Gabriela Martina & Maxim Lubarsky at Nova Arts

Trying to fit Gabriela Martina into one musical genre is simply impossible. "I'm interested in good music," said the vocalist, composer and bandleader—she'll perform with pianist Maxim Lubarsky as part of the Nova Arts series at Brewbakers Café. Growing up on a farm in Switzerland, Martina was a member of a musical family. Her mother plays piano and accordion, her siblings all played instruments and her father has been a member of a "yodel club" for 50 years. In addition to singing in classical choirs in her home country, she yodeled with her family and performed at 4 years old. In the fall of 2021, Martina received the arts and culture award for the year 2020 in her hometown. At the time, she said, there were few options in Switzerland to study music. "You could study classical or jazz," she said in a recent interview with ELF. "It didn't fulfill me or make sense on a cultural level to study jazz in Switzerland. I wanted to come to the U.S. where there is a melting pot of cultures coming together." She spent 13 years living and working in the US (Boston and New York) learning from the people who made jazz (among many other styles of music originating from the US) as important of an art form as it is today. "I see myself as a singer that's versatile in different genres—I sing classical, R&B, funk, soul, Broadway, pop-rock." Martina's compositions include word play and spoken word. Martina met Lubarsky—who is from Odessa, Ukraine—when the two were students at Berklee College of Music in 2008. Lubarsky is classically trained as a pianist. The pair played together in different musical settings since that time and began playing as a duo around 2016. "We improvised songs," said Martina. "What came out was like, 'Dude this is cool.' We started composing and improvising at the same time." They officially formed the duo in 2019 and began a year of research and experimentation. The project, "Explorations in Sound," is a result of their creating music in the moment, drawing inspiration from various sources: melodic shapes and sounds, poetry and innovative approaches to well-known pop and jazz tunes. "We're exploring, just like a conversation," said Martina of the project, selections of which will be part of the Nova Arts show program. "We have one song called 'One Note Song,'" she said. "We have no idea what's happening next. We just see what happens in the moment." During the pandemic, Martina's booking agency (Red Velvet Sounds) went bankrupt, and she began focusing her energy on cooking. "I had to keep myself sane," she said. "I would cook meals and share them online." She decided to commit to sharing a meal a day with neighbors and friends (and virtually) and did so for 100 days. The recipes she collected were published in a cookbook, "Dinner with my Neighbor." "Music is so essential and instinctively basic," she said. "It goes into the food section of existential needs." During the time of the pandemic, Gabriela Martina has composed nine new compositions for her newest album, "States." The word refers to the United States of America, but also to a state of mind or being. She'll go on tour in Europe next year in support of "States." She and Lubarsky's performance will include some recognizable songs, and the program will be heavy on improvisation. "It will be familiar but different," she said. "It should make people think and be with us in the moment of creation, taking risks. We'll capture that moment together in this roller-coaster way." Sharing the bill is composer Miriam Sharrock, a Keene State College graduate who composed works for choir, solo voice, piano, string quartet, orchestra and small ensemble. She enjoys collaborating with other artists, and has written music for projects involving dance, video, poetry, art and theater. All of her composition training, and most of her composing experience has been within the classical genre, but in the last couple years she has been exploring within the singer-songwriter genre. The songs on this program are part of a larger project made possible by Arts Alive! Gabriela Martina and Maxim Lubarsky with Miriam Sharrock perform Friday, Dec. 22 at Brewbakers Café (part of the Nova Arts series), 48 Emerald St., Keene. Doors are at 7 p.m. and music will begin at 8 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served. Tickets are $20 and can be ordered at www.novaarts.org.