The Apollo Family Series will kick off its Spring 2008 season on a high note with a very classic-“cal” afternoon of music with the Harlem Symphony Orchestra (HSO) on Sunday, March 30th at 4:00pm. Led by renowned conductor Amadi Hummings and featuring a collective of established musicians,  the program, which will include a featured performance of Bruce Adolphe’s The Purple Palace as well as other popular classical music works, is the perfect introduction for young people into world of the orchestral music. Hosted by actress Melanie Nicholls-King (The Wire, How She Move).Tickets are $12 and $10 (for groups of 5 or more) and are available through the Apollo Theater Box Office, 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, 212/531-5305 and Ticketmaster, (212) 307-7171, www.ticketmaster.com/venue/6.  Tickets are on sale now. This performance is appropriate for ages 6 and up.

For the second consecutive year, The Harlem Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Amadi Hummings, will return to the Apollo stage to entertain the Apollo audience with an fun  yet educational concert experience that strives to make classical music accessible to many different kinds of listeners- from the avid fan to the casual listener to the novice. This year’s program, specifically created for young listeners, will focus on excerpts from popular classical music works, a demonstration of orchestral instruments, and a performance of Bruce Adolphe’s Purple Palace, which will be narrated by actress Melanie Nicholls-King (The Wire, How She Move).

This latest presentation of the Apollo Family Series spotlights the Apollo Theater’s continued commitment to bring diverse programming to the community. “To be able to support the artists who perform here and, at the same time, to expand the reach of classical music is very exciting,”  explains Laura Greer, VP of Programming for the Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc. “Programs like this support the emerging voices in classical music, and create  opportunities for young  audiences to hear them.”

Created in 2004, The Harlem Symphony Orchestra (HSO) highlights the visibility and historic contributions of classical instrumentalists of African descent. The orchestra is made up of African American graduates of the nation’s top conservatories and music schools, such as The Julliard School, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music and Indiana University. The orchestra is conducted by Artistic Director and founder Amadi Hummings. For further information on HSO, please visit http://www.harlemsymphony.org/

The afternoon’s program will include:
The Purple Palace  by Scott Joplin (1867-1917)
The Purple Palace is a musical composition created by Mr. Adolphe with the libretto by Louise Gikow. The Purple Palace tells the story of the land of Chromatica, where everything is light and color. Queen Red and King Blue have a child, Princess Purple. When she becomes Queen of Chromatica, she banishes all colors but purple. This leads to nothing but trouble for her, and, after a series of calamities, she comes to understand her mistake. With the help of a bee from another kingdom, Purple invites all the banished colors to return, and Chromatica is once again vibrant with color. Beyond its affirmative social message for children about diversity and democracy, the story is rich in visual images that are clearly portrayed in the music. Each color has a theme, and as the plot unfolds, orchestral colors are varied and mixed just as an artist would use colors to illustrate the story in a book.

The Streonnus Life; The Entertainer by Scott Joplin (1867-1917)
Scott Joplin combined the traditions of Afro-American folk music with nineteenth-century European romanticism and collected the black Midwestern Folk rag ideas as raw material for the creation of original strains.

Othello Suite op. 79 by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
An English composer of African descent, Coleridge-Taylor wrote this suite for a 1909 production of Othello in London. Consisting of five movements, the suite opens with a sprightly dance, followed by a very lush Intermezzo. Then come "Funeral March," "The Willow Song," and "Military March." Of note is the trumpet solo that opens "The Willow Song."

Variations on a Rococo Theme  by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
The piece is scored for a reduced orchestra consisting of pairs of basic woodwind instruments, two horns, and strings. This reduction of forces is a deliberate reflection of an 18th-century orchestra.

About Amadi Hummings
When it comes to classical music, conductor and violist Amadi Hummings has just about done it all. A world-class musician, The native New Yorker performed at the U.S. Supreme Court and has toured around the world, including Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan and throughout the Caribbean. He has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York and of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
As a concerto soloist, Mr. Hummings has appeared with the Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Hummings has appeared in concert with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chester, Miro, St. Lawrence, Anderson, Arianna, Harrington and Corigliano quartets. He is also a member of the Ritz Chamber Players. As an orchestral musician, he has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, James DePriest, Christoph Eschenbach, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Morgan, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sixten Ehrling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Bernstein.

