Saturday at the WCA is a “do not miss” event for any music lover. The PUBLIQuartet is one of the hottest groups in both jazz and classical music today and will present Monk at 100 on October 28th at 7pm.
PUBLIQuartet is a classically trained string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello) but offers a fresh look at string quartet programming. Dubbed “independent-minded” by The New York Times, they not only perform traditional works for string quartet, but arrange other genres and improvise as a group. They recently won the ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award for outstanding and innovative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz and world chamber music.
This Saturday they offer Monk at 100, a program commemorating the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk, one of the greatest composers America has ever produced. Monk (1917-1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose compositions include “‘Round Midnight”, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser”, “Ruby, My Dear”, and “Well, You Needn’t.” PUBLIQuartet will present arrangements and improvisational jazz performances of some of Monk’s seminal works, as well as works by Don Byron and Vijay Iyer.
PUBLIQuartet recently debuted at the Lincoln Center on the Great Performers series, a sold-out Carnegie Hall at Weill Recital Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival. In 2016, PUBLIQuartet was selected by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform a live-stream, 90-minute improvised “soundtrack” to the final Presidential Debate. PQ is the Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Tickets ($21/15/10) are available at WhitneyArts.org or at the door.
By Dr. Erin Hanke, Director, Whitney Center for the Arts
