Take the A Train

Harlem Quartet to perform at Antioch College

Antioch College, in conjunction with Chamber Music Yellow Springs (CMYS), will present the Harlem String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17, in the Herndon Gallery in South Hall on the College’s campus. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Faculty, staff, and students with Antioch College ID cards receive free admission. James Johnston, former professor of music at Antioch College, will serve as the guest host for the performance.

The concert will present a rare opportunity to hear new works for string quartet by African-American composers, along with well-known traditional repertoire. The program will open with the String Quartet No. 1 by jazz giant Winton Marsalis; subtitled “The Octoroon Balls,” the work vividly evokes social life in segregated New Orleans a century ago. The Harlem Quartet will also premier a new work by Yellow Springs native Allen McCullough, written in memory of his late mother, Sarah McCullough. Following Franz Schubert’s immortal “Death and the Maiden” quartet, the concert will conclude with an arrangement of Take the A Train by Billy Strayhorn, the principal arranger of and musical powerhouse behind the Duke Ellington Band.

Praised for its "panache" by The New York Times, the Harlem Quartet is currently the resident ensemble in the New England Conservatory of Music's Professional String Quartet Program. Its mission is to advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire, highlighting works by minority composers.

Having made its Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2006, the Harlem Quartet has since performed for President Obama at the White House and has been featured on WNBC, CNN, The Today Show, WQXR-FM and the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Each member of the quartet is a seasoned solo artist, having appeared with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, National, New World, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras.

For more information, contact Dennie Eagleson, creative director for the Herndon Gallery, at 937-768-6462 or deagleson@antiochcollege.org.