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 music series began at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Harlem in 2008 as “Music at St. Mary’s”, a partnership between clarinetist Liz Player and the late violist Charles Dalton. The group was first inspired and encouraged by Rev. Kooperkamp and the late Janet Wolfe, the founder of the New York City Housing Authority Symphony Orchestra and long-time patron of minority classical musicians. After the departure of Mr. Dalton, Liz joined forces with Associate Director Carl Jackson, an East Harlem native, to form “The Harlem Chamber Players Inc.” The group incorporated in 2011.
The group is based in Manhattanville/West Harlem and is deeply connected to the local community.
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.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Established in 1823 as St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Church Manhattanville, this is the oldest church congregation serving continually on the same site in the entire Harlem area. For nearly two centuries, St. Mary's Church has been at the spiritual heart of the West Harlem community, responding tirelessly to the needs of its people.
In 1831, St. Mary's abolished the practice of pew rentals, becoming the first "free pew" church in the Episcopal Diocese. At the turn of the twentieth century, Rev. Hiram R. Hulse, rector, proposed to replace the original wooden church with a larger building. Rev. Hulse's wish was realized in 1909 with the completion of the present English Gothic-style brick structure, designed by Theodore E. Blake for the nationally prominent firm of Carrère & Hastings.
St. Mary's Church is widely known as the "Be not afraid" church, standing up as a community of faith to pursue justice and peace for the poor and oppressed, to pray for those at risk and to put into practice the message of the Gospel.
Among the services the church provides are the St. Mary's Food Pantry, the Homeless Hunger Outreach, the Prison Ministry Outreach Program and an internship for young theological students. The burial vault of the church's founders, Lieut. Jacob Schieffelin and Hanna Lawrence Schieffelin—who also co-founded the surrounding Manhattanville neighborhood in 1806—is still visible from the porch of St. Mary's, which continues to be a vital hub in the West Harlem community.
In 1998, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the combined church, parish house (1851) and Sunday School building (1890) complex a New York City landmark.
