THU—February 20—7:30 PM
$25 ($20 ASF Members)

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Join us February 20 for a performance by international ensemble AREPO! Based between Oslo and New York City, the quartet consists of clarinetist Madara E. Mezale (Latvia), guitarist Marco Slaviero (Italy), accordionist Noël Rubli (Switzerland) and cellist and vocalist Elizabeth Kate (USA). The evening’s program will present pieces commissioned by AREPO to two Oslo-resident composers: Olivia Køppe Christoffersen (Denmark) and Ferdinand Schwarz (Germany); in addition, AREPO will be performing music by Nicholas Morrish (UK) and Tomasz Jakub Opałka (Poland).

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

AREPO, [AH-reh-poh] made up of cellist and vocalist Elizabeth Kate, guitarist Marco Slaviero, accordionist Noël Rubli, and clarinetist Madara Eleonora Mežale formed as a contemporary music group in 2022. Though conventional in number, AREPO embraces their unconventionality in quartet instrumentation by breaking standard instrumentation, using their voices, their bodies, and playing works by composers of marginalized communities. Hailing from the USA, Italy, Switzerland, and Latvia respectively, each member carries with them a distinctive cultural and musical history.

AREPO is based between Oslo and New York City and have most recently completed a year-long commission project of four Scandinavian-based composers which premiered both in Oslo and in Zurich. AREPO was selected to be one of the Ensemble-in-Residence for the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab which took place in June 2024 at the Yerkes Observatory (Wisconsin, USA). Their works range in genre from performative art, to classical contemporary, improvisation, and interdisciplinary music with media. Future plans include the release of an album containing Listening Time by Ferdinand Schwarz, a 45-minute piece based on just intonation; Spring 2025 will see AREPO engaged with the U.S. premiere of pieces composed by Arjan Singh Dogra and Harriet Steinke.