Juneteenth Celebrated with Chamber Music 

The Red Bank Chamber Music Society (RBCMS), in partnership with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank, NJ, featured the New York City-based Harlem Chamber Players in a classical chamber music concert on Juneteenth 2022 (June 19, 2022).  The concert highlighted music composed, performed and influenced by Black musicians from the 18th to 20th centuries.   Attendance was free of charge and was held on 4:30 PM at the United Methodist Church of Red Bank, 247 Broad Street, Red Bank.   

 Liz Player, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director of the Harlem Chamber Players provided commentary on the presented works and their significance in the development of classical chamber music.

 In planning and organizing the Concert, RBCMS partnered with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center.  T. Thomas Fortune’s family was actively engaged in the enjoyment of classical music in the greater Red Bank area. 

In the News

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAM

RBCMS partnered with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in planning and organizing the concert.   There is an interesting historical connection with T. Thomas Fortune, whose family was actively engaged in the enjoyment of classical music in the greater Red Bank area.  T. Thomas Fortune’s wife, Carrie Smiley Fortune, was a Sunday school teacher and choir member at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Red Bank and served the community as a voice and piano teacher.   

As a musical family, the Fortunes may have known of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George (1745-1799), whose String Quartet No. 5 will be on the concert program.  During his lifetime, Bologne was equally renowned for his prowess as a popular composer, virtuoso violinist, and championship fencer.

It is almost certain that the Fortunes would have been familiar with Antonín Dvořák, whose “American” String Quartet is one of the most popular works in the chamber music repertoire.  While in America, Dvořák met Harry Burleigh, who became important influence and introduced him to Black American music.  As a composer, arranger and professional singer, Burleigh was instrumental in bringing Black music to classically trained artists both by introducing them to spirituals and by arranging spirituals in a more classical form.  His Southland Sketches for piano and violin were composed in 1916, while both Fortunes were alive, but after they had left Red Bank.  

Florence Price’s Symphony in E Minor was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1932, the first composition by a Black woman to be performed by a major orchestra.  That milestone, as well as composition of Price’s 1929 String Quartet in G which will be heard in the program, was well before Carrie Fortune’s death in 1940.  It is a pleasant possibility that the two musicians were aware of each other’s notable achievements. 

In 1940, George Walker was a 17-year-old college student, graduating the following year to attend the Curtis Institute.  Walker went on to an illustrious career as a pianist, educator, and composer becoming the first Black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996 and, on a more local note, teaching at Rutgers University from 1969 to 1992.   One of his best-known works, “Lyric for Strings” is based on the second movement of his first String Quartet written in 1946.  The concert will feature the original string quartet version of the work.

Red Bank Chamber Music Society

The Red Bank Chamber Music Society (RBCMS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing classical chamber music concerts for the benefit of the Red Bank Community. The Society’s mission is to encourage people of all ages and circumstance to discover, and enjoy the richness of chamber music, creating a larger, more diverse audience for the music. Member donations allow the presentation of six concerts per year, all at no cost to audience members. The concerts are at the highest professional level and draw on renowned ensembles from the New York area and beyond. The Society has also commissioned new chamber music pieces and has held two world premieres at its concerts. During the pandemic, the society continued its support of chamber music artists and audiences by video recording its concerts and presenting them on the Brookdale Community College cable access channel and on YouTube, even when in-person concerts were not possible. The Society is now recording their live concerts, so that they can be enjoyed by a broader audience, unable to attend a Red Bank concert. The Juneteenth celebration is a special seventh concert being present as part of the 2021-2022 Season.

T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center

Harlem Chamber Players

Harlem Chamber Players