Celebration Concert returns to Good Life City

• The Harlem Quartet will join the Albany Symphony Orchestra in performing works by black composers on Saturday.

Cathy Higgins

ALBANY — This weekend, the Albany Symphony Orchestra and Mount Zion Baptist Church will present Celebration Concert XI.

The free concert starts at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mount Zion Baptist Church.

The performance will feature the Harlem Quartet, which consists of Cuba native Ilmar Gavilan, Curtis Institute of Music graduate Melissa White, Canada native Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Royal College of Music graduate Desmond Neysmith.

Each quartet member is a first-place laureate of the Sphinx Competition and has performed individually with such symphonies as the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the Boston Pops.

The group debuted as an ensemble at Carnegie Hall in autumn 2006 with a single intention.

“To advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new audiences through the diversity and presentation of varied repertoire, highlighting works by minority composers,” states a Celebration Concert news release.

Saturday, the Harlem Quartet will perform “Dances and Delights,” which composer Michael Abels penned for the ensemble.

The group will also play William Grant Still’s Latin influenced “Dances of Panama.”

Saturday’s program also includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Four Novelletas,” Frederic Hymen Cowen’s “Rustic” from “Four English Dances” and Gioachino Rossini’s “String Sonata No. 1 in G major.”

Started a decade ago, the free Celebration Concert series brings classical music to Southwest Georgians who might not otherwise attend a symphony concert.

“For those who might not be able to afford going to a concert at the (Albany) Municipal Auditorium,” T. Marshall Jones of Mount Zion Baptist Church said in a recent telephone interview.

The series also meshes classical music with the celebration of Black History Month.

“It’s a celebration of African-American composers and performers,” Jones said.

For more information, call (229) 317-6799 or visit www.albanysymphony.org.