UW News

March 30, 2011

World Series brings Harlem Quartet to Meany April 6

The Harlem Quartet performs as part of the World Series at Meany.

The Harlem Quartet performs as part of the World Series at Meany.

The Harlem Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in Meany Hall, presented by the UW World Series.

This black and Latino ensemble of Sphinx Competition laureates, praised for its “panache” by The New York Times, is currently the resident ensemble in the New England Conservatory of Music’s Professional String Quartet Program. Its mission is to advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire, highlighting works by minority composers.

The quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 and its first appearance at Meany Hall in 2008. The group consists of Ilmar Gavilán and Melissa White on violin; Juan Miguel Hernandez on viola and Paul Wiancko on cello. Each member is a seasoned solo artist, having appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, National, New World, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, among others. As a quartet, they have performed in many communities across the country including Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston.

In 2009 the quartet also performed by invitation with Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In December it played two performances at the White House for guests of  the President and first lady, and made an appearance Christmas morning on NBC’s Today Show.

In addition to works from the European chamber canon, the quartet regularly performs works by African American and Latin composers such as Wynton Marsalis, Billie Strayhorn and Tania Leon. NPR Music has praised the ensemble for its “assured technique… and enough energy to be harnessed as a new source of green power.”

The quartet will play String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18, No. 3, by Beethoven; String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108 by Shostakovich; String Quartet No. 2 by Borodin; and The Adventures of Hippocrates (Parts I, IV, and V), by Chick Corea.

Tickets are $34 ($20 for students), and may be purchased by phone at 206-543-4880, online or in person at the UW Arts Ticket Office.