Harlem Boys Choir closes down

A famous black institution has come to an end. The Boys Choir of Harlem has quietly disbanded, no longer around to entertain audiences for holiday performances or to educate legions of young boys and girls in music and life.

The choir, once located in New York's Harlem community, gave Its last performance in 2007 and quietly ceased operations shortly thereafter due to controversies, a budget deficit, and the death of its founder, Dr. Walter Turnbull.

Turnbull started the choir in 1968 at the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in Harlem.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the closing was mostly quiet until last week, when a choir alumnus announced that the group had folded.

Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old former choir member told an audience at Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir's last home, that "There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem." The Times said the news "surprised few people but saddened many."

Members of the choir were drawn from children in the neighborhood and the majority of its members were African American or Hispanic. The choir also established a school with a regular academic curriculum, the Choir Academy of Harlem that was supervised by the New York City Department of Education and once had more than 500 students

After a scandal involving the management of the school, the group lost use of the school facility in 2006.

According to the Times, "the choir sang at the White House for nearly every president since Lyndon B. Johnson, and it was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Bill Clinton. But it did not survive long enough to perform for the country's first black president."