Overlook Quartet to perform in two Chatter events
Feb. 12—During the pandemic, cellist Laura Metcalf and her musician friends were unemployed and itching to play.
In 2020, the four musicians gathered for impromptu outdoor New York performances of music by Black composers. These open public rehearsals grew into indoor concerts as the group built a following.
The musicians called themselves the Overlook Quartet in a nod to the often overlooked composers (because of gender or race or both) they wanted to play.
The group — comprised of Metcalf on cello, Monica Davis and Ravenna Lipchik on violin, and Angela Picket on viola — will perform at Chatter Sunday on Feb. 18 and at Chatter Cabaret the same evening.
"None of us had a lot of opportunity to play" this music, Metcalf said. "It just began as a fun thing to do. We developed a little following in our neighborhood."
"We just believe good music is good music."
All the women are active New York string players, playing in Broadway pit orchestras, major music festivals and more.
"We don't play any Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn or Brahms," Metcalf said. "There are hundreds and hundreds of string quartets who play that music. That's just not our focus."
On Sunday morning, the group will play music by Shelley Washington, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Trevor Weston.
Washington "wrote a poem to go along with her piece," Metcalf said. "It's of her experiences growing up as a mixed-race child in Kansas."
The piece calls for the musicians to perform body percussion and sing while they play, she added.
"The effect is absolutely incredible," Metcalf said. "She's got such a unique voice. The piece is like nothing else."
At Chatter Cabaret, the group will be joined by pianist Judith Gordon on Amy Beach's "Piano Quintet."
"She lived from 1867-1944," Metcalf said. "The 'Piano Quintet' is a ravishingly beautiful late romantic work; it's a very fantastical journey. The slow movement is so beautiful, it makes me cry every time."
When she discovered Beach's work, Metcalf was angry that she had never learned about it in college.
"Why wasn't I exposed to this music?" she asked. "That is a big part of what we do."
The cellist has performed at Chatter regularly since 2009. She became so enamored of its unconventional programs and venues that she duplicated it in New York in 2018, calling it GatherNYC.
"I love Chatter so, so much," Metcalf said. "It's one of my favorite things. It's incredibly unique."
Metcalf has appeared as a guest with such renowned ensembles as Eighth Blackbird (with whom she premiered a concerto for sextet and orchestra with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra), and appears regularly as principal cellist of the Iris Collective in Memphis. She has appeared onstage with artists including Adele, John Legend, Cher, Shawn Mendes and Nas.
