Core Ensemble to Perform "Of Ebony Embers" at Crane for Black History Month

Music Theater Piece is Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance

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From left, Hugh Hinton, Tahirah Whittington and Michael Parola make up the Core Ensemble.

POTSDAM, NY (01/20/2011)(readMedia)-- In a celebration of Black History Month, the Core Ensemble will soon present a guest performance of a new music theater piece, "Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance" in concert at The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7 in Sara M. Snell Music Theater at Crane. The Core Ensemble, consisting of Tahirah Whittington on cello, Hugh Hinton on piano and Michael Parola on percussion, will perform the new work alongside featured performer Chris White.

"Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance" celebrates the music and poetry of African-Americans in New York City during the 1920s. The piece was conceived by the Core Ensemble and features a script by playwright Akin Babatunde.

"Of Ebony Embers" is a musical play for solo actor and chamber music trio. This evening-length piece explores the life and times of African-Americans who helped shape the Harlem Renaissance. The work examines the lives of three outstanding but very different African American poets -- Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay -- as seen through the eyes of the great painter and muralist Aaron Douglas.

The Core Ensemble performs music by African-American composers ranging from jazz greats Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus to concert music composers Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker. The group has garnered national recognition for its efforts to commission new chamber and multi-genre works. The Boston Globe hailed the Core Ensemble as "often formidable, always intelligent, ultimately compelling."

The featured performer is Chris White. White has performed in New York and regional theatre as well as cabaret and concert settings as a singer and actor.

"Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance" was commissioned by the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Fla., and the Duncan Theatre/Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, Fla. Additional support was provided by the A.D. Henderson Foundation, Target Stores, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Humanities Council. Touring has brought the ensemble to every region of the U.S., as well as venues in Russia, Ukraine, Australia, England and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

The Core Ensemble receives support from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

This event is sponsored by the SUNY Potsdam's Diversity in Action Coalition, the Center for Diversity, the Africana Studies program and the Department of Theatre and Dance. It is free and open to the public and the venue and is handicapped accessible.

For more information about diversity at SUNY Potsdam, visit www.potsdam.edu/about/diversity/.

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Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-