Maquette Kuper. Courtesy photo

Two Davis residents — flutist Maquette Kuper and harpsichordist Susan Erickson — will be featured in a concert with Capitol Chamber Players, “Baroque and Beyond,” at 3 p.m.  Sunday, April 19, at Congregation B’nai Israel, 3600 Riverside Blvd. in Sacramento.

Joining them on the program will be soprano Rona Commins and cellist Rejean Anderson.

The program will explore a variety of baroque music with musical themes ranging from prayerful to humorous. The concert opens with Alessandro Scarlatti’s “Ardo e ver per te d’Amore” and its timeless theme of jealousy. Kuper will perform the J.S. Bach Sonata in C Major BWV 1033, which opens with a fantasy-like Andante followed by a delightfully playful Allegro, a heavenly Adagio and a light Minuet.

The quartet of musicians then will perform Handel’s “Nell dolce dell’oblio.” This humorous work finds the soprano lamenting that she can’t seem to stop the flutist, who won’t give up the center stage that only she, the soprano, should have. It seems the flute player stands alone in the end.

The second half of the concert will go beyond baroque with John Rutter’s “Suite Antique.” The six-movement work mixes baroque and jazz and was written for flute, harpsichord and string orchestra. Kuper will perform it with harpsichord and add the cello for color in the opening Prelude and third movement Aria.

Along with those movements, there is an Ostinato that oscillates between 6/8 and 3/4 meter, a Jazz Waltz, a song, “Chanson,” and ends with a Rondeau that runs something like “Take Five,” the Paul Desmond tune that became the trademark composition for the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

The concert returns to the sublime and finishes with J.S. Bach’s Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott. Kuper will play the obbligato part, originally written for violin or oboe d’amore, on the alto flute.

Kuper plays principal flute with the Auburn Symphony and was a featured soloist in the orchestra’s 2006-07, 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, she is a founding member of Sacramento’s Capitol Chamber Players.

Her group, Trio MôD, which made its debut in Sacramento in February 2014, is dedicated to integrating classical music with other genres such as jazz, gospel and Native American through innovative and creative arrangements.

She is also a member of the Crocker Art Museum music board, helping to organize the Classical Concert Series at the museum. Kuper performed in the Sacramento Bach Festival in 2010 and 2011.

She is the founder and director of the Davis Youth Flute Choir, which has toured Japan and South Korea and appeared at the American Pavilion at the World’s Fair EXPO 2012, in Yeosu. In July, the Davis Youth Flute Choir will tour China.

Last year, Kuper’s longtime advocacy for music in Davis was recognized when she received the Harmony in Our Lives Award.

Erickson holds a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, a master’s in music degree (honors) from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Her teachers included Dorothy Lane, Louis Bagger and Malcolm Bilson.

She has performed in Australia and throughout the United States, and has taught at UC Davis and at the Sydney Conservatorium, University of Sydney. She has recorded for Jade Records and Indiana University Press, and most recently for Demeter Recordings.

Until recently, she served as vice president of the Northern California Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

Tickets for the concert are available at the door for $20 general, $15 for seniors and $10 for students. For more information, call 916-428-7379.

Maquette KuperW

Susan EricksonW

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