side?Nobody know the terrible pain.Nobody know, nobody know.

O Lord, Oh Lordhave mercy on meaccording to your loveaccording to your steadfast love,according to your abundant mercy.

Do Lord, do Lord,Do remember me, says the guilty thief,when you are way beyond the blue;do Lord, do Lord,remember me. . . .

Antonín Dvorák (1841 – 1904)String Quartet in F Major “American”The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák wrote three of his greatest and best known works—the Cello Concerto, the “New World” Symphony and the “American” String Quartet—all in a three year period when he lived in America. In 1892 he came to New York City to teach at The National Conservatory of Music, a school started by congressional decree. Located in what is now Washington Irving High School on the Lower East Side, the conservatory was started in 1890 by Jeannette Meyer Thurber, a wealthy arts patroness. She was able to coax Dvořák from Europe to teach students at the school and to conduct concerts. The conservatory charged no tuition, and students were accepted purely on the basis of talent. The goal was to create an institution with an American identity. A reporter for The New York Herald, in writing about an 1894 school concert Dvořák conducted, stated:

Each soloist, with one exception, belonged to the colored race. This idea was due to Mrs. Thurber. She threw open the doors of her excel-lently equipped musical educational establishment to pupils of ability, no matter what their race, color or creed. Emancipation, in her idea, had not gone far enough.

Dvořák lived at 327 17th Street, and he would often invite students to his home. One in particular, Harry Burleigh, an African American baritone, composer and teacher would occasionally sing for Dvořák. Burleigh later became Dvořák’s per-sonal assistant, music copyist and friend. Victor Herbert, a lifelong friend of Burleigh’s, described the Dvořák-Burleigh relationship in a letter sent in 1922 to Carl Engel, chief of the music division of the Library of Congress: “Dr. Dvorak was most kind and unaffected and took great interest in his pupils, one of which, Harry Burleigh, had the privilege of giving the Dr. some of the thematic material for his Symphony. ... I have seen this denied - but it is true.”

In writing about his student days with Dvořák, Burleigh stated “Dvořák literally saturated himself with Negro song... I sang our Negro songs for him very often and before he wrote his own themes, he filled himself with the spirit of the old Spirituals.” These writings give insight into Dvořák’s interest in Negro music. Dvořák would himself say in a May 28, 1893 interview with The Boston Herald:

In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music... I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called Negro melodies... When I first came here last year I was impressed with this idea, and it has developed into a settled conviction. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil.

Dvořák showed great foresight in claiming that the music coming from the African American experience would become the driving force behind the sound of so much of America’s future music. Dvořák himself began working on various “American” themes in 1892, filling eleven pages of a sketchbook. Many of these became the seeds of his own thematic material which would infuse the compositions of his American period—including the work being performed today, the “American” String Quartet, a piece well known and loved by many to this day.

Program notes were compiled and directly quoted from various knowledgeable sources online for educational purposes only.

The ArtistsTerrance McKnighthost and performerTerrance McKnight has one of the more familiar voices in New York as an evening host at classical radio station WQXR. “I feel like I’m talking to one person,” McKnight says of being on the air. “In the evening, listeners are more engaged than during the day. We can play longer pieces. We can have longer conversations, and I can tell more stories about the music.”

McKnight majored in piano performance as an undergraduate at Atlanta’s Morehouse College and sang in the bass section of the school’s glee club. He

went on to get a graduate degree in piano pedagogy at Georgia State University, then transitioned into radio, doing a show for eight years with Georgia Public Broadcasting. He moved to New York in 2008 to work for WNYC and a year later joined the lineup at its sister public radio station WQXR.

Some of McKnight’s most notable work is a series of hour-long audio documen-taries for which he was writer, producer, and host. They include profiles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the place music held in his life; Florence Price, the first African-American woman composer to have a piece played by a major sym-phony orchestra; jazz pianist Hazel Scott; Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (named after the 19th-century African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor), who co-founded the country’s first racially integrated symphony orchestra, the Sym-phony of the New World; poet Langston Hughes and his collaborations with composers and musicians; and Leonard Bernstein as viewed through his commit-ment to racial justice in classical music.

McKnight has been programming music and other audio for the Museum of Modern Art as part of exhibitions by Jacob Lawrence, Francis Picabia, Robert Rauschenberg, and Charles White. For the White exhibition, which ran through January 13, selections ranged from James Brown’s Say It Out Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud to a Handel chorus. McKnight also hosts “Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight,” a three-concert series at Merkin Hall featuring pianist Ursula Oppens with the Cassatt String Quartet, harpist Bridget Kibbey, and pianist André Watts.1

1 “MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Terrance McKnight.” Musical America Worldwide. December 4, 2018. John Fleming.

