As diverse in its repertory as it is in its membership, the Harlem Quartet returns to Columbia to perform in a Candlelight Concert Society-sponsored program on Saturday, May 14 at 8 p.m. at St. John Baptist Church in Columbia.
The New York-based ensemble has a mission to expand the world of classical music for performers, composers and audiences. This mission extends back to when the group was founded in 2006. The original members were first place laureates in a competition for Black and Latino string players held by the Sphinx Organization.
The upcoming Columbia gig will give a sense of just how much musical territory the group covers. Two of the works on the program, for instance, reflect a Latin influence.
Antonio Carlos Jobim's 1962 composition "The Girl from Ipanema" helped spark the Brazilian bossa nova craze of that era. The 20th-century Puerto Rican-born composer Rafael Hernandez Marin, who subsequently lived in New York and Mexico, is represented on the program by "El Cumbanchero."
It doesn't hurt that a couple members of the Harlem Quartet share that Latin heritage. Violinist Ilmar Gavilan was born in Cuba, and violist Jaime Amador was born in Puerto Rico. The group's other members are violinist Melissa White and cellist Felix Umansky.
Besides those Latin-inflected pieces, the Harlem Quartet's night in Columbia gets a jazzy boost with Dizzy Gillespie's signature tune, "Night in Tunisia." Gillespie composed this piece in 1942 while still a member of Benny Carter's band. Gillespie recorded it with his own band in 1946, and the number has been covered by dozens of musicians since then.
The remaining two pieces on the program reflect the 19th-century standard repertory that amounts to bread and butter for just about any classical string quartet.
Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet Number 4 in E minor Op. 44 No. 2 was composed in 1837 as part of a set of three string quartets that he dedicated to the Crown Prince of Sweden; and there is also a royal connection in Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet Number 9 in C Major Op. 59, No. 3, which he composed in 1808 as the last of three quartets commissioned by Prince Andrey Razumovsky.
Its eclectic repertory gives the Harlem Quartet plenty of material from which to choose when it puts together concert programs done at an assortment of venues. It's not surprising that in New York, for instance, it has performed at both Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater.
This nationally and internationally touring group regularly has touched down in Columbia, where it previously performed for Candlelight Concert Society at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre including in 2010 and 2013.
Appearances elsewhere included a Chicago Sinfonietta concert in 2012 for the world premiere of a string quartet arrangement by Randall Craig Fleischer of Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story."
Individual performers with whom it has collaborated over the years include Awadagin Pratt, Paquito D'Rivera, Itzhak Perlman, Misha Dichter, Carter Brey, Ida Kavafian and Fred Sherry.
And the group's recordings include working with jazz musicians Chick Corea and Gary Burton on the CD "Hot House." Their second collaboration with Corea and Burton on the CD "Mozart Goes Dancing" won the Grammy Award for BestInstrumental Composition in 2013.
Harlem Quartet performs on Saturday, May 14 at 8 p.m. at St. John Baptist Church, 9055 Tamar Drive in Columbia. Tickets are $12- $35. For ticket info, call 410-997-2324 or go to www.candlelightconcerts.org