Biography

Harlem Lyric Opera Company, initiated in 1997 as a joint undertaking by Dr. Gregory Hopkins and Arturo Carvajal, has been dedicated for almost two decades to present to local and foreign audiences music derived from the African American experience. Its repertoire goes from operas such as Porgy and Bess, to Negro Spirituals and Gospel music.

These music theater presentations got their debut in 1998 when the prestigious organization Festivales Musicales de Buenos Aires under the late Ms. Leonor Luro Anchorena invited a choir from Harlem, New York, under the direction of Gregory Hopkins to be part of its annual subscribers’ program. Besides Buenos Aires, Argentina, this first tour included additional stops such as Montevideo, Uruguay, (Centro Cultural de Musica),  Cordoba in Argentina, Fundacion Pro Arte, and Santiago de Chile.

The group was reinvited the following year by Festivales Musicales and other host organizations, and subsequent invitations to tour Latin America on yearly basis followed. In 2007 one of our groups was invited to Europe by Umbria Jazz. This tour was again followed by invitations by other prestigious European jazz festivals. (Please see our list of past and current engagements). Their second visit to Umbria Jazz on 2010 was partially funded by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation thru its USArtists International Program.

Harlem Lyric Opera Company presentations feature concerts by different formations of vocal artists accompanied by rhythm section, swing band or symphony orchestra. For further information please visit Music Groups.