The NIU School of Music will present a special performance by the Vermeer Quartet and Friends on Tuesday.

The concert will benefit the NIU School of Music and features the Arianna Quartet, Fareed Haque, William Koehler and Harold Kafer, as well as the Vermeer Quartet.

The concert will take place in the Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The hall holds more than 700 people, and Lynn Slater, coordinator of admissions and public relations for the School of Music, hopes to fill it.

The musicians will play music never performed before, and some musicians will play pieces using different instruments than they are accustomed to.

Four professors make up the Vermeer Quartet: Shmuel Ashkenasi, Mathias Tacke, Richard Young and Marc Johnson. They have been together as the Vermeer Quartet since 1969. Koehler has taught piano at NIU since 1985. Haque is a world-class classical guitarist and music professor. Kafer is the dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Slater said. “This concert will have tangos, rags and opera arias. The music will range from the traditional to the outrageous, and it’s sure to be a fun evening.”

Much of the evening is shrouded in secrecy because the organizers want the audience to be surprised by what they see and hear, but Slater was able to say Diane Ragains, NIU voice professor, will host the concert.Who: Vermeer Quartet and Friends