Adolphus Hailstork: Chamber Works The Harlem Chamber Players

• Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941): Piano Quintet “Detroit”:
• 1 Hailstork: Piano Quintet “Detroit”: I. Detroit Grit 04:15
• 2 Hailstork: Piano Quintet “Detroit”: II. Detroit Nocturne 06:43
• 3 Hailstork: Piano Quintet “Detroit”: III. Detroit Rise 07:28
• 4 Hailstork: Piano Quintet “Detroit”: IV. Prayer - In Memoriam Brazeal Dennard 06:23
• Nobody Know:
• 5 Hailstork: Nobody Know 18:41
• Total Runtime 43:30

Info for Adolphus Hailstork: Chamber Works

It's admittedly rare to hear contemporary classical music that delivers a shot of energy and drive like a cup of coffee: strong enough to wake you up, but in a way that is still pleasing to the senses. ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK boasts exactly this rare and invigorating combination — and the energetic performance by The Harlem Chamber Players adds an extra boost on top.

Hailstork’s music blends African, American, and European traditions; there are parts that positively sound like something Shostakovich or Prokofiev might have written, perhaps echoes of Hailstork's studies with Nadia Boulanger in the 1960s. There are moments of contemplation, but if this album is anything, it's invigorating and profound.

Kenneth Overton, baritone
The Harlem Chamber Players

The Harlem Chamber Players
is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high caliber, affordable, accessible live music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. Founded in 2008, The Harlem Chamber Players annually presents a rich season of formal live concerts, indoors, outdoors, and online. The Harlem Chamber Players also promote arts inclusion and equal access to the arts, bringing live music to underserved communities and promoting shared community arts and cultural engagement. The group was first inspired by the late Janet Wolfe, a long-time patron of minority musicians and founder of the NYC Housing Symphony Orchestra. The Harlem Chamber Players have presented culturally relevant programs at numerous venues throughout the city and collaborated with many other arts organizations. The Harlem Chamber Players were also artists-in-residence at the Harlem School of the Arts.

They have been featured on national radio on WQXR as well as The Greene Space at WQXR and WNYC. The Harlem Chamber Players have also been mentioned in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Musical America, and on NPR, NBC, and Here and Now on ABC. The Harlem Chamber Players were awarded the 2022 Sam Miller Award for the Performing Arts.

Kenneth Overton
is lauded for blending his opulent baritone with magnetic, varied portrayals that seemingly “emanate from deep within body and soul.” Overton’s symphonious baritone voice has sent him around the globe, making him one of the most sought-after opera singers of his generation. In 2020, Overton became a GRAMMY® award-winner for Best Choral Performance in the title role of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

This season, Overton joins the San Francisco Opera as Suleiman in Omar, while covering Abdul/Abe and King’s Herald Lohengrin. Overton also joins Opera Montana as Marcello in La bohème, and in concert he joins Lyric Fest for their Love Songs Concert, as well as the Resonance Ensemble as a featured soloist in a recital of Black composer’s works, curated by Damien Geter. This season he also made his debut with Opera Montana as Marcello in La bohème, sang the title role of Elijah with The New Choral Society, and returned to the Washington Chorus and The National Philharmonic as the soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C.

Last season, Overton featured largely at the Welsh National Opera, leading their production of Migrations and performing the role of Duncan in The Shoemaker, both being world premieres. Overton went on to sing Porgy in Porgy and Bess, a co-production by Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera. Concert engagements included The Washington Chorus performances of Duruflé’s Requiem as a soloist, and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr as the narrator; additionally, Overton performed a concert staging of Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Strauss’ Daphne with the American Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passion with The Dessoff Choirs, Handel’s Messiah at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, A Knee on the Neck and Dona Nobis Pacem with the New York Choral Society. Overton made his Metropolitan Opera Debut in the GRAMMY® award-winning production of Porgy and Bess.

Overton has also sung leading roles with The Danish Royal Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Palacios Bellas Artes, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nashville Opera, Opera Memphis, Sacramento Opera, Opera Tampa, and symphonic appearances with The New York Philharmonic, and The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

This album contains no booklet.