"Bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent." - Cincinnati Inquirer

“One of the greatest string quartets I have ever heard. They can play anything.” - Ted Nash

TOURING IN 2024-2025

QUARTET PROGRAM

In Echoes of Inspiration, GRAMMY award-winning Harlem Quartet presents an eclectic program that weaves together works from three different centuries.  For this 2024-2025 program, the ensemble has selected pieces that each composer wrote to celebrate the influence of their heroes and cultural traditions.

The program is anchored by an early Beethoven work, opus 18 No. 5 in A Major, which intentionally reflects the moods and ideas of Mozart’s quartet in the same key. The musical counterpoint the group has selected, Benjamin Britten's Quartet No. 2, is a heartfelt tribute to Henry Purcell which Britten composed in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Purcell's passing. Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte draws inspiration from the minuet of Haydn's Quartet Opus 77/2, reflecting both innovation & respect for tradition. Guido Lopez-Gavilan's Cuarteto en Guaguanco rounds out the program— this exhilarating work is inspired by Afro-Cuban Chant.

Through their meticulous selection of works, this ensemble demonstrates their dedication to combining traditional masterpieces performed at the highest level with complementary contemporary works that are writing the future for classical music. Their ability to seamlessly traverse various musical styles while maintaining a signature sound that also honors both the specific style and context of the work, but also the inspirations behind each piece is a testament to their exceptional musicianship and artistic vision.

PROGRAM*:

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in A Major, Op.18 No.5

Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2, op. 36

Caroline Shaw: Entr'acte

Guido Lopez-Gavilan: Cuarteto en Guaguanco

*ONE (1) ADDITIONAL WORK MAY BE ADDED PER THE QUARTET.

Harlem Quartet also tours a program of repertoire exclusively written by BIPOC composers.

PIANO QUINTET featuring ALDO LOPEZ-GAVILAN

Experience the mesmerizing combination of GRAMMY Award-winning Harlem Quartet and Cuban pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán. Praised for his “dazzling technique and rhythmic fire” in the Seattle Times and dubbed a “formidable virtuoso” by The Times (London), López-Gavilán excels in both the classical and jazz worlds as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber-music collaborator, and performer of his own electrifying jazz compositions. 

Having toured as a quintet since 2015, this ensemble has developed a cohesive and powerful sound. Concerts and residencies have included Rockport (MA) Chamber Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Santa Fe College, Las Vegas’s Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and L.A.’s Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

As part of the next movement of chamber music, this program primarily showcases original work written for this collaboration and reflecting a fusion of styles & genres.*

PROGRAM*:

Aldo López-Gavilán: Epilogo

Aldo López-Gavilán: Talking to the Universe

Aldo López-Gavilán: Viernes de Ciudad 

Aldo López-Gavilán: Eclipse

Aldo López-Gavilán: Aegean Dreams

Aldo López-Gavilán: Pan Con Timba

*ALTERNATE REP INCLUDES SCHUMANN PIANO QUINTET & OTHER CONTEMPORARY JAZZ WORKS.

• Quartet

• Quintet with Aldo López-Gavilán

BIO

New York-based Harlem Quartet, currently quartet-in-residence at the John J. Cali School of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, has been praised for its “panache” by The New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.” It has also won plaudits from such veteran musicians as GRAMMY-winning woodwind virtuoso Ted Nash of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who declared in a May 2018 Playbill article, “Harlem Quartet is one of the greatest string quartets I have ever heard. They can play anything.” Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the ensemble has thrilled audiences and students in 47 states as well as in the U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Click Here for Harlem Quartet’s full Bio.