Harlem Opera Theater: 150th Year Tribute to Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

​Harlem Opera Theater joins us to present a musical tribute to Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, featuring singers Audrey Dubois Harris and Keaun Guy with Artistic Director Dr. Gregory H. Hopkins.

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor.

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

ARTURO ALFONSO SCHOMBURG (January 1874 – June 10, 1938) was a historian, writer, bibliophile, collector, and activist. He also wrote many books. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent. He moved to the United States in 1891, where he researched and raised awareness of the contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and African Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) in Harlem.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DR. GREGORY H. HOPKINS is the Founding Artistic Director of Harlem Opera Theater. For over 35 years he has been the Minister of Music at Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church. Additionally, he is the Music Director of the Harlem Jubilee Singers and the Cocolo Japanese Choir. As a singer, pianist, organist, conductor, and clinician, music has taken Gregory Hopkins throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He has prepared choirs twice for the National Baptist Convention and was Music Director for the NAACO’s Centennial Celebration. For Louis Farrakan’s Million Man March on Washington, Gregory Hopkins was chosen to sing just before the keynote speech. Professor Hopkins has taught on the faculty of Howard University and Morgan State University.

AUDREY DUBOIS HARRIS is an internationally acclaimed award-winning Haitian American soprano  that has graced the stages of the world, and has been hailed by critics for possessing a lustrous voice of extraordinary beauty and artistry of great dramatic depth. In the summer of 2024, Mrs. DuBois Harris returned to the operatic stage in the role of Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with New Rochelle Opera. Earlier this seasoned in 2024, she was the featured guest artist with Uniting Voices Chicago in a series of concerts in a series of concerts and masterclasses in a city-wide initiative with over 3,000 young singers at the Chicago Cultural Center and The Chicago Symphony Center. During the 2024-2025 season, her opera performances will include the title role in Tosca and Nedda in I Pagliacci amongst other performances. Audrey DuBois Harris’s full bio is available at www.audreyduboisharris.com.

KEAUN GUY is a natural-born gifted performer, who has appeared in venues throughout New York, New Jersey and Baltimore. Guy participated in the Caldwell College opera workshop and Martina Arroyo Foundation's Prelude to Performance program; presented excerpts from The Magic Flute, Carmen, and Hanzel and Gretel; and performed in La Traviata (Chorus), as Errani in Verdi’s Errani in 2013, and as understudy for Canio in Papa Doc. He also performed the roles of Cephus and Andy in the opera production of Treemonisha, and appeared in productions of Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and The Ballad of James Byrd with the Trilogy Opera Company in New Jersey. Guy was the Encouragement Award winner for the Eastern District Region of the Metropolitan Vocal Competition 2014, and 1st Place Local, Regional winner for The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc. Vocal Arts Competition for Emerging Artists, and a Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition finalist.

ABOUT HARLEM OPERA THEATER

The mission of Harlem Opera Theater is to provide performance opportunities for gifted professional and developing singers, as well as other musicians of exceptional potential for an operatic career in local, national, and international forums. The organization develops an audience for the classical art form in underserved communities where opera is seldom heard. Founded in 2001 under the leadership of Dr. Gregory Hopkins as a non-profit corporation, the concert season includes a Salute to Black History Month in February, and celebrating Spirituals by African American composers such as Harry T. Burleigh, Father of the Spiritual Arrangement, Hall Johnson and Margaret Bonds. 150 classical singers have performed with the company for a combined audience of over 15,000 patrons of the arts.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. 

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).