Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra records

1971-1989

The Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra was a community symphony orchestra dedicated to training early-career conductors, composers, and musicians from underrepresented communities in the New York City area, founded by Karl Hampton Porter (1939-2017). Porter was a music director, instructor, and bassoonist born on April 29, 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1968, Lester Wilson and Zelda Wynn, two Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited - Associated Community Teams (HARYOU-ACT) officials, organized the Harlem Youth Symphony Orchestra in response to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Wilson suffered a back injury two months in and Karl Hampton Porter replaced him. Under Porter's leadership, the Harlem Youth Symphony Orchestra grew to become the Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970. Porter modeled the Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra to be an unconventional classical music program as a way to provide early-career Black musicians of all ages with symphony orchestra experience and economic support. The orchestra operated alongside Porter's Harlem Philharmonic Society, a charitable organization intended to fundraise for the Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra. The Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra performed at venues such as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Horace Mann Auditorium at Columbia University, and Central Park Mall.

The Harlem Philharmonic Orchestra declined in the mid-1980s due to lack of funding. In 1988, Porter joined forces with brothers Ed (1937-1996) and George Tooks (1939-) and other directors of The LENGA Tooks Musical Workshop to re-establish the orchestra under a new name, the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. The group also founded the Harlem Society of Music, a membership-based organization dedicated to mentoring and supporting early-career musicians of color, to fund the orchestra. Ed Tooks served as the new orchestra and society's president, George Tooks served as artistic director, and Porter served as musical director and conductor. Ed Tooks passed away in 1996, and Karl Hampton Porter passed away on June 9, 2017 in New York City.

Note that there have been several other entities called the Harlem Symphony Orchestra: one founded by E. Gilbert Anderson in 1925; Wen Talbert's 1937 Harlem Symphony Orchestra (also called the American Symphony Orchestra or the New York Negro Symphony Orchestra); and the most recent Harlem Symphony Orchestra, founded by Amadi Azikiwe in 2004. There is no indication of any relationship between the Porter-led Harlem Symphony Orchestra documented here and any of these other iterations.