ChamberMusicNY to Host Terrance McKnight Concert in 2016

ChamberMusicNY, a nonprofit presenting organization, and The Harlem Chamber Players are pleased to announce that Terrance McKnight, radio personality and musician, will both host as well as perform in their April 21, 2016 concert at Merkin Concert Hall.

The concert, co-presented by ChamberMusicNY and The Harlem Chamber Players, includes a commission from composer Jeffrey Scott titled A Hug For Harlem. The work-in-progress is based on poetry by Harlem Renaissance writers. Mr. McKnight will perform as the Orator in the composition. Also scheduled on the concert are Stravinsky's Concerto In E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks), Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) with violin soloist Ashley Horne, and Copland's original 13-instrument ballet version of Appalachian Spring. Ariel Rudiakov from the Danbury Symphony conducts the evening.

Terrance McKnight is the weekday evening host on WQXR. He also hosted the former Saturday evening program, All Ears with Terrance McKnight, a show about musical discovery, which was honored with an ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award in 2010.

McKnight's musical experiences - from glee club soloist and accomplished pianist, to professor at Morehouse College, and finally as producer and host of several music programs for public radio - have consistently juxtaposed the European Classical tradition alongside American classic traditions, such as jazz, gospel, African American spirituals and other musical genres.

McKnight has hosted and produced several specials for WQXR including "I, Too, Sing America: Music in the Life of Langston Hughes"; "A Musical Journey in the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr."; "A Musical Biography of Pioneering Pianist Hazel Scott," and "A Musical Biography of Florence Beatrice Price."

Other activities for McKnight include appearances as a panelist or speaker with Chamber Music America, the Mellon Foundation, American Opera Projects and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's concert and lecture series, among other outlets.