The Texarkana Symphony Orchestra celebrates diversity in classical music with distinguished visitors The Harlem Quartet for the concert "Play it Cool" at the Perot Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 13.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., the concert opens with the Adolphus Hailstork composition "Celebration," then finishes the first half with African-American composer William Levi Dawson's "Negro Folk Symphony."
After an intermission, Harlem Quartet players join the TSO for the "West Side Story" concerto by Leonard Bernstein in an arrangement for string quartet and orchestra by Randall Craig Fleischer. To round out the night, an audience selection of John Williams' famous "Star Wars Suite" is on tap.
Since its first performance in 2006, Harlem Quartet has built an impressive list of credits as a musical group committed to classical music diversity and including works by minority composers in its repertoire. They've collaborated with the likes of Itzhak Perlman and Chick Corea, won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and performed for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
Quartet performers Ilmar Gaviln, Melissa White, Jaime Amador and Felix Umansky are each accomplished soloists. Together, the quartet has performed on PBS, WNBC, CNN and elsewhere on TV. They've also been part of jazz festivals worldwide.
Conductor Marc-André Bougie says there are not many pieces that feature a full string quartet with an orchestra. This will be a first for the TSO.
"That's musically a very unique feature of the concert, something we've never done. We've had duets, trios, but never a quartet," Bougie said. "The quartet has some solo moments that people will be able to hear them play those cadenzas, but also those moments where they play with the orchestra. For people to visually associate the sounds of both will be very interesting, I think."
The concerto is based on "West Side Story" tunes, 10 movements about two to three minutes apiece, all linked together. "They play the main tunes from 'West Side Story,'" Bougie said. It's like a concerto, but the quartet acts like the soloists.
"It's non-stop: 25 minutes of great show tunes, basically," Bougie said, calling the Harlem Quartet the masters of this composition.
The "Negro Folk Symphony" is one of the most important works by an African-American composer from the 20th century, the conductor said. It premiered with a Philadelphia Orchestra concert.
"The piece was a hit right away. People loved it," Bougie said. It cemented the reputation for Dawson, who taught at Tuskegee University and, said the conductor, "became famous for his arrangements of choral music."
Dawson's symphony comes in three movements. A trip to Africa inspired the composer to rework African melodies that are part of the symphony.
"He worked with the rhythmic figures in there, so they're closer to the original African rhythmic figures," Bougie said of the spiritual-sounding tunes.
The "Star Wars" selection was chosen by TSO patrons, one of several choices that were offered. "It's a great piece of music, that's what it comes down to: well put together, well structured, fantastic orchestration," Bougie said, calling the "Star Wars" score one of the first modern epic film scores.
The TSO is looking forward to working with this young quartet.
"We thought it was a great opportunity to bring them here," said Andrew Clark, TSO executive director, about the Sphinx Organization-funded-and-founded quartet. That organization promotes emerging minority performers and artists, he said.
Clark says the concerto arrangement was commissioned for the Harlem Quartet, who also recorded it. Also, the quartet will do community outreach during their Texarkana visit. In the two days prior to the concert, the Harlem Quartet will visit the Milam Street Boys and Girls Club and also visit public schools in Texarkana.
"So it's sort of a tiny miniature in-residency program, talking about minorities in music and ways to have a career in music," Clark said. "They'll get to hear the quartet and their stories and how they came to be."
Bougie gives a concert preview at 6:40 p.m.
(Tickets: $40, $29 and $17. Ticket purchase and info: 903-792-4992 or TexarkanaSymphony.org.)