Lewes Chamber Players to perform concert at St. Peter’s March 19

A diverse musical program that will range from serious and sultry songs to lighthearted and jolly dance tunes awaits concertgoers when the Lewes Chamber Players perform at  2 p.m., Sunday, March 19, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lewes.

Doors open 30 minutes prior to the performance.

“I strive for as much diversity in style and color as possible in all my programs,” said violinist Sylvia Ahramjian, a founding member of Lewes Chamber Players. A graduate of the Juilliard School for the Arts, she taught at Wilmington Music School and West Chester University before retiring. She is joined in this concert by violist Sarah Sutton, cellist Jacques-Pierre Malan and pianist Hiroko Yamazaki.

The performance is made possible by the St. Cecilia Music Guild, an outreach program of St. Peter’s that offers concerts that are educational, inclusive and accessible to all members of the community, free of charge.

The selections Ahramjian has chosen include works from German composers Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, French organist and pianist Gabriel Fauré, and Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine composer-bandoneón master and inventor of “nuevo tango,” which transformed traditional tangos for dancing into concert works with jazz and classical elements.

The program will open with Fauré’s “Piano Quartet #1.” “A quick and light-hearted piece, then we will then play two movements from Piazzolla’s ‘L’Histoire du Tango,’ one movement fast and sensuous, and the other cafe music, sultry and slow,” said Ahramjian.

The closing selection will be Brahms’ “Piano Quartet,” which Ahramjian described as a mix of serious and playful, climaxing with a jolly dance that gets faster and more energetic at the end. “It makes a perfect ending to the concert,” she said.

Sutton has an international profile as a performer and viola teacher. She played for Pope John Paul II and appeared at the state banquet and celebrations in honor of Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth II. Sutton has appeared both as soloist and principal violinist throughout Europe, and in North and South America, at many prestigious venues. Nearer to home, she performs regularly with the Camerata Philadelphia.

Pianist Yamazaki has performed in the U.S. and abroad, including appearances with the Tonhalle-Orchester, a Swiss symphony orchestra based in Zürich, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Delaware Symphony. She is the pianist for Pyxis Piano Quartet, the ensemble in residence for both the Delaware Art Museum and Market Street Music in Wilmington, and currently serves in the master piano faculty with special distinction at The Music School of Delaware.

Cellist Malan, a South African now living in Baltimore, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in musicology, jazz piano and cello performance from schools in his homeland as well as the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. He is a co-founder of the Creative Concert Group, which produces visionary concert programs to make them accessible to people with disabilities.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is located at Second and Mulberry streets in downtown Lewes. A goodwill offering is welcome at all concerts.