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By Josh Perry
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Saturday, March 5, the Great Hall Concert Series will kick off the second half of its 2015-16 slate with a performance by Asylum Quartet, a horn ensemble performing classical music.
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Powers Hall on the second floor of Needham Town Hall, 1471 Highland Ave. Tickets for the show are available at www.greathallperformance.org.
According to a press release to local media, Asylum Quartet formed in 2011 when the four musicians met as graduate students at The Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. They took the name of the band from Asylum Hill, a notable Hartford neighborhood that was once home to Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Living up to the mission of the Great Hall Concert Series, which involves students in all aspects of the concerts and is intended to raise awareness about the music programs in Needham, Asylum Quartet has worked in community outreach and provided concerts and music programming in Hartford and surrounding communities.
Last year, the ensemble performed at the 2015 Chamber Music America Conference in New York City, had a six-day residence with the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire and performed at the Boston Athenaeum and the Newport Folk Festival.
In 2014, the group also became the first saxophone quartet to receive the Grand Prize at the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston.
Asylum Quartet is the third performer in this year’s concert series, following Melissa Manchester and Catherine Russell, who each performed in the fall.
For more information about this concert and the remaining performances in the 2015-16 Great Hall Concert Series or to purchase tickets, visit www.greathallperformance.org.
Josh Perry is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.
