About The Harlem Chamber Players
Our Mission
The non-profit Harlem Chamber Players Inc., is an ethnically diverse collective of professional classical musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable, accessible live music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. The Harlem Chamber Players help build diverse audiences for live classical music through community and educational outreach and collaborations with other arts organizations, schools and cultural institutions. The Harlem Chamber Players also promote community wide access to the arts and arts inclusion. The group brings live music to underserved neighborhoods, promotes shared community cultural engagement and provides opportunities for classically trained musicians of color. Throughout the year, the group presents a full rich season of live concerts indoors, outdoors and online. The group also performs educational concerts for students at venues throughout the city and in New Jersey.
Our History
The group has since grown into a very active NYC performing arts organization with partnerships throughout the city. The group also commissions new works every year and provides performing opportunities for musicians of color.
The Harlem Chamber Players have performed concerts at numerous venues including the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Forum at Columbia University, Riverside Church, Aaron Davis Hall CUNY, Harlem Stage, the Apollo Theater, Convent Avenue Baptist Church, the Cotton Club, St. Paul’s Chapel, The Palace Theatre, Symphony Space, Merkin Concert Hall, the DiMenna Center, Town Hall, at The Greene Space at WNYC/WQXR, at the MET Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library, at BargeMusic, at the Caramoor Festival, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Isaac Stern Auditorium, Zankel and Weill Recital Halls at Carnegie Hall.
The group has partnered with organizations including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem Opera Theater, the Harlem School of the Arts, the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, JazzMobile, Morningside Opera, Music Before 1800, Goddard Riverside Community Center, ChamberMusic NY, American Opera Projects, On-Site Opera, Concert Theatre Works, with artist Kehinde Wiley at the Brooklyn Museum and the NY Philharmonic’s “Bandwagon 2.0” outdoor concert series.
The Harlem Chamber Players have been mentioned in articles in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Musical America on NPR, on NBC and “Here and Now” on ABC. The group received the Sam Miller Award in 2022, administered by LLMC. Our music series has been called “a series of which we can be proud” by the late Raoul Abdul of the Amsterdam News. A comprehensive list of all our past activities can be found on our Press and Past Performances pages.