Harlem Chamber Players and the Schomburg Center present the Harlem premiere of Jeff Scott’s “A Hug for Harlem” in a Concert of Works by African-American Composers

New York, April 3, 2017: The Harlem Chamber Players, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting diversity and arts inclusion in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will present the Harlem premiere of Jeff Scott’s new work, “A Hug for Harlem”, for orator and chamber orchestra. Terrance McKnight of WQXR will be the featured orator of this work and will host the concert.

Terrance McKnight is the weekday evening host on WQXR. He also hosted the former Saturday evening program, All Ears with Terrance McKnight, a show about musical discovery, which was honored with an ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award in 2010.

African-American composer Jeff Scott is the French hornist of the Grammy-nominated group Imani Winds. He writes what he calls “urban” classical music. The piece is based on the text of some of the Harlem Renaissance’s most well known writers and takes the listener on a journey from the Jim Crow era through the Great Migration and up to the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Chamber Players and ChamberMusicNY commissioned Jeff Scott to compose the work and were awarded a Commissioning Fund grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. The world premiere took place at Merkin Concert Hall on April 21, 2016 with Terrance McKnight as orator with chamber orchestra comprised of members of The Harlem Chamber Players.

The concert will take place at 6:30 PM on Thursday, April 27, 2017 in the Schomburg Center’s Langston Hughes Auditorium. In addition to Mr. Scott’s work, the program includes William Grant Still’s Ennanga for solo harp, piano and strings and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Grass for solo piano, percussion and strings. John McLaughlin Williams, the first African-American conductor to win a Grammy, will conduct the evening. Grammy-Award winning pianist and Broadway conductor Joseph Joubert will be the featured piano soloist in the Perkinson. Dr. Ashley Jackson will be the featured solo harpist in William Grant Still’s Ennanga.

Additional information about the concert can be found at: http://www.harlemchamberplayers.org/postcards_html/2016-2017_concert_announcements/a_hug_for_harlem_concert_announcement_5-2017.html

Tickets are on sale at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/harlem-premier-a-hug-for-harlem-tickets-30235351751

The Harlem Chamber Players’ official website is www.harlemchamberplayers.org.