Biography
Established in 2006, the Harlem Quartet set out to expand both the range of works performed by string quartets and the listeners who attend such concerts, often joining forces with jazz artists. Its founding roster consisted of first violinist Ilmar Gavilán, second violinist Melissa White, violist Juan Miguel Hernandez, and cellist Paul Wiancko, all of whom had captured first prizes at the annual Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. After Wiancko and Hernandez departed in 2012, Gavilán and White recruited replacements from musicians of every background; by the mid-2020s the ensemble included Gavilán, White, violist Jaime Amador, and cellist Felix Umansky.
The group performed at the Sphinx Organization’s tenth-anniversary gala at Carnegie Hall in 2006 and soon appeared at other prominent sites, among them the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where it presented Wynton Marsalis’ String Quartet No. 1 (“At the Octoroon Balls”). Its debut recording, Take the “A” Train, appeared on the White Pine Music label in 2007. In 2008 the quartet played the Library of Congress’s matched set of Stradivarius instruments, and in December 2009 it performed for President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
An album devoted to string quartets by Walter Piston was issued on the Naxos label in 2010. The following year brought Paul Chihara: Love Music on the Albany label. In 2014 the ensemble’s reading of Chick Corea’s Mozart Goes Dancing, featured on the collaborative album Hot House, received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Performance. The Harlem Quartet has sustained its practice of juxtaposing core string-quartet literature with jazz, Latin, and new compositions while serving as ensemble-in-residence with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra in Alabama and the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. Later releases include Clarinet Quintets for Our Time, recorded with clarinetist David Shifrin and the Dover Quartet on the Delos label in 2019, and Jeff Scott’s Passion for Coltrane and Bach, issued with the Imani Winds in 2023.
The group performed at the Sphinx Organization’s tenth-anniversary gala at Carnegie Hall in 2006 and soon appeared at other prominent sites, among them the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where it presented Wynton Marsalis’ String Quartet No. 1 (“At the Octoroon Balls”). Its debut recording, Take the “A” Train, appeared on the White Pine Music label in 2007. In 2008 the quartet played the Library of Congress’s matched set of Stradivarius instruments, and in December 2009 it performed for President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
An album devoted to string quartets by Walter Piston was issued on the Naxos label in 2010. The following year brought Paul Chihara: Love Music on the Albany label. In 2014 the ensemble’s reading of Chick Corea’s Mozart Goes Dancing, featured on the collaborative album Hot House, received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Performance. The Harlem Quartet has sustained its practice of juxtaposing core string-quartet literature with jazz, Latin, and new compositions while serving as ensemble-in-residence with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra in Alabama and the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. Later releases include Clarinet Quintets for Our Time, recorded with clarinetist David Shifrin and the Dover Quartet on the Delos label in 2019, and Jeff Scott’s Passion for Coltrane and Bach, issued with the Imani Winds in 2023.
Albums
