No one designed the Harmon Cove Recreation building for music. When constructed, the building was supposed to function as a social center, a place where people could gather and clubs could meet.
Indeed, the building has included the primary office for the residential community’s management company and the space where people voted in yearly school board, municipal and other elections.
Yet Alice Allured, one of the founding members of the Harmon Cove Culture Committee, noticed early on how perfect the acoustics were in the building’s main room.
New York Times said MSQ “play[s] with intelligence, an admirable collegiality and obvious love for the music.”
Over the years, MSQ has become a musical institution, committed to developing the next generation of audiences and players, and as part of Lincoln Center Institute program, performed in schools throughout New York.
In 1992, MSQ won a grant to establish a residence at the Turtle Bay Music School in Manhattan, which serves people from ages two to 90. MSQ also coaches for the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music program. At Harmon Cove, MSQ entertained residents with a range of music that went from Haydn and Dvorak to the energetic tango.
“The first and last pieces were a traditional type of music,” Allured said. “The center piece, the tango, was very modern and it was a great contrast to the other pieces.”
Although the quartet was based in Manhattan, the committee searched the Internet to find them.
“The four of them came from different parts of the world,” she said. “They are young and have a great deal of energy and inspired a lot of excitement.”
As with most of the previous performance, the turnout was good.
“This is something totally different from other things going on in our community and we get a lot of interest in it,” Allured said.
The next concert is planned for Nov. 18, although the committee has not yet decided on the performer.