Mr. Hummings is currently on the faculty of James Madison University and a visiting faculty member of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  Previously he was the conductor of the Old Dominion University Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta University Center Orchestra.
Mr. Hummings’ performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”, “St. Paul Sunday”, on WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, WFMT in Chicago, and the BBC, along with television appearances in Israel and South America.

About Bruce Adolphe
Bruce Adolphe has composed music for many renowned musicians and ensembles, including Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Sylvia McNair, the Brentano String Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In addition to composing, Adolphe holds several positions concurrently: resident lecturer and director of family concerts for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Keyboard quiz-master on American Public Media’s Piano Puzzler, featured weekly in over 200 cities as part of Performance Today; and founder and creative director of The Learning Maestros education company. The author of three books on music, Adolphe has taught at Yale, Juilliard, and New York University, and in 2008 he was appointed composer-in-residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute in Los Angeles. Bruce Adolphe’s most recent commission is a one-act opera about Marian Anderson, a collaboration with author Carolivia Herron, for the Washington Performing Arts Society and the Washington National Opera. The opera will be performed in 2009 in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial concert. Also in 2009, the Kennedy Center will present an evening of Adolphe’s chamber music in its new theater, and Yo-Yo Ma will premiere Adolphe’s Self Comes to Mind, a collaboration with neuroscientist Antonio Damasio.

About Melanie Nicholls-King
Born in London, England, Melanie Nicholls-King was one of the founders of the theater company, Sugar’n’Spice, which showcased plays for, by and about women of color. Nicholls-King was nominated for a Dora Award for Best Female Performance in Small Theatre. In addition to her success with Sugar’ n’ Spice, Ms. Nicholls-King also began building a strong film & television résumé and landed her first leading role in Rude -  the first feature film written, directed and produced by African Canadians.  Rude went on to win the Best Canadian Feature Film – Special Jury Citation at The Toronto Film Festival.  On stage, Nicholls-King has appeared in Cassandra Medley’s ‘Noon Day Sun’ and as Kalima in ‘Relativity’ a role she originated and for which she was nominated for an Audelco Award for Lead Actress. Recently, she appeared in Thomas Gibbons’ ‘Bee-Luther-Hatchee, at Stamford Theatre Works. Her work in film and television includes The Defenders  with Beau Bridges, Martha Plimpton and James McDaniel, ‘What Makes A Family”  with Brooke Shields, Cherry Jones and Whoopi Goldberg and recurring roles on “Traders” and Disney’s “The Famous Jett Jackson”  in the role of Jules Jackson.  Her other work includes roles in ” Deacons for Defense”  with Forest Whitaker, “Law & Order’, “Third Watch” and “One Life to Live. ”  The talented actress has also been featured in the recurring role of Cheryl on HBO’s “The Wire.” She was the voice of Ms. Murray on the animated television show “Little Bill.” Nicholls-King can currently be seen in the MTV feature film, How She Move  in the role of Faye, the mother of the lead.

The Apollo Family Series
For many adults, particularly those who grew up in Harlem, The Apollo Theater was their first exposure to the performing arts and has long served as a source of first discovery of live music, dance and theater.  The Apollo Family Series extends the Apollo’s commitment to enhancing the life of the community through programs that engage parents, children and extended family members.

About The Apollo Theater
Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul and hip-hop.  Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James Brown, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and countless others began their road to stardom on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Apollo Theater Foundation was established as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit corporation in 1991 and is dedicated to the preservation and development of the Apollo Theater. The historic venue hosts major concerts and special events and continues its tradition of discovering future stars with its weekly installment of Apollo Amateur Night every Wednesday night and with the syndicated television show, Showtime at the Apollo, which is taped at the theater and airs weekly in over 150 markets nationwide. Harlem is Manhattan's third most popular tourist destination and the Apollo remains Harlem's top attraction, drawing 1.3 million visitors annually.

The world famous Apollo Theater, “where stars are born and legends are made” ™ is located in the heart of Harlem at 253 West 125 Street, between Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (7th Ave.) and Frederick Douglass Blvd (8th Ave.). For further information about the Apollo Theater, visit the website at www.apollotheater.org.

The Family Series is presented in conjunction with the Education and Community Outreach Program, made possible by:

Underwriting support from                                      Major support is provided by       

Additional support is by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Inc.; and the Manhattan Delegation of the New York City Council.