[1] While studying at Howard, Wharton performed piano as one of the founding members of Sweet Honey in the Rock, particularly their 1976 album of the same name.
[1] In 1978, she moved to New York and left Sweet Honey in the Rock,[1][3] working as performer and musical director of Hospital Audiences, Inc. from 1978 until 1985.
[1] She also worked as an adjunct lecturer in voice and piano at LaGuardia Community College (1980-1981),[1] and she studied music for a brief time in Senegal.
[7] Mike Joyce of The Washington Post said that her 1989 Baird Auditorium concert, where she was pianist and vocalist, "bore witness to the inspiration she draws from the music, dance and culture of her ancestral home, Africa".
[2] At the inspiration of another musical group named AELO, she released her debut album[4] African Pop from the New World; Wharton explained that it is "no one but me and the engineer".