Live music is returning to Harker, as the 2021-22 season of the Harker Concert Series kicks off Nov. 5 with an appearance by Grammy-award winning drummer Jared Schonig, who has recorded and performed with instrumentalists including Nicholas Payton, Lonnie Smith, Donny McCaslin, Miho Hazama and Ernie Watts, as well as vocalists including Broadway legend Kristen Chenoweth, Emmy and Tony award winner Cynthia Erivo and Welsh singer-songwriter Donna Lewis. He has also released five albums as co-leader of The Wee Trio, garnering praise from respected publications such as Downbeat and All About Jazz.
The Emerald Brass Quintet, made up of graduates of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., will perform Feb. 4. Since forming in 2006, EBQ has performed with highly respected ensembles including Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. They also have been featured guests at the Gualala Arts Center Concert Series and have appeared on WXXI 91.5’s “Backstage Pass,” as well as the 2009 Brass in Frankenwald festival in Hof, Germany. Their first album, “Danzón,” was released in November 2020. Individually, EBQ members have performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room and with orchestras all over the country.
The final act of the season will be the Daedalus Quartet, which has been collecting accolades around the world for 20 years. Winners of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Daedalus Quartet have performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and many more prestigious venues throughout the world. The New Yorker called them “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” and The New York Times has praised their interpretations of Haydn, Beethoven, Berg and Dutilleux.
Admission to each Harker Concert Series event will be $25, and concerts will be held at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center at the upper school campus. A 6 p.m. reception with hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be held before every concert, which will start at 7 p.m. in the Patil Theater.
For the safety of Harker’s guests, ticket sales and seating will be adjusted to comply with any event capacity and/or social distancing protocols in place at the time of ticket sales. Receptions at each event will be held outdoors. Face coverings are expected to be required while attendees are indoors. Attendees will be informed of any updates to face covering requirements.