Founder Of Wash Heights Orchestra Takes Curtain Call With Final Show

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — An influential leader and conductor in the Washington Heights classical music scene will have his curtain call Saturday in the final performance of the season for an uptown orchestra.

Chris Whittaker, who co-founded the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra in 2015 and has since served as its music director, will be performing in his last concert for the orchestra. Whittaker will be changing career paths and going to law school.

"While music will always be a part of my life, I feel the urgency to try to contribute in some way to the myriad of pressing issues we face — foremost in my mind is climate change," Whittaker wrote in a message to the orchestra's patrons.

"As we close this chapter, I believe that classical music and access to the arts uptown will only continue to grow," Whittaker added. "We ‘pass the baton’ to the exciting organizations that will come next."

The longtime Washington Heights resident helped start the organization in 2015 with a handful of musicians and $10,000 in savings.

Since then, the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra has produced seven seasons of concerts, including 65 live music events. The shows have almost all been free and the organization has paid its musicians industry standard wages.

Its annual budget of around $80,000 was paid through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra has also featured many local uptown composers and Latin American, Hispanic, and Dominican composers to "reflect the man voices in the neighborhood in which we live."

You can read Whittaker's full farewell message — here.

Information on the Season Finale Show

Titled "Your Distant Destiny," the show will take place Saturday at 3 p.m. at the George Washington Educational Campus (549 Audubon Ave.).

Tickets are free, but you can reserve your ticket — here. Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination are required.

Here's a description of the show.

"Soprano Jennifer Zetlan joins us for a newly re-orchestrated version of Washington Heights-based composer Paul Brantley’s On the Pulse of Morning, after Maya Angelou’s poem. Chris Whittaker shares a poignant musical offering from his Symphony: “This song was for you,” and we conclude our season with the famous knock of fate and Beethoven’s iconic fifth symphony."