Harlem Quartet concert to feature 'composers of color'

Editor's note: The Feb. 28 performance by pianist Yefim Bronfman is being rescheduled due to the artist's illness. The new date, expected to be sometime in spring 2024, will be announced in UBNow.

The world-renowned Harlem Quartet, featuring UB professor Melissa White, will present a program dedicated to “composers of color” during an appearance on Feb. 25 at UB.

Also performing as part of the Department of Music’s February concert schedule are flutist Jennifer Grim on Feb. 17 and pianist Yefim Bronfman on Feb. 28.

The concert schedule will also include the Eastman Organists’ Concert, the music department’s annual collaboration with the Eastman School of Music — one of the country’s most prestigious organ studios. The concert, at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 in Lippes Concert Hall, features Eastman students Sarah Johnson, Jacob Montgomery, Andrew Van Varick and Alden Wright.

Tickets for the Eastman Organists’ Concert are $10.

Tickets for the other three concerts are $20. All tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster, at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, or at the Slee box office an hour prior to the performance. UB students with valid ID receive one complimentary ticket to each UB music department concert.

The Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet, whose mission is to advance diversity in classical music while engaging new audiences with a varied repertoire that features works by minority composers, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The program, titled “Composers of Color”:

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: String Quartet Concertante No. 5 in G Major

William Grant Still: Lyric Quartette, Movements 1 and 2

Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Adonis G. Matos: Fugato

George Walker: String Quartet No. 1 Molto Adagio, “Lyric for Strings”

Wynton Marsalis: “At the Octoroon Balls,” “Rampart Street Rowhouse Rag,” “Creole Contradanzas,” “Hellbound Highball”

López-Gavilán: Cuarteto En Guaguanco

The quartet will also conduct an outreach/residency activity for aspiring young musicians on Feb. 27 at City Honors School in Buffalo.

In addition to White, a violinist and UB professor of music, quartet members include Ilmar Gavilán, violin; Jaime Amador, viola; and Felix Umansky, cello.

Praised for its “panache” by The New York Times, the Harlem Quartet has three distinctive characteristics: diverse programming that combines music from the standard string quartet canon with jazz, Latin and contemporary works; a collaborative approach to performance that is continually broadening the ensemble’s repertoire and audience reach through artistic partnerships with other musicians from the classical and jazz worlds; and an ongoing commitment to residency activity and other forms of educational outreach.

It was founded in 2006 by The Sphinx Organization, a national nonprofit dedicated to building diversity in classical music and providing access to music education in underserved communities. The quartet has garnered many accolades and been involved in a number of important performances and projects, including a performance in 2009 for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. In 2012, with the Chicago Sinfonietta under Music Director Mei-Ann Chen, the quartet gave the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story as arranged for string quartet and orchestra by Randall Craig Fleischer.

Jennifer Grim, an innovator of chamber music, as well as a first-prize winner in several national chamber music competitions, will perform with pianist Michael Sheppard at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus.

The program, taken from Grim’s latest album, “Through Broken Time”:

Tania León: Alma

Alvin Singleton: Argoru III

David Sanford: Offertory

Allison Loggins-Hull: Homeland

Sanford: Klatka Still

William Grant Still: Suite (Mother and Child)

Valerie Coleman: Wish Sonatine.

Grim will also conduct a master class with UB students from 4-6 p.m. Feb. 16 in Baird Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public.

Hailed as “a deft, smooth flute soloist” by The New York Times, Grim has performed with such renowned ensembles as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She is the flutist of the award-winning Zéphyros Winds and the New York Chamber Soloists.

She also serves as principal flute of the Mozart Orchestra of New York and the Santo Domingo Festival Orchestra.

Currently an associate professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, she serves on the board of directors of Chamber Music America and was program chair for the National Flute Association’s 2021 annual convention in Washington, D.C.

Yefim Bronfman, internationally acclaimed and virtuosic pianist, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 in Lippes Concert Hall. His appearance, co-presented by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, is part of the Slee Visiting Artist Series.

The program, “Celebrating Beethoven's Legacy”:

Schubert: Sonata in A minor, Op. 143

Bartok: Sonata, Sz. 80

Chopin: Sonata in B minor, Op. 58.

Bronfman is internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists. He is regularly sought after by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series, and works consistently with an illustrious group of conductors, among them Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Jurowski and Zubin Mehta.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, Bronfman has also been awarded the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University and an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.