*Under the artistic and musical direction of Rachael Worby, MUSE/IQUE’s 2026 season offers a luminous tribute to Black brilliance and the Harlem Renaissance. Audiences from San Marino to Los Angeles were captivated by The Sun Rises in Harlem, a program celebrating the composers and performers who helped make Harlem a center of emerging talent and the epicenter of American jazz.
The tribute included noble nods to Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Florence Price, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith and more.
The MUSE/IQUE Orchestra’s Harlem tribute featured the charismatic, polished vocals of Kecia Lewis and Sy Smith, while the DC6 Singers Collective added rich choral flavor and soulful harmony. Leo Manzari’s tap dancing and hoofing honored Harlem predecessors John Bubbles, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and the Nicholas Brothers.
Worby enriched the performances with historical context, including the story of an all-night vocal battle between Lady Day and Lady Ella that ended in a tie and the record-breaking Broadway debut of the musical “Shuffle Along.”
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The Sun Rises in Harlem was presented in partnership with The Huntington, Skirball Cultural Center, East West Bank and KPFK. The Halem Renaissance era started in the 1920’s as an offshoot of Alain Locke’s New Negro Movement. Harlem’s population grew as a result of the Great Migration of Blacks from the South who were seeking a fresh start in the North.
The irony is that while Harlem dazzled with elegance, syncopation, improvisation, poetry and artistic eloquence, America still sweltered with hatred towards Blacks, racial polarization and the insidious Jim Crow era prevailed.
Undaunted, this collective of human grit audaciously created a new cultural movement out of their self-expression and determination. MUSE/IQUE gives justice to the immortal curators of art, thought, music and dance from the irrepressible Harlem Renaissance era. The ancestors are gleaming with celestial swagger and the MUSE/IQUE orchestra deserves a worthy bow. For more information or to become a member visit: muse-ique.com
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