David Berry, pianoDavid Berry’s performances have been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the UW World Series at the University of Washington, as well as live broadcasts of WQXR (New York City). As a performer of new music, he has worked with or premiered works by a number of noted composers, including James Lee III and grammy-award winning composer Jennifer Higdon. David was a featured soloist in the Juilliard School’s Focus Festival, All About Elliott, celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter, and was also featured in piano series hosted by author David Dubal at the Kosciusko Foundation and the Cervantes Institute.

David was Grand Prize Winner of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, as well as a prizewinner in the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.

An avid chamber musician, David has collaborated with members of many of the nation’s leading orchestras, including the New Jersey, Houston, St. Louis, Dallas, and Seattle symphonies. In addition to his work with The Harlem Chamber Players, he has toured and regularly concertized as a resident member of the Ritz Chamber Players, and the innovative chamber music theater group, The Core Ensemble. David received his Bachelor of Music with High Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance from the Juilliard School. He currently serves as Chair of Chamber Music for the Gateways Music Festival and as Assistant Professor of Piano at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Ashley Horne, violinA native of Los Angeles, violinist Ashley Horne has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is known for his “bright tone and fine overall sense of style” (Dennis Rooney of Strad Magazine). He has performed regularly with American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bard Festival Orchestra, Westchester Symphony, West-Park Chamber Society, Gateways Music Festival, Dance Theatre of Harlem Orchestra and New York City Opera, as well as on Broadway’s The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Wild Party, Carousel, The Producers and On the Town.

Mr. Horne has been the featured soloist and concert master of numerous ensembles, including The New Black Repertory Ensemble, The Antara Ensemble of NY, Cascade Festival Orchestra, and Aspen Young Artists Orchestra and has recently been named the music director of The Antara Ensemble. His recording of Henry Cowell’s Fiddler’s Jig with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra can be heard on Koch International. Mr. Horne has been a recitalist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Solo and chamber music performances have taken him to many interesting parts of the globe, such as Spain, Portugal, the Azores Islands, Odessa and Istanbul. Filmgoers can see Mr. Horne in Le Mozart Noir, the PBS documentary of violinist and composer Chevalier de Saint George, as well as in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America.

Jessica McJunkins, violinJessica McJunkins is a Grammy Award-winning violinist and contractor based in New York City and Los Angeles. As a studio musician and performer, Jessica has worked with Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Max Richter, Solange, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Roots, Alicia Keys, Carrie Mae Weems, John Legend, Jay-Z, Pharrell, Chloe X Halle, Lauryn Hill, and more. Classical credits include orchestral performances with the Charlotte Symphony, Soulful Symphony (CM), Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and Spoleto Festival Orchestra (CM). Chamber and solo performances include with Beyoncé, Urban Playground Chamber

Orchestra (CM), The Harlem Chamber Players. Dance collaborations include engagements with Alonzo King LINES, Nantucket Dance Festival and Camille A. Brown Dance (CABD). Ms. McJunkins is a principal player with Rootstock Republic, NYC, and concertmaster of the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, with whom she premiered the New York performance of Joseph Bologne’s G Major Violin Concerto. Jessica is excited to record her cadenza as a multimedia work in the spring.

In 2016, Jessica became a member of Beyoncé Knowles Carter’s band; in the spring of 2018 she was honored to be a part of Beyoncé’s historic Coachella performance as the festival’s first headlining female artist of color. Jessica then joined Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z on the On The Run II World Tour. While in Europe, Jessica arranged and recorded strings for Everything Is Love, the Grammy Award-winning joint album from the Carters. In addition to performance, this was Ms. McJunkins’s first arranger credit. Follow her well-researched rants on Twitter at LadyJessMusic, and Instagram at Lady Jess.

Amadi Azikiwe, violaAmadi Azikiwe, violist, violinist and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Currently, Mr. Azikiwe is Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra, and violist/violinist as well as Community Engagement Director of the Harlem Chamber Players.

A native of New York City, Amadi Azikiwe was born in 1969. After early studies with his mother, he began training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. His studies continued at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and at Indiana University as a student of Atar Arad.

Wayne Smith, celloCellist Wayne Smith gave his recital debut at the Kennedy Center in 1996 to critical acclaim. As soloist and chamber musician, he has performed throughout the United States, Italy, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Poland, and China. He is a member of the Wistaria String Quartet, the Portland Piano Trio and 1200 Horsehairs, a contemporary cello quartet, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. He has also appeared with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Manhattan Chamber Players and the National Chamber Orchestra.

