American Patchwork Quartet Comes to The Prior Performing Arts Center

Music Worcester and The Prior Performing Arts Center will co-present the GRAMMY-nominated American Patchwork Quartet (APQ) at The Prior Performing Arts Center at the College of the Holy Cross, Friday November 14 at 7:30 pm.  

Led by award-winning guitarist/vocalist Clay Ross, American Patchwork Quartet binds timeless American folk songs with jazz sophistication, country twang, West African hypnotics, and East Asian ornamentation. APQ’s sound is a masterful confluence of tradition and innovation, transcending culture, politics, and ideology.

In APQ, Ross intertwines with three other Grammy-winning artists: Falguni Shah, an eleventh-generation Hindustani classical vocalist, Moto Fukushima, an internationally acclaimed Issei jazz bassist, and Clarence Penn, a drumming protégée of Ellis Marsalis whose fibers were honed by African American church traditions.

American Patchwork Quartet resonates as a potent symbol of unity in diversity. It stands testament to the notion that, from a collage of varied backgrounds, a coherent and beautiful whole can be fashioned. Mirroring America’s cultural mosaic, APQ stitches together a story that’s both intricate and resilient. The fabric of their music is genuine—it neither feigns tolerance nor presents an overly-embellished image of unity.

This is the third co-presentation between Music Worcester and The Prior. The two organizations have previously collaborated to bring Sphinx Virtuosi (spring 2025) and Vijay Gupta and Chester Englander (spring 2023) to Worcester audiences. Their partnerships frequently involve an educational component in addition to the public performance. The members of APQ will be working with students from Holy Cross as well as local area high school students.

Adrien Finlay, Music Worcester Executive Director said, “Presenting the American Patchwork Quartet at The Prior Performing Arts Center serves both as an anchor performance of our respective seasons that brings together musical genres in innovative ways, and as an inspirational continuation of our joint efforts to have exception artists welcomed by classrooms at Holy Cross and around Central MA.”

“The opportunity to host this ensemble of Grammy Award-winning musicians, not just for a performance on our stage but for personal engagement with members of the Holy Cross and Worcester communities, all in collaboration with one of our closest community partners, is one of the things I’ve been most looking forward to this year at The Prior,” says Jeffrey de Caen, Nancy Savage Skinner ‘79 Director of The Prior Performing Arts Center.

Music Worcester has been bringing world-renowned musicians and ensembles to Central Massachusetts since its founding in 1858. Today, the organization regularly presents world-renowned orchestras, soloists, and ensembles from the worlds of classical, jazz, folk, world music, and dance to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.