Harlem Stage has teamed up with Sugar Hill Salon and Concert Artists Guild to present a special installment of its beloved series Uptown Nights that will showcase chamber music written by living composers of color. The Friday, February 23 concert marks the first collaboration between the organizations, and the first time artists from Sugar Hill Salon and Concert Artists Guild will perform together publicly.
Sugar Hill Salon is one of the first chamber music series and artistic collectives that centers on black and brown woodwind artistry in classical music. Concert Artists Guild, has, since 1951, launched the careers of hundreds of emerging classical artists and ensembles. Harlem Stage partnered with both organizations to co-curate a unique evening of chamber music presented in the intimacy of the historic Harlem Stage Gatehouse.
Performers include Sugar Hill Salon Founder and Artistic Director Alexander Davis (bassoon), David Valbuena (clarinet) also from Sugar Hill Salon, Concert Artists Guild (CAG) artist Adam W. Sadberry (flute), and CAG alumna Fei-Fei (piano). They will be performing works by Tania León (recipient of Harlem Stage’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023), Allison Loggins, Beata Moon, Mauricio Murcia, Mary Watkins, and Xiaogang Ye.
Tickets to the performance are available at HarlemStage.org.
Harlem Stage is currently celebrating its monumental 40th anniversary season, which brings back many of the artists who have long and meaningful creative relationships with the historic organization. With programs like this installment of Uptown Nights, Harlem Stage is also embracing the milestone as an opportunity to chart its future, engaging with new organizations and artists with aligned values within the Harlem community and beyond. In addition to its collaboration with Sugar Hill Salon, which is also Harlem-based, and Concert Artists Guild, Harlem Stage also recently announced installments of Uptown Nights in collaboration with Brooklyn-based National Sawdust. Uptown Nights: Convent to Wythe will feature new work from yuniya edi kwon and a world premiere performance by SUN HAN GUILD, led by kwon, on February 16 at Harlem Stage; and composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon in performance with R. Luke DuBois, on March 9 at National Sawdust.
Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas. For 40 years, the organization’s singular mission has been to perpetuate and celebrate the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. Harlem Stage provides opportunity, commissioning, and support for visionary artists of color, makes performances easily accessible to all audiences, and introduces children to the rich diversity, excitement, and inspiration of the performing arts.
Harlem Stage fulfills its mission through commissioning, incubating, and presenting innovative and vital work that responds to the historical and contemporary conditions that shape our lives and the communities the organization serves.
With a long-standing tradition of supporting artists and organizations around the corner and across the globe, Harlem Stage boasts such legendary artists as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Maya Angelou, and Tito Puente, as well as contemporary artists like Mumu Fresh, Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité, Xian aTunde Adjuah, Tamar-kali, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, José James, Nona Hendryx, Bill T. Jones, and more. Harlem Stage’s education programs serve over 2,300 New York City school children each year.
The New York Times has saluted Harlem Stage as “an invaluable incubator of talent” and it has been hailed as an organization still unafraid to take risks. Harlem Stage’s investment in this visionary talent is often awarded in the early stages of many artists’ careers, and the organization proudly celebrates their increasing success. Five members of its artist family have joined the ranks of MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship awardees: Kyle Abraham (2013), Vijay Iyer (2013), Jason Moran (2010), Bill T. Jones (1994), and Cecil Taylor (1991).
Harlem Stage is a winner of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming.
Sugar Hill Salon is one of the first chamber music series and artistic collectives that centers on black and brown woodwind artistry in classical music. We are a black and queer-owned organization that offers free public concerts in Harlem that showcase wind repertoire that lacks representation within “traditional” chamber programming along with uplifting black and brown musicians performing them. Through commissioning chamber works and monthly concerts featuring artists on the scene, Sugar Hill Salon is decolonizing classical music for a more equitable future for black and brown communities.
Concert Artists Guild empowers musicians and launches careers that are sustainable, unique and relevant. Through mentorship and performance opportunities, we identify and develop young artists who will make an impact in the world through music.
CAG enables artists to manifest a new definition of a professional musician: resilient citizen performers who engage with, respond to, and impact the world around them through music and service, galvanizing the fabric of society through the power of culture.
