GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Cameo Quintet pianist Robert Prester, left, performs with violinists Yoshiko Hiratsuka and Iggy Jang, violist Anna Womack and cellist Mark Simcox at the Unity Church tomorrow night.

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By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Timing is everything -- just ask native New Yorker Rob Prester, who splits his time between the snow-battered area and Hawaii.

Cameo Chamber Players In concert: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Place: Unity Church, 3608 Diamond Head Circle (just off of Monsarrat Avenue) Admission: $15 general, $10 seniors and military, and $5 students Call: 734-0397

Before the brutal weather set in, his folks ("snowbirds" who travel between Boston and Florida) dropped in here and Prester took the opportunity to stage a joint concert with his mother.

Prester took to the instrument at the tender age of 3, as a child with perfect pitch performing classical music. He's since made a name for himself as a jazz player and composer -- but, for tomorrow anyway, Prester will be performing as a member of the newly formed Cameo Chamber Players, debuting at Unity Church.

His fellow instrumentalists are all members of the Honolulu Symphony -- violinists Ignace "Iggy" Jang and Yoshiko Hiratsuka, violist Anna Womack and cellist Mark Simcox -- and, in various combinations, the quintet will play compositions by Haydn, Beethoven and Schumann.

"I initiated the idea of putting together a chamber group, and Iggy helped assemble the rest of the quintet. As to whether or not this will be a one-off project, that remains to be seen."

The ensemble gives Prester the opportunity to flex his classical chops before a local audience more familiar with his jazz work.

"Playing jazz and classical is very different -- they both take different mindsets and technique. With jazz, there's always the element of improvisation, going with the flow and being more loose-minded. Classical music is more rigid, playing within a more fixed structure, although how one interprets any particular piece depends on the musician's artistry."

Prester said that his upbringing in classical music was a sheltered one; his mother was a concert pianist and his father a composer. He remembers his dad taking night classes at Juilliard and bringing his studies home with him to share.

And his education involved nothing but classical music until a fortuitous "mistake" happened.

"I was taking classes at the Manhattan School of Music while I was still in high school, and I signed up for what I thought was a composition class. But it actually ended up to be a jazz composition class, and originally, I was disappointed. I figured that I would go to just one more class and then drop it.

"But after learning about the blues structure, by the end of the day, I was hooked," he said. "I was totally pumped up for jazz and, the following year, I didn't take any classical classes for the first time."

Prester eventually earned a Master's degree in jazz/commercial music at the school.

His first exposure to the islands was through a 1994 job aboard the S.S. Independence, and now supports himself while here through freelance and convention band work.

On the more familiar jazz side, Prester flirted with major-label "fusion jazz" back in 1987 in a band called Trillium (the effort was nominated for a Grammy). He hopes that the album will be reissued on CD, and some of those tunes are still a part of his repertoire, "although they're played much differently than they were back then, totally revamped and in a more contemporary style."

He's just finished recording a trio album with Noel Okimoto and Steve Jones, "playing my music, a combination of Latin/Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and straight-ahead jazz."

He hopes to finish mixing the recording by June. In the meantime, he's happy to be back in Hawaii. "I consider this one of my homes -- it always takes me a couple of months away from New York to calm down and settle into the island groove."

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