'We believe music is for everybody'

The Marian Anderson String Quartet, which will perform next week as part of the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts, has done everything in its power to turn that theory on its head.

While the all female, all Afro-American musicians have played to some distinguished audiences, they have also played — for free — to the homeless in the soup kitchens, disadvantaged schoolchildren from The Boys and Girls Club of America and many churches. And while they do play timeless classics by Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, they also perform the music of black composers such as the Negro Spiritual Calvary by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.

For those who do not listen to classical music because they may not understand it and feel they cannot fully appreciate it, the four string musicians make a point of explaining some of the songs and arrangements at intervals throughout their performance. They even invite the audience to ask them questions and to join in singing for some songs.

Marianne Henry, one of the quartet’s founding members, said: “This comes from a basic belief that we feel that music is for everybody. It is really music for the folks.

“We bring the music we play to places you wouldn’t think of going. Your average person will not go to see classical music because they don’t understand the music. Nobody has sat with them to show them how to enjoy it. That’s what we are about — we explain what is fun about it and talk about the composers. We explain that they are just human beings like you and I — they played exquisite music but they still had issues.”

It is these attributes that have helped earn the quartet numerous awards, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture from the Congress of Racial Equality in 2006. The group was also the first African American string quartet to win the International Cleveland Quartet Competition. While their exceptional talent played a huge part, the fact that no other Afro-American string quartet had ever entered the competition was also a factor. When the group won the accolade, it was granted permission by the late Marian Anderson, then 94, to use her name as its own. Ms Anderson’s 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial helped spark the civil rights movement.

The quartet is made up of founding members Ms Henry on violin and Diedra Lawrence on viola as well as Nicole Cherry on violin and Prudence McDaniel on cello. Their play list, which is subject to change, comprises Dances of Panama by William Grant Still, Four For Tango by Astor Piazzolla, String Quartet No. 1 (based on the Negro Spiritual Calvary) by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and String Quartet No. 2 in F by Antonin Dvorak.