Wayne enjoys an active teaching career, currently serving on the faculty of Amherst College. He did his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music and graduate studies at UMass Amherst. His principal teachers include Ardyth Alton, Steven Doane and Astrid Schween.

Kenneth Overton, baritoneKenneth Overton is lauded for blending his opulent baritone with magnetic and varied portrayals that seemingly “emanate from deep within body and soul.” Kenneth Overton’s symphonious baritone voice has sent him around the globe and has made him one of the most sought-after opera singers of his generation.

Last season he returned to New York City Opera to perform the role of Jake Wallace in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West and to Opera Idaho to perform the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. As a champion of new music Kenneth returned to the

San Francisco Opera in “the most eagerly anticipated new opera of the season” (New York Times, 2017)—the world premiere of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West as the cover role of Ned Peters. He created the role of Ralph Abernathy in the world premiere of the rhythm and blues opera I Dream by Doug Tappin for Opera Grand Rapids, Toledo Opera, and Opera Carolina, and performed as Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars for Union Avenue Opera. In concert Kenneth appeared with the National Chorale for Angela Rice’s Thy Will Be Done and with the Oregon Bach Festival for Richard Danielpour’s Passion of Yeshua. Additionally, Kenneth thrived in his Hungary debut as the title role in Porgy and Bess in the Margaret Island Open Air Theatre’s production, where he was heralded as one of “America’s most renowned opera singers.” Next, Kenneth will reprise Danielpour’s Passion of Yeshua for UCLA’s Royce Hall as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic, which will be recorded for release. In 2019 he will return to perform with the San Francisco Opera.

Adolphus Hailstork, composerAdolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax.

Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been conducted by leading conductors such

as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Jo Ann Falletta and David Lockington.

Recent commissions include Rise for Freedom, an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered in the fall of 2007 by the Cincinnati Opera Company, Set Me on a Rock (re: Hurricane Katrina), for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008), and the choral ballet, The Gift of the Magi, for treble chorus and orchestra, (2009). In the fall of 2011, Zora, We’re Calling You, a work for speaker and orchestra was premiered by the Orlando Symphony. I Speak of Peace, commissioned by the Bismarck Symphony (Beverly Everett, conductor) in honor of (and featuring the words of ) President John F. Kennedy was premiered in November of 2013.

Hailstork’s newest major works, are Robeson, an operatic theater work (written for the Trilogy Opera Company of Newark, New Jersey), and Hercules (“the veriest dandy slave”) a concert overture for the Grand Rapids Symphony which was premiered in October 2014. Current projects are Bound for the Promised Land for the Atlanta Festival (November 2016) and Ndemara for the Myrelinques Festival of France (May 2017).

Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Herbert Woodward Martin, librettist

Herbert Woodward Martin has served as librettist for three works with the composer Adolphus Hailstork: Paul Laurence Dunbar: Common Ground (opera); Crispus Attucks, (cantata) and Nobody Know (concert aria). Martin has been the editor of three of P.L. Dunbar’s works, and he gives readings of his work in Egypt, Hawaii and across the United States. He has authored nine collections of his own poetry. His tenth volume of poetry, The Shape of Regret, will be published by Wayne State University Press in September of 2019.

Herbert Woodward Martin spent three decades of his academic career teaching American and African American Literature, and Creative Writing (Poetry) at Aquinas College and The University of Dayton. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Janus Pannonious University in 1990 – 1991, and for his scholarly work has been awarded four Honorary Degrees.

AcknowledgementsThank you to Novella Ford, Khalilah Bates and the rest of the staff at the Schomburg Center for inviting us to bring our Black History Month Celebration to their Langston Hughes Auditorium.

Special thanks to Uldine Collins, Yin Yin Gene, and Amy Fraser for proofreading this concert program. Thank you to Aaron Stokes and Brandon Stephan Davis for helping us with this concert. Thanks also to Thomas Lewis and the Tech Crew.

Thanks to all the musicians performing today for the hard work and dedication you put into the rehearsals and this evening’s concert.

For your recording needs, call Robert Olmsted at 917-446-0946 or email him at robertolmsted@hotmail.com. Thanks to our photographer Bob Curtis.

Thank you all for your much needed support as we continue to build our concert series in Harlem.

