For Immediate Release:Contact: David Kuehn, Executive DirectorCotuit Center for the ArtsPhone: (508) 428-0669Email: David@cotuitcenterforthearts.orgWebsite: ArtsOnTheCape.org

Phoebe Carrai and Peter Sykes in Concert at Cotuit Center for the Arts

Cotuit Center for the Arts presents cellist Phoebe Carrai and harpsichordist Peter Sykes in a concert of Baroque music played on period instruments on Saturday, September 3, at 7:30 PM.

Carrai and Sykes have performed together many times in large and small ensembles. The program includes Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 1 for solo cello, two harpsichord sonatas in D major by Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata No. 3 in C Major for cello and continuo by Scarlatti, English Suite No. 2 in A Minor (BWV 807) for harpsichord by Bach, and Sonata No. 7 in A Minor (RV 44) for cello and harpsichord by Antonio Vivaldi.

Phoebe Carrai’s playing has been described as “honest, passionate, and glorious.” A warm and energetic person, her playing is “intense and expressive” with “full-bodied” sound. Her recording of the Bach cello suites has been described as “gorgeous,” “exceptional,” and “highly personal.” “Life,” Carrai said, “should always be a crescendo.”

A native of Boston, Phoebe Carrai began playing cello at the age of 10 and fell in love with the Baroque cello and Early Music while a student at of Lawrence Lesser at the New England Conservatory of Music where she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. In 1979, she won a Beebe Foundation Grant to undertake post-graduate studies in Historical Performance Practice with Nicholas Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

In 1983, she joined the chamber music ensemble Musica Antiqua Köin and worked with them for the next 10 years, touring and teaching throughout the US and the world. She appears both as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles, and performs with the Arcadian Academy, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble, the Göttingen Handel Festival Orchestra and Festival Ensemble, and Juilliard Baroque. She is a member of the faculties of the Juilliard School in New York and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. She co-directs the International Baroque Institute at Longy and directs the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, which will perform in Sandwich on April 8, 2017, in coordination with the Sandwich Arts Alliance.

She has recorded for Aetma, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Telarc, Decca, and BMG.

Carrai performs on an anonymous Italian cello from c. 1690. “I love the sonority of the Baroque cello, which is constructed differently from the modern cello,” she said. “That is one of the things I will talk about at the concert. With its gut strings, flatter fingerboard, and lower bridge, and lighter weight,

the Baroque cello is very resonant. The modern cello was created to have a powerful sound in a large hall, but the Baroque cello, and Baroque music are perfect for small halls, like Cotuit Center for the Arts.

“The sound is gorgeous. I am swept off my feet with the color possibilities. The Bach cello suites are a perfect example,” she said. “They are the Bible for cellists. Even the easiest one is quite difficult. Like the English suite, which Peter will be playing, they were written by Bach, a virtuoso, to be played by virtuosos.”

Carrai describes Sykes as a “phenomenal player, effervescent, grand, and poetic,” who travels the world playing harpsichord and organ. Reviewers have described his playing as “compelling and moving,” “magnificent and revelatory,” and “bold, imaginative, and amazingly accurate.”

Born in Hyannis, Sykes holds degrees from New England Conservatory—where Carrai and he met—and Concordia University in Montreal. He has won many awards and competitions for his playing, and has appeared in recital with the American Guild of Organists, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, the American Institute of Organbuilders, the International Society of Organbuilders, at the Library of Congress, Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna Festival, New England Bach Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, and at many other venues throughout the world.

Sykes is the principal instructor in harpsichord at Juilliard and associate professor and chair of the Historical Performance Department at Boston University, as well as director of music at First Church in Cambridge and active in a wide range of early music organizations. He has released a number of recordings, including his recent solo recording of the complete Bach harpsichord partitas on the Centaur label.

Tickets are $25, $22 for seniors and veterans, and $20 for members and may be purchased by calling 508-428-0669 or visiting artsonthecape.org. Premium tables with wine are available.

The arts center is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, call 508-428-0669 or visiting artsonthecape.org.

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What:

Phoebe Carrai and Peter Sykes in Concert

Where:

Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit

When:

Saturday, September 3, 7:30 PM

Admission:

$25, $22 for seniors and veterans, $20 for members

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