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6-16-10
June was a busy month for us, performing at Lawrence Elementary School in Brookline, Abbot Elementary School in Westord and lastly Wellington Elementary School in Belmont. Great audiences, thanks kids! Special thanks goes out to Frank Steinfield, Craig McMahan and Michelle Tom for helping to set up those performances.
We are looking forward to playing at the Boomtown Festival, which is run by the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, on July 15th at 6:30pm at Centanni Park. The show is free!! Hope to see some of you out there, have a great summer in the meantime!
5-20-10
Happy May everyone! It has been quite a happy May for us after our very successful May performance at Scullers this past Tuesday! Despite the heavy rain we sold 91 tickets and performed for many new faces and were able to raise $900 towards our ‘JazzSmiles’ campaign!
Thanks to everybody that attended, and a special thanks to Dayla Santurri for setting the show up and having Scullers sponsor our performance. Another special thanks goes out to David French Music Company for also sponsoring the performance! We are looking forward to a slew of upcoming school performances in Brookline, Westford and Belmont in June.
4-27-10
Our trip to Portland was a great success and we'd like to thank Aaron Barnes and the Lincoln High School students and staaf for making our residency possible! We had a lot of fun! We look forward to coming back in the future :)
The clock continues to tick and our Sculler’s Jazz Club CD release performance is fast approaching. We're very excited about some recent articles and interviews in the Boston Globe and Boston Phoenix concerning our educational efforts, group history, and our JazzSmiles campaign and CD release concert at Sculler's.
A very special thanks to Jon Garelick and Steve Greenlee for writing such wonderful articles about us.
Click on the links below to read the articles.
Boston Globe article
Boston Phoenix article
4-10-10
The spring is really picking up for the QOH and we’d like to start off by sending a big “Thank You” to Ayn Inserto and her jazz orchestra for being a part of our double-bill at the Cambridge YMCA in March. The show was a blast and it was a lot of fun having our big band charts premiered here for a receptive Boston audience. Speaking of audience, thanks to everyone for coming out to the theatre during the near-monsoon and supporting both groups!
As for April events, we’re excited to be heading back to Portland, OR in a couple of weeks to do a residency at Lincoln High School. We’ll hope to see some familiar faces back out in the friendly northwest!
Also we'd like to draw your attention to our new JazzSmiles web page where you can learn more about the mission and goals of the JazzSmiles campaign. click on: http://www.quartetofhappiness.com/jazzsmiles.htm
As always, keep checking back as there is much more to come, including info on our JazzSmiles Campaign kick-off and official CD release at Sculler’s Jazz Club on Tuesday, May 18th.
2-10-10
The new-year is off to a busy start for the QOH as we’ve recently received our second album, “The Monster Returns”! Mark your calendars’ because our Boston CD release will be taking place on Sunday, March 14th,at the Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square. The performance will start at 7pm with the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra. Ayn is a very close friend and has a great band that we’re all excited to be a part of. This show will also feature the Boston premier of several of our QOH Big Band charts that will be performed by the QOH Big Band. You won’t want to miss this great night of music!
We are also in the planning stages of a new fundraiser called the JazzSmiles Campaign. The goal of this program is to increase our ability to bring performances to school systems that might not have the funding for in-school music and arts programs. Our inaugural fundraising performance will be taking place Tuesday, May 18th at Sculler’s Jazz Club in Cambridge, Ma at 8pm.
Thanks for checking in and we’ll hope to see you all March 14th!
12-23-09
The conclusion of 2009 was quite busy for the QOH as we completed a short series of workshops/performances in the Nampa, ID school district, as well as school performances back in our home state of Massachusetts. We’d like to thank Phil Hoesing at Nampa High, Josie Call at Skyview High, and Ted Carrico at West Middle School for having us perform for and work with their enthusiastic students. Special thanks to all of the parents and students who made it to our evening performance at the Nampa High Little Theater at Nampa High, it was a pleasure to perform for you all!
Back in Massachusetts, we’d also like to thank Terri Martins at Douglas Elementary in Acton, and Anne Finucane at Eliot Elementary in Needham for having us perform!
As we look ahead to 2010, our second album, “The Monster Returns”, is beginning production and will be ready for release sometime in mid-March. We’re very excited to be releasing this album on the Boston-based label Creative Nation Music. Stay tuned for official CD release parties in both Boston and New York, as well as a variety of other school and public performances as we continue into the new year! no si
11-02-09
Wow, the QoH is exhausted and shows no signs of stopping! We’ve just finished performing 15 shows this month! All were such a blast. We performed at McCarthy, Dunning, Brophy, Potter Road and Hemenway Elementary Schools in Framingham, contributing to around some 2,500 smiles :) Thank you to Mrs. Tache and Mrs. Kenny and their kindergarten class at Dunning School for your wonderful poster for us, all of your kind words made our day! Donna, the art teacher at Potter Road School beautifully sketched the QoH during one of our performances. Both the poster and sketch can be found on our photos page. Thank you again to Christy Nunnes and the parents of the Creative Arts Council in Framingham for making all of these concerts possible. Also thank you to our corporate sponsor, David French Music Company and Target stores for helping to fund these Framingham shows.
Our performance at Community Music Works yielded a new QoH ensemble: “The Gigantic Rhythm Orchestra” during “Who’s Got Rhythm?” CMW’s students picked up their violins, violas and cellos and played back Austin’s rhythms on open strings, which created a really cool sound. Thank you so much CNW for having us, we hope to come back soon.
The Monster did in fact meet George Garzone once again at the 10/19 performance and the monster triads flew through the air at the Lilypad. A special thanks to George for recommending us for this double bill!
Our Harvard University performance was all about fun and games with the ii-V-FUN game, the Copycat and Cell phone contests. We discussed our approach to jazz education by demonstrating these ear training fun activities. Thank you to William Bares for bringing us in!
Tomorrow afternoon, the QoH is traveling to Nampa, Idaho to perform at Nampa High School, West Middle School and Skyview High School and work with the music students for a few days. We’re looking forward to traveling west and bringing happiness to a new territory.
10-10-09
Happy fall to all! We have already started our Framingham performances starting at Wilson and Stapleton Elementary schools. Jack Coleman, the music teacher at Wilson School?? played some piano with us and sounded great!
We’re looking forward to performing our first show in the ocean state (Rhode Island) next Friday the 16th at a community music school in Providence called Community Music Works. CMW provides free after-school education and performance programs through the permanent residency of the Providence String Quartet. Thanks to Sara Stalnaker for setting up this performance, we’re really looking forward to it!
A few days later on Monday October 16th, the QoH is proud to be opening for the Fringe, which is a brillant trio with George Garzone, John Lockwood and Bob Gullotti on drums. You might be thinking that a special second meeting between the monster and George Garzone might be possible? Well, there’s only one way to find out and come to the performance!! This concert is part of New England Conservatory’s 40th Anniversary of the Jazz program. We’re honored to be performing on NEC’s Jazz 40 week. Thanks to Ken Schaphorst for setting this up!
Finally, Qoh goes Ivy league for a second time (Yale last spring) and will perform for an ear-training and literature course at Harvard University on October 27th. Go Harvard Crimson!!!
9-02-09
Summer is nearly over with school already beginning soon. Our August show at City Feed and Supply in Jamaica Plain was a lot of fun. We entertained many shoppers, fruit and vegetables in the produce section. Thanks for having us City Feed!
We recently went on a Quartet of Happiness retreat in Connecticut at Kelly’s house to do a lot of work on finishing our second album cover art, typing up a performance resume and hashing out some business stuff. We even made it to a sunny beach to take a break. October is looking to be a very busy month for us in Framingham with 16 school performances there!! A special thanks to Christy Nunnes for coordinating our schedule for all of these performances. Wow, I think that’s the most shows we’ve ever had in one month. See you soon, Framingham…
7-28-09
Well the dog days of summer are finally here, despite all of this rainy weather we’ve been having. Our July has been a quiet one, with vacations, jazz camps and other tours going on.
Looking back to June, we had a bittersweet show at the Copley Square Farmer’s market. A day after the passing of Michael Jackson, we thought it was appropriate to pay tribute to Michael with our rendition of “Billy Jean,” and folks at the market really appreciated it, as well as Channel Five News, who heard us playing and filmed our rendition! RIP Michael. Thanks to Jimmy Barbuto, manger of the market for giving us the opportunity to perform.
Rick and Kelly took to the airwaves to talk with Lucy Diamond on ILN Radio about the mission of the Quartet of Happiness, thanks to Lucy for having us! Since we needed a landline for radio, our good friend Ayn Inserto let us use hers- thanks Ayn!
We are getting hungry for an upcoming performance at the City Feed and Supply store in Jamaica Plain on August 6th. This is part of JP’s First Thursday Art event where many local art galleries and performance spaces open their doors for free to the public to enjoy. We are looking forward to playing for our neighbors. If you need some groceries and theatrical jazz, come on out!
6-5-09
Summer is finally here after a busy second half of May! We were proud to go back to our alma mater, New England Conservatory and represent the class of 2004. We are grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet some other past alumni.
Heading metro west to Framingham, we had a fun performance with students at Cameron Middle School with Christine Dupuis helping us make that possible. Thanks Christine!
Our rain-filled excursion up to the scenic countryside of Vermont to perform at the Spring into the Arts Festival was a hit with the 1,000+ students, teachers and family members that attended our eleven (yes, eleven) performances over two days. We would like to thank Linda Connors for setting up this great opportunity and making our stay very comfortable and enjoyable.
We finished out our May in Cambridge at the Tobin Montessori School to a very enthusiastic audience that really got into the interactive aspect of our performance. Thank you Sachi for setting up this performance!
Looking forward, we will be performing an outdoor concert at the Copley Farmers market around lunchtime on Friday, June 26 and a few days later on Monday the 29th, Rick and Kelly will be interviewed by Lucy Diamond on internet radio on Monday June 29th at 3:30pm on www.para-x.com Please tune in!
5-10-09
Happy May 10th everyone!
Just reporting in to tell you that we had a great time in New Haven last Friday playing for 300 students at Sprague Hall and Lincoln-Bassett School students. Thanks to Olivia Malin for setting these awesome shows up. The staff at Sprague Hall and Lincoln-Bassett School were amazing to us.
We are really looking forward to representing our Alma-Mater 2004 this coming Friday at NEC’s alumni reunion concert. This is really an honor coming from a pool of such amazing colleagues.
Look out Middlebury, here we come! We’re looking forward to hosting many workshops and performing at Spring into the Arts. Stay tuned to the upcoming filming of the sequel to “The Monster Meets George Garzone Part Two” this summer!!
4-26-09
Hello everyone,
Spring is finally here and we just got back from an amazing tour in the northwest! Special thanks to Josh Deutsch at the University of Oregon, Ron Black at South Eugene High/Spencer Butte Middle, Ezra Weiss at Portland State University, Michel Anderson at Ethos Music Center in Portland, and Lillian Garcia at Bainbridge High School in Seattle. We really enjoyed meeting and performing for everyone and we hope to be back in the near future.
We have several performances coming up in May, including stops at New England Conservatory, Yale University, and the “Spring Into the Arts Festival” in Middlebury, Vt. See our Shows tab for our full May performance itinerary.
Thanks for stopping by and we’ll hope to see many of you in the near future!
3-30-09
Well folks, the light is almost at the end of the tunnel for winter…unless there’s some chance blizzard(!!) We have blown the Winter towards Spring with our five hot shows this month in Acton, Cambridge and Medford. Thanks for having us Capillary Acton and the Oxfam Café-you guys rock! Also special thanks to Francesca Riccardi in Acton that set up two performances at Gates and McCarthy Towne Schools.
Last but not least, my student (Kelly is writing this) Dan Duran needed help getting a new baritone saxophone replacement for the one that was stolen! Jim Hobbs and the Hobbetts and the Quartet formed a fundraiser concert that was a great success. Dan was able to raise enough money from both the concert and many outside donations for a new saxophone(much better than the stolen one!) Thank you every one that donated and showed your support for Dan! We are grateful!
1-3-09
Happy New Year everyone! We had three great shows in December and started shooting our Monster Meets George Garzone sequel movie. Thanks to Gil Aharon for filming!
The happy crowds in Downtown Crossing at Boston's Holiday Village were a blast to perform for. The Monster even met Santa Clause! Special thanks to Megan Moser for her enthusiastic participation in our "Bodyparts" piece and Howard for setting up our performance.
Our first gig at an improv comedy club went over very well with the many actors/actresses and comedians in the crowd at ImprovBoston. We all were a little nervous, but the crowd made us feel very welcome. Special thanks to Lindsay Gonzales for booking us!
Our Holiday themed show brought back the Christmas Monster and introduced the Santa Man, the newest QOH character. Check out the Santa Man video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHn10DP_czI
It was a pleasure to share the bill with Patrick and Becca who were amazing!
Last but not least, we are excited to announce that David French Music Company in Westborough, Massachusetts has agreed to sponsor several school performances and clinics! Please stay tuned for those upcoming performances.
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