Quad City Arts Visiting Artists The Harlem Quartet -- October 21 through 25.

Full Concert: Friday, October 25, 7:30 p.m.

Trinity Anglican Church, 1818 Sixth Avenue, Rock Island IL

Abbreviated Concerts: Monday, October 21, and Tuesday, October 22

Wesley United Methodist Church, 400 Iowa Avenue, Muscatine IA

Butterworth Center, 1105 Eighth Street, Moline IL

Composed of violinists Ilmar Gavilán and Melissa White, violist Jaime Amador, and cellist Felix Umansky, the Harlem Quartet performs locally as guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series, the musicians' October 21 through 25 concerts sure to prove why The Strad called the group “a formidable ensemble whose members play highly demanding scores with infectious vitality, breezy confidence, and (most importantly) an affectionate warmth that one would scarcely have thought possible.”

Founded in 2006 by the Sphinx Organization, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of young black and Latino classical musicians, the original four members of the Harlem Quartet were all first-prize laureates of the Sphinx Competition. The organization consequently wanted to create a group designed to bring classical music to inner-city school children, with the group's moniker chosen because of Harlem's historical standing as a beacon of hope for migrating African Americans looking for better opportunities in the north. Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall, the New York-based ensemble has performed throughout the United States as well as in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Panama, Canada, and South Africa, where, under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, the musicians spent two weeks in 2012 performing concerts and participating in outreach activities. The Harlem Quartet also collaborated with jazz masters Chick Corea and Gary Burton on the album Hot House, a 2013 release that won multiple Grammy Awards.

Dedicated to advancing diversity in classical music while engaging new audiences with varied repertoire that includes works by minority composers, the Harlem Quartet has performed with such distinguished artists as Itzhak Perlman, Ida Kavafian, Carter Brey, Fred Sherry, and Paquito D’Rivera, and enjoyed a 2009 performance at the White House for President Obama and the First Lady. The group also won the 2013 Best Instrumental Composition Grammy for Mozart Goes Dancing and boasts an eight-album discography, and the musicians' collective talents inspired the Boston Musical Intelligencer's James C.S. Liu to rave, “They took my breath away in the same way that the bullfighter or bull would at the moment of truth..”

The Harlem Quartet plays its October 25 public concert at Rock Island's Trinity Anglican Church, with the event starting at 7:30 p.m. and admission is $10-20. Its musicians will also perform free, abbreviated versions of their full concert at Muscatine's Wesley United Methodist Church (400 Iowa Avenue) at 2 p.m. on October 21, as well as Moline's Butterworth Center (1105 Eighth Street) at 3 and 7 p.m. on October 22. For more information on the Harlem Quartet's area residency, and more on the 2019-20 Visiting Artists season, call (309)793-1213 or visit QuadCityArts.com.

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