Harlem Quartet - Havana Meets Harlem (2024)

The Harlem Quartet has sought to broaden both the repertory and the audience for string quartet music. The group has often collaborated with jazz musicians.

The Harlem Quartet was formed in 2006. The group's original members were first violinist Ilmar Gavilán, second violinist Melissa White, violist Juan Miguel Hernandez, and cellist Paul Wiancko. All four members were first-place prize winners at the annual Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. When Wiancko and Hernandez left the group in 2012, Gavilán and White searched among musicians of all races for their replacements; as of the mid-2020s, the quartet comprised Gavilán, White, violist Jaime Amador, and cellist Felix Umansky. Harlem Quartet appeared at the Sphinx Organization's tenth-anniversary gala at Carnegie Hall in 2006 and quickly went on to performances at other prestigious venues, including the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where they performed Wynton Marsalis' String Quartet No. 1 ("At the Octoroon Balls"). In 2007, the group released its debut album, Take the "A" Train, on the White Pine Music label.

The Harlem Quartet appeared at the Library of Congress in 2008, playing the library's matched set of Stradivarius instruments. In December of 2009, the quartet played for President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. Harlem Quartet issued an album of string quartets by Walter Piston on the Naxos label in 2010. In 2011, the quartet issued the album Paul Chihara: Love Music on the Albany label, and in 2014, its performance of Chick Corea's Mozart Goes Dancing on the collaborative album Hot House won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Performance. Harlem Quartet has continued to mix standard string quartet repertory with jazz, Latin music, and contemporary works. The group has held residencies with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra in Alabama and the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. The Harlem Quartet has released several more albums, including Clarinet Quintets for Our Time (with clarinetist David Shifrin and the Dover Quartet) on the Delos label in 2019 and Passion for Coltrane and Bach by Jeff Scott in 2023 with the Imani Winds. ~ James Manheim