Great Barrington — To commemorate Black History Month, South Berkshire Concerts, in partnership with Multicultural BRIDGE, will present members of the Harlem Chamber Players at Simon’s Rock on Sunday, February 26, performing a program of works by five Black composers from the 18th through 21st centuries: Joseph Bologne (the Chevalier St. George) (1745-1799), Florence Price (1887-1953), William Grant Still (1895-1978), George Walker (1922-2018), and Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981). The performance will take place in the McConnell Auditorium of the Daniel Arts Center on the Simon’s Rock campus, and admission is free.
Over their 13-year history, the Harlem Chamber Players have appeared at such prestigious venues as the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Zankel and Weill Recital Halls at Carnegie Hall, and many others.
The group has partnered with many arts and educational organizations, including the Harlem School of the Arts, Harlem Opera Theater, Columbia University, and many others, most notably, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
As you might imagine, a big part of the Harlem Chamber Players’ mission is to create opportunities for classically trained musicians of color. (Click here to see how they’re doing with that.) The group is a collective of roughly 50 musicians, but not all of them will appear at the February 26 performance.
The players on Sunday constitute a standard string quartet: Ashley Horne and José Pietri-Coimbre on violin, Tia Allen on viola, and Kirsten Jermé on cello.
Boston Symphony fans should have some familiarity with all of the composers on Sunday’s program, as the BSO has programmed all of them at one time or another—but not in equal measure. For example, the BSO performed Joseph Bologne’s music for the first time only about a year ago. The orchestra first programmed Florence Price in 2017 but got really serious about her music in the 2021-22 season, giving eight performances of her works, mostly at Symphony Hall. Starting in 2020, the BSO has programmed Jessie Montgomery’s music six times. The orchestra noticed George Walker around 1978, when the composer was 56 years old, 18 years before he became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The BSO continues to perform Walker’s music, the last time being fall 2022.
Finally, we come to the man considered by many to be the “Dean of Afro-American Composers.” (As such, he will most likely close this show.) William Grant Still has received more BSO play time than any of the other composers on Sunday’s program, partly because he got an early start: In 1937, the Boston Pops Orchestra performed Still’s Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, “Afro-American,” the first symphony written by an African American and performed for a United States audience by a leading orchestra. Thomas Wilkins conducted it last for the BSO in 2017. Still composed almost 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than 30 choral works. This is in addition to his art songs and chamber music.
Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk in the classical music world about equity and inclusiveness. This discussion has been driven in part by a societal enlightenment around issues of racial justice and in part by a natural willingness on the part of orchestras and audiences to consider the richness and diversity of musical traditions beyond the Western classical canon. One result of all this is that the composers on Sunday’s program are being discovered by a new generation of classical music concertgoers.
Hear the Harlem Chamber Players perform a program of works by Joseph Bologne, Florence Price, William Grant Still, George Walker, and Jessie Montgomery on Sunday, February 26, at 3 p.m., in the McConnell Auditorium of the Daniel Arts Center on the Simon’s Rock campus. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Face coverings required. More information at 413-528-7212.