This concert is part of the Composers Now Festival. Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the signifi-cance of their contributions to the cultural fabric of society. The Festival brings together performances presented by venues, ensembles, orchestra, opera, musical theater and dance companies as well as many other innovative events through NYC. Composers are in attendance at all events which are open to the public.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE 100: A Community Celebration, 2018 – 2020 is a community wide celebration marking the landmark 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. This celebratory community collaborative effort, spanning two years, is comprised of over 13 Harlem cultural institutions who are spear-heading the celebration and the launching of an extended series of programs, events and cultural activities. Visit www.harlemrenaissance.org for a list of #harlemren100 events.

This concert is also part of the Harlem Classical Music Celebration, in part-nership with Harlem Opera Theater, Three on 3 Presents, Opera Ebony, Opera Noire, and the David I. Martin Music Guild of the National Association of Ne-gro Musicians (NANM).

Special thanks to the following donors for their generous contributions to The Harlem Chamber Players this 2018 – 2019 season:

2018 – 2019 Season Supporters

$10,000+Lily Auchincloss FoundationNew York City Department of Cultural AffairsUpper Manhattan Empowerment Zone/Lower Manhattan Cultural CouncilWest Harlem Development CorporationAnonymous

$5,000 – $9,999Charles Stewart Mott FoundationColumbia Community ServiceFord Foundation matching giftsNew York State Council on the ArtsThe Turrell Fund

$1,000 – $4,999Sandra BillingsleaNorbert Gasser and Felix E. SantiagoStanley HeckmanManhattan Community Award via Manhattan Borough President Gale A. BrewerNew York Community TrustLiz PlayerSusan Stevens and Samuel James

$100 – $999Jennifer AllenAndréa BradfordIeda and James BrittonCarol BrownBill and Marcia ClarksonMichael CummingsJonathan DworkinJane J. Emery

$100 – $999 Barbara J. FieldsYin Yin Gene and Mark SchmitzJo-Ann GrahamPatti HaganNancy HagerArmando HowardJoanna KapnerFern KhanLee KoonceChristiana LeonardSusan Macaluso and Ralph RiveraCharlotte MayersonJean McCurryMr. and Mrs. Eugene McGuireJames and Pamela MortonDoreen T. MurakamiGail Nelson-HolgatePatricia PatesThomas PellatonBetty ReardonKay RobertsClay RuedeChristine Scott-DeutschRobert SeemanTed and Mary SobelForrest TaylorMichael ThaddeusDierdre TowersSteve VavagiakisErika Wood and Clayton HardingAnonymous

$1 – $99Ruth AndersonSue BremnerNaomi and Arlene BullardS.C. Carothers

$1 – $99 Dawn P. ChesneyGinnine CocuzzaWilliam DavisCharles GerardKenneth Grinspoon and Selina MorrisMatthew HarrisVirginia JohnsonLibby KessmanPaula KimperSusan LardnerLinda Beth LawsonJennifer LeeJack W. MaiselLiz and Allen MellenCarole O’Connor EdwardsSandra PlayerAmy Pollack

$1 – $99 Robert M. PollockAnnette PurnellMary RichmanSharon RichterMorey RittRobyn RobinsonVerdery RooseveltRosie M. RoundsJuanita SmithBarbara StarkCathy TaylorMs. Gilbert VansintejanNorman WeissE. Sharon WilliamsPeter L. ZimrothStefan and Iris ZuckerAnonymous

The Harlem Chamber Players 2018 - 2019 Season is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; in part by a grant from Columbia Community Service; in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; in part by West Harlem Development Corporation via the Tides Foundation; in part by the New York Community Trust/Charles E. Culpeper Fund; in part by the Manhattan Community Award Program via the Office of the Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer; in part by a grant from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; in part by a matching gift grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; and through the generous donations of our supporters and donors. The Harlem Chamber Players 2018 - 2019 Season is also made possible in part with funding from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and administered by LMCC.LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond. UMEZ enhances the economic vitality of all communities in Upper Manhattan through job creation, corporate alliances, strategic investments, and small business assistance. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

Upcoming EventsSaturday, March 23, 2019 at 4 PMJoint Concert w/Opus 118 Harlem School of MusicHear the highly acclaimed students from Opus 118 and meet the legendary founder and master teacher Roberta Guaspari, the inspiration behind the docu-mentary Small Wonders and Miramax’s film, Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep. Also featuring members of The Harlem Chamber Players in music by Florence Price, Dvořák, and Mozart.St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam. This concert is FREE and open to the public. Please RSVP via Eventbrite.

Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 8 PMTwo Wings: The Music of Black America In Migration

Carnegie Hall presents Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran’s “Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration.” Performers include pianist Jason Moran, mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, pianist and vocalist Pastor Smokie Norful, actor Crystal Dickinson, actor Brandon J. Dirden, the band Harriet Tubman, guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs, drummer JT Lewis, guitarist and vocalist Toshi Reagon, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, Imani Winds, The Harlem Chamber Players, and music director Joseph Joubert.

This production will also feature author Isabel Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration). This event is part of Carnegie Hall’s Migrations: The Making of America — A Citywide Festival.Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Tickets are $13 – $76.

Friday, May 31, 2019 at 7 PMSeason Finale Gala Orchestra Concert

We will close our 11th Anniversary Season with a gala orchestra concert, featuring Met Opera soprano Janinah Burnett, violinist Ashley Horne, and violist Amadi Azikiwe in an evening of music, which will include the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Adolphus Hailstork’s Two Romances for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 1, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Maestro Ariel Rudiakov will conduct. Terrance McKnight of WQXR will host.Miller Theatre at Columbia University, 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street). Tickets are $20 – $50.

Please visit www.harlemchamberplayers.org for more information and to purchase tickets. Sign up for our mailing list to get concert notifications and other news!

Also Coming Up...Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 7:30 PMFisk Jubilee Singers® Sing Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals

The Harry T. Burleigh Society and the Fisk Jubilee Singers® join in a historic performance to celebrate the leaders of the concert spiritual tradition. They will perform spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh (1866 – 1949) and inspired by an original Fisk Jubilee Singer and composer Ella Sheppard (1851 – 1915).Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Tickets are $45 – $65.

Sunday, March 3, 2019 from 9 AM – 3 PMRethinking Burleigh and Sheppard in the Second Gilded AgeThis conference frames the work of figures like Burleigh and Sheppard as examples of how the interrelationships between power, race, America, virtuosity, and collaboration make possibilities for liberatory thinking and practices to contend with anti-blackness, and make commands for America to be more than the promise of its myth. The Burleigh Society claims Sheppard and Burleigh as singers and composers within western art music, and attests to the paradigmatic impact of the concert spiritual tradition that they led.Carnegie Hall May Room, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. This conference is FREE and open to the public.

Visit www.burleighsociety.com for more info and to purchase tickets!

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureFounded in 1925 as the Negro Literature, History and Prints Division of the 135th Street Branch Library by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the leading cultural institutions in the world devoted to the preservation of materials focused on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Recognized for its prominence in digital humanities, scholarly research, and vast collection spanning over 10 million items, the Schomburg Center won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2015. Today, the Schomburg serves as a space that encourages lifelong education and exploration with diverse programs that illuminate the richness of black history and culture, and in 2017 it was named a National Historic Landmark.

The Harlem Chamber PlayersHarlem’s acclaimed chamber music series began in 2008 as a partnership between clarinetist Liz Player and the late violist Charles Dalton, who met while performing at a Black History Month gala concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Inspired and encouraged by the late Janet Wolfe, founder of the New York City Housing Authority Symphony Orchestra and long-time patron of minority classical musicians, Ms. Player and Mr. Dalton created a summer music festival in the neighborhood of Manhattanville/West Harlem that provided dynamic chamber music concerts. Following the enthusiastic reception of the festival, the former rector, Rev. Dr. Earl Kooperkamp, of the historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church welcomed and supported the creation of an ongoing series. After the departure of Mr. Dalton in 2010, Liz joined forces with Carl Jackson, an East Harlem native, to form The Harlem Chamber Players. This 2018 – 2019 season marks their 11th Anniversary Season.

StaffLiz Player, Executive and Artistic Director; Carl Jackson, Associate Director and Director of Development; Amadi Azikiwe, Community Engagement Director; Terrance McKnight, Artistic Advisor; Brandon Stephan Davis, Executive Assistant; Amy Fraser, Administrative Coordinator; Aaron Stokes, Grants Coordinator.

BoardThomas Pellaton, President; William Hoch, Treasurer; Susan Macaluso, Secretary; Sandra Billingslea, Ieda Britton, Yin Yin Gene, Brenda Morgan, Liz Player, Advisors

The Harlem Chamber Players, Inc.191 Claremont Avenue #25

New York, NY 10027917-744-6948

www.harlemchamberplayers.org www.facebook.com/TheHarlemChamberPlayers

@HarlemPlayers

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

515 Malcolm X BoulevardNew York, NY, 10037

917-275-6975www.schomburgcenter.org

www.facebook.com/SchomburgCenter@SchomburgCenter

www.SchomburgCenter.eventbrite.com