UPDATE: (Wednesday, Jan. 20)
The Aspen Trio visit planned for Friday (Jan. 22) will be rescheduled due to the possible impact of the impending weather. The scheduled master classes at the College of Creative Arts and concert will be moved to a future date, as soon as can be planned.
ORIGINAL:
Morgantown audiences will get a rare opportunity to see one of the nation’s foremost string ensembles in a recital on Friday, Jan. 22, at West Virginia University.
The Aspen String Trio will perform at 8 p.m. in Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, 200A Creative Arts Center. The recital is free and open to the public.
The trio will perform a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, originally written for harpsichord.
“People are accustomed to hearing the Goldberg Variations on piano, so this transcription will probably reveal some new tones and new aspects of the music to them,” said Andrea Houde, associate professor of viola in WVU’s School of Music. “String trios aren’t that common to hear, but the Aspen String Trio has found a wealth of repertoire that they bring to audiences around the world.”
Houde is familiar with the trio, partly because of their national reputation, but more because her own teacher, Victoria Chiang, is their violist. Chiang, along with violinist David Perry and cellist Michael Mermagen, spun off from the Aspen Ensemble and have been performing together for over 20 years.
These three world-class instrumentalists each have a long-time association as artist-faculty with the Aspen Music Festival; combined they have performed across the globe in the world’s most prestigious venues. They combine performance with pedagogy and delight in both blockbuster works by Beethoven and Mozart with less familiar pieces by Hindemith, Villa-Lobos and Martin�.
“It will just be a joy to see them play together,” said Houde.
The trio’s visit to Morgantown is a stop on route to a performance at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Before then, though, they’ll offer master classes for string students in the School of Music. They will also conduct a chamber music tutorial featuring WVU’s graduate string quartet from noon to 1 p.m. Friday in the Antoinette Falbo Theatre in the Creative Arts Center.
For more information on the master classes, please contact Houde at 304-293-5777 or Andrea.Houde@mail