The Composer-Performer-Repertory Ensemble (CPR) will perform this Sunday, May 13, at 4 pm in the Harriet B. Freedberg Learning Center at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center (MVHC) in Vineyard Haven as part of the MVHC Arts Festival.
CPR was founded by its director Howard Frazin at the New England Conservatory in the fall of 2011. The group includes Matthew Woodard, violin and viola; Nicholas Davies, clarinet; Lev Mamuya, cellist; and Christopher Staknys, piano. All the performers are also composers. They have composed music for each other and have worked weekly throughout the year studying and playing chamber music from their repertoire.
In addition to compositions by each of the ensemble’s members the program will include the Johann Sebastian Bach pieces “Prelude and Fugue in F major,” “Suite No. 5 in C minor for Solo Cello,” “Sonata No. 2 in A minor for Solo Violin,” “Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Solo Violin,” and “Improvisations on Prelude in C Major.”
The group’s press release states, “CPR, with its actively engaged creative process involving composer-performers working together developing their individual voices seeks to put the heart back into classical music.”
They have been invited to play at the Rockport Music Festival, The Rivers School Conservatory Seminar on Contemporary Music, Roxbury Latin School, Mt. Holyoke College, the Blue Hill Festival in Maine, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory Program’s New Music Festival.
There will be a question and answer period after the concert. The festival is funded in part by the Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council.
The festival will continue on June 10 at 7 pm with “A Conversation with Island Artists” hosted by Alan Ganapol and on June 21 with a classical concert featuring the Phoenix Boys Choir from 7 to 8 pm.
The Composer-Performer-Repertory Ensemble, Sunday, May 13, 4 pm, in the Harriet B. Freedberg Learning Center at the M.V. Hebrew Center, Vineyard Haven. $5 suggested donation.
