Saturday, February 14, brings a special Valentine’s Day appearance by a favorite Athenaeum performer, Anat Cohen, with Quartetinho. The band plays two separate 75-minute performances, one at 6 p.m. and the other at 8:30 p.m. The word quartetinho is Portuguese for “little quartet,” although the players make a big, color-rich sound, each an ace on multiple instruments: Anat on various clarinets, Tal Mashiach on bass and guitar, Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, and James Shipp on vibraphone and percussion. Their concerts showcase compositions by each member of the band and by the great masters such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Egberto Gismonti, Thelonious Monk, Augustín Barrios Mangoré, and more. The result is boundlessly melodic and lyrical. Cohen has been declared Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) every year since 2007 and has also been named the top clarinetist in both the Readers and Critics Polls in DownBeat for multiple years running. That’s not to mention years of being named Rising Star in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as Jazz Artist of the Year, among other honors. As The Chicago Tribune said about Anat, “The lyric beauty of her tone, easy fluidity of her technique and extroverted manner of her delivery make this music accessible to all.” Athenaeum Music & Arts Library on Facebook / Instagram
