Drama Desk Award Winner Chesney Snow Joins Harlem School Of The Arts Staff

The Harlem School of the Arts has announced the addition of stage actor/musician/songwriter, and educator Chesney Snow to the institution's staff. Mr. Snow, a Drama Desk Award recipient has accepted the position of HSA Theater Chair.

This multi-talented artist, based in Brooklyn, New York, has been earning accolades not only as a stage performer but as a leading Beatbox, vocal percussionist. He is the founder of the American Beatbox Championships and served as executive producer on the documentary feature, American Beatboxer, which is now part of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame collection and Harvard University's Hip Hop archives.

Eric Pryor, President of HSA said, "We could not be happier to welcome this gifted theater and musical maven to our organization. This is an exciting moment for all of us. Chesney brings an

impressive resume that we strongly believe will level up our theater department and will incentivize our students to take on every challenge he throws at them."

Mr. Snow brings an impressive list of experiences having worked on and off-Broadway with some of the best, including playwright/director Regina Taylor on the musical Crowns, as music composer and lyricist (2018), and in Two River Theater's production of Ms. Taylor's OO Bla Dee,

directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (2019). He has collaborated with two-time Academy Award winner, songwriter Kristen Anderson Lopez, Drama Desk Award nominee Sara Wordsworth, composer and keyboardist Russ Kaplan and playwright James Allen Ford on the first acapella musical, the multi-award nominated production of In Transit, for which he was honored with a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Chesney Snow said, "Since the first moment that I stepped into this sacred home for the arts I have been awestruck. I'm deeply honored to be a part of this vibrant and inspiring community! I look forward to creating, cultivating for, and contributing to this outstanding institution and to serving the lives of its young artists, their families, and our city. It is truly a privilege to be affiliated with the legacy of the great Ms. Dorothy Maynor and her vision of arts' transformative power and function."

Chesney Snow is a member of BMI Musical Theater Workshop and was a 3-time Artist in Residence at Harvard University. The Unwritten Law, his acclaimed, autobiographical choreopoem, gave voice to the issues brought about by systemic racism way before 2020's social justice revolutions made them trending topics.

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About Harlem School of the Arts at The Herb Alpert Center

New York City's premier community arts institution, the Harlem School of the Arts at the Herb Alpert Center stands uniquely apart as the sole provider of arts education in four disciplines: music, dance, theatre, and art & design, all within our award-winning 37,000 square foot facility. The institution's reputation for artistic rigor and excellence attracts students of diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds from the five New York City boroughs as well as Westchester County and the tri-state area, which includes Connecticut and New Jersey. HSA's alumni and faculty are counted among the most talented leaders in the arts.

For over 50-years HSA has enriched the lives of tens of thousands of people through world-class training in the arts. HSA offers its students the freedom to find and develop the artist and citizen within themselves in an environment that teaches discipline, stimulates creativity, builds self- confidence, and adds a dimension of beauty to their lives, empowering them to become creative thinkers and innovative leaders of tomorrow.

Harlem School of the Arts (HSA)'s programs and general operations are supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and are further made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul

and the New York State Legislature; and by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President. HSA also receives major support from the Herb Alpert Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Edwin Caplin Foundation, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, Ford Foundation, Goldman Sachs, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, New York Community Trust, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Pinkerton Foundation, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and Verizon; as well as from individual donors.

To learn more about the Harlem School of the Arts, please visit www.HSAnyc.org.

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