AREPO
AREPO, [AH-reh-poh] made up of cellist and vocalist Elizabeth Kate (she/her), guitarist Marco Slaviero (he/him), accordionist Noël Rubli (he/him), and clarinetist Madara Eleonora Mežale (she/her) formed as a contemporary music group in 2022. Though conventional in number, AREPO embraces their unconventionality in quartet instrumentation as they believe disruption to the expected is vital for the future of music. By breaking standard instrumentation, using their voices, their bodies, and playing works by composers of marginalized communities, AREPO aims to set a new standard for what a 21st century quartet concert can entail.
Hailing from the USA, Italy, Switzerland, and Latvia respectively, each member carries with them a cultural and musical history that enriches AREPO. Elizabeth is an active contemporary solo player with a speciality on vocalizing cello and has found musical homes at Bang on Can Festival, Yarn/Wire Institute, and Oberlin Conservatory. Marco focuses on expanding the sonic possibilities and repertoire for solo guitar and guitar within an ensemble engaging with a broad spectrum of extended techniques and new instrumentation. Noel is an active commissioner and is a proponent of curating unique new concert settings, most recently ‘listening:resonating’ which has had thirteen editions to date. Madara, is the 2023 winner of the Norges Musikkhøgskole concerto competition and was awarded the Ingar Doblougs Stiftelse grant to support higher education studies abroad in 2024.
All together, AREPO is based in Oslo, Norway. They have most recently performed in the 2023 Ultima Contemporary Music Festival with a premier of Sounding Listening by Ferdinand Schwarz. Currently, the ensemble is in the workshop phase of a five-month long commission project of four Scandinavian-based composers to be premiered both in Oslo and in Zurich through 2024 RAUM236 Concert Series. The upcoming works range in genre from performative art, to classical contemporary, improvisation, and interdisciplinary music with media. AREPO was selected to be the 8th Blackbird Creative Lab Ensemble-in-Residence and in summer 2024 will be traveling internationally to bring their music abroad.
ELIZABETH KATE | AREPO
CELLO & VOICE
ELIZABETH KATE is a cellist and vocalist, and often both at the same time, from Brooklyn, New York. Her work focuses on the contemporary classical genre, expanding and prevailing a new repertoire of music for vocalizing cellists. She aspires to be present with art being created in each passing day, actively composing and commissioning new work, both as a solo artist, and with her contemporary ensemble for accordion, cello, clarinet, and guitar, AREPO. Elizabeth has collaborated with the Munch Museum of Oslo, Ensemble Lime, Rolf-Erik Nystrom, Hakon Thelin, and Natsumi Osborn. She was a 2023 Bang On A Can fellow, Yarn/Wire Festival Resident, and most recently performed at the Ultima Festival of Contemporary Music and the 2024 Oslo DingDong? Festival with a set called The Voice of Cello. Elizabeth has a BM in cello and BA in creative writing from Oberlin College and Conservatory and is currently completing her masters in music at The Norwegian Academy of Music. Elizabeth plays on a French 18th century Andrea Castegnari cello gifted by the Virtu Foundation.
MARCO SLAVIERO | AREPO
GUITAR
MARCO SLAVIERO is an Italian musician based in Oslo, Norway. During his current Master's degree in Music Performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Marco is focusing on how contemporary music can play a central role in overcoming a musician’s trauma of an injury that limits their abilities; starting from his personal case and engaging with a broad spectrum of extended techniques and new instrumentation, he collected and performed new music that would not affect the sore spot and rather allow him to play with such a limitation. He’s also actively involved in commissioning and performing new music as solo artist, and with his two chamber music projects: AREPO contemporary music ensemble for clarinet, accordion, cello and guitar; and Slaviero:Nannestad guitar duo. He recently collaborated with Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, MUNCH Museum, NyMusikk Innlandet and Ensemble Lime. Marco completed his Bachelor's degree in classical guitar at the Conservatory of Music A. Pedrollo in Vicenza, Italy where he’s also attending the Master’s degree. At the same time he’s concluding a Master in Music Performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music with contemporary music as the main subject of his studies.
NOËL RUBLI | AREPO
ACCORDION
NOËL RUBLI is an accordionist from Zurich, Switzerland. He is currently studying for a bachelor's degree with Frode Haltli at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He works mainly with contemporary music, in recent years especially with New Discipline and Interdisciplinary Music, but also has a passion for early music. Noël is an active commissioner of new works and has premiered several works. He is part of the opera trio "Sotis og Stripen", which has performed its children's opera "Sotis og Stripen på søppelhaugen" more than 40 times, including at the Fredriksten Opera Festival and Opera til folket, and has won Østfold Opera's competition for children's operas. Noël is the organiser and curator of the concert series "Listening:Resonating", which has taken place more than ten times and has premiered a number of works. The concert series focuses on new music, new concert concepts and listening together, both as musicians and as an audience, with the aim of experiencing and thus creating music together, but at the same time individually. In this way, he also hopes to facilitate access to new music.
Noël recently participated in the Ultima Festival 2023 with the world premiere of a work by Ferdinand Schwarz. Together with the chamber ensemble AREPO, he is currently involved in a commissioned project with four Scandinavian-based composers that will premiered in Oslo and Zurich in spring 2024.
MADARA ELEONORA MEŽALE | AREPO
CLARINET
MADARA ELEONORA MEŽALE (b. 2000) is a Latvian clarinetist currently pursuing a bachelors degree in the clarinet class of Björn Nyman at The Norwegian Academy of Music. Besides her studies, Madara Eleonora is a frequent participant in masterclasses with internationally acclaimed clarinetists and professors, such as Yehuda Gilad, Harri Mäki, Andreas Sunden, Martin Fröst, Hermann Stefánsson, Shirley Brill, Christoffer Sundqvist and others.
During her earlier school years, Madara Eleonora was a laureate of both national and international competitions in solo and chamber music, after which she gained a deeper interest in chamber music. Since then she has been a part of different chamber music groups and projects that represent both classical and contemporary repertoire, including being a member of Oslo-based contemporary ensemble AREPO.
Despite being a dedicated classical clarinetist, Madara is aiming to challenge the understanding and definition of modern clarinetists and performers and emphasize the importance of contemporary music and its collaborative process. Her vision is to challenge the canon of the clarinet repertoire as well as enrich it with unconventional repertoire that represents the versatility and untenability of both history and contemporary world, and most importantly bring this repertoire to audiences.