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The renowned Harlem Quartet will give multiple free public performances as part of its upcoming residency with the School of Music. Founded in 2006, the string quartet advances diversity in classical music while engaging new audiences with varied repertoire that includes works by composers of color.

The residency will also include a screening of the documentary “Los Hermanos”—about the virtuoso Afro-Cuban musicians Aldo and Ilmar López-Gavilán—with Ilmar taking part in an audience Q&A session.

The Harlem Quartet is comprised of Ilmar López-Gavilán and Melissa White, violin; Jaime Amador, viola; and Felix Umansky, cello. Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the ensemble has taken part in both educational and community engagement activities. Their mission to share their passion with a wider audience has taken them around the world, from a 2009 performance at the White House for President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama to a highly successful tour of South Africa in 2012, and numerous venues in between. The quartet collaborated with jazz masters Chick Corea and Gary Burton on the album “Hot House,” a 2013 multi-Grammy Award-winning release.

In addition to the public performances listed below, the group will give a master class for School of Music students.

Sunday, April 3
4:00 p.m., Ford Hall, Whalen Center
The Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Series will present the Harlem Quartet in concert, performing works by artists ranging from classical composers George Walker and William Grant Still to jazz giants Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis.

Monday, April 4
7:00 p.m., Hockett Family Recital Hall, Whalen Center
Screening of the documentary “Los Hermanos” and audience Q&A with Ilmar López-Gavilán.

Brothers Ilmar and Aldo were both born in Havana in the 1970s, with Ilmar leaving Cuba at age 14 to study violin in the U.S.S.R. while Aldo grew up mentored by Cuba’s impressive jazz and classical pianists. Tracking their parallel lives, poignant reunion, and momentous first performances together on stages across the U.S., “Los Hermanos” (“The Brothers”) is a nuanced, intensely moving view of nations long estranged, through the lens of music and family.

The film features an electrifying, genre-bending score, composed by Aldo and performed by him along with Ilmar, with guest appearances by maestro Joshua Bell and the Harlem Quartet.

Tuesday, April 5
7:00 p.m., Hockett Family Recital Hall
Open rehearsal by the Harlem Quartet.

At this time, the public is welcome to campus.
We ask that masks are worn in our concert halls.
For more information on School of Music concerts, visit www.ithaca.edu/concerts.