Harlem Quartet
October 17 + 19 w/Aldo Gavilan
Since its debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the multi-Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet has been quartet-in-residence at London’s Royal College of Music, performed at the White House for President and First Lady Michelle Obama, collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Jeremy Denk, Misha Dichter, Antony McGill, Awadagin Pratt, Paquito D’Rivera, and Chick Corea, appeared on NBC’s Today Show and the PBS NewsHour, and presented concerts in 47 states, plus the U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
The Harlem Quartet’s mission is to advance diversity in classical music, engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire that includes works by composers of color. They present diverse programming that combines music from the standard string quartet canon with jazz, Latin, and contemporary works; a collaborative approach to performance that is continually broadening the ensemble’s repertoire and an ongoing commitment to educational outreach.
The Quartet trained collectively at New England Conservatory under Paul Katz, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Miriam Fried, and Martha Katz, and individually at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Julliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Melissa White was soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in March, 2021. Mr. Umansky is a native of Carmel, Indiana.
Among the quartet’s recordings is a collaboration with pianist Awadagin Pratt of works by American composer Judith Lang Zaimont. HQ collaborated with jazz pianist Chick Corea on the Grammy-winning Hot House album that included Corea’s “Mozart Goes Dancing,” which won a separate Grammy as Best Instrumental Composition. Their latest album, Cross Pollination, features works by Debussy, William Bolcom, Dizzy Gillespie, and Guido López-Gavilán.
Aldo Lopez-Gavilan, is the younger brother of Harlem Quartet co-founder and violinist Ilmar Gavilan. His father a conductor and composer, his mother a concert pianist. He won a Danny Kaye International Children’s Award at 11, performed with Venezuela’s legendary Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado in 2006, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012. In 2016, under Joshua Bell’s direction, López-Gavilán helped organize Seasons of Cuba, a PBS Special at Lincoln Center in December 2016. In 2019, he and Ilmar recorded an album together.
