A concert of music by American, French and Czech composers featuring acclaimed soprano Sarah Pelletier of Scotch Plains, NJ, and pianist Lois Shapiro of Watertown, will be hosted by the Essex Chamber Music Players (ECMP) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17, in the Hartleb Technology Center on Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill campus, 100 Elliot St.

Pelletier and Shapiro, known for their beautiful, insightful, and richly sensitive performances, will perform “Jehovah’s Watch” by Amherst resident Eric Sawyer, music professor of composition at Amherst College. The piece is based on six Emily Dickinson poems and is in keeping with ECMP’s theme of music about local cultural history. Sawyer previously composed “Earthly Store” for ECMP inspired by works of Valley poet and Andover early settler Anne Bradstreet.

Also on the program are Ravel’s “Chansons Madécasses”, based on exotic poems of 18th century Creole poet Evariste-Désiré de Parny; three Gershwin preludes and two songs from “Porgy and Bess” arranged by ECMP cellist Emmanuel Feldman of Newton; and Czerny’s “Fantasia Concertante”.

Flutist Michael Finegold, of Andover, ECMP’s artistic director, said he invited Pelletier and Shapiro to perform with ECMP because, “I heard them perform Sawyer’s ‘Jehovah’s Watch’ at Wellesley College last spring and was elated and enriched by the beautiful work and performance.”

General admission tickets are $15, seniors $10, students $5; NECC students with college ID are free.
The Essex Chamber Music Players are in residence at NECC.

For additional information on this concert or ECMP go to www.ecmp.org.