Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, [email protected]  

CANYON, Texas — The Harrington String Quartet will celebrate composers both familiar and lesser-known in its February concert. 

The quartet, which is comprised of four faculty members of the School of Music at West Texas A&M University, will perform its “New Friends” concert at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on the WT campus in Canyon. 

Tickets are $20. Call 806-651-2840 or visit showtix4u.com/events/22281.  

The concert will feature George Onslow’s Quartet in G Minor, Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet Opus 80 in F Minor and William Grant Still’s “Lyric Quartet.” 

Onslow, a 19th-century French composer, is a household name in Germany, but considerably more unfamiliar in America, said Rossitza Goza, HSQ first violinist. 

“He was a prolific writer of chamber music, but this is the first time HSQ has presented one of his works,” Goza said. “His contemporaries considered him to be the true keeper of the tradition of the string quartet as created by composers such as Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.” 

The latter composer’s turbulent and tragic quartet, his last chamber work, also will be featured on the program. 

“It mirrors Mendelssohn’s personal circumstances of losing his sister Fanny, to whom he was very devoted, and foreshadows his own end,” Goza said. 

Still’s composition — a triptych of musical portraits of friends of the composer, containing themes derived from Incan, English and Transylvanian sources — was chosen in recognition of Black History Month. 

“This is a wonderful piece that should be better known,” Goza said.  

The quartet also includes Evgeny Zvonnikov, violin; Vesselin Todorov, viola; and Emmanuel Lopez, cello. Upcoming performances include “Red Tango” with the WT Department of Art, Theatre and Dance on March 24; a concert featuring guest cellist Leonid Shukaev on April 8; and “Dear Old Friends” concert with guest violist Joanna Mendoza on April 29. 

HSQ was established by a generous gift from the late Sybil B. Harrington to benefit the Panhandle community. From its founding in 1981, the quartet has brought stellar credentials and a refined sense of ensemble and musical integrity to performances across the nation and internationally.  

HSQ’s collaborative recording with the Phoenix Chorale, “Northern Lights,” was distinguished as iTunes’s Best Classical Vocal Album of 2012. In 2005, the quartet also released a Grammy-nominated album of works by American composer Daniel McCarthy on the Albany Records label. 

Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key principle of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World. 

That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, the five-year campaign — which publicly launched Sept. 23 — has raised more than $85 million. 

About West Texas A&M University 

WT is located in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of about 10,000 and offers 59 undergraduate degree programs, 39 master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees. The University is also home to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in the state and the home of one of the Southwest’s finest art collections. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 14 men’s and women’s athletics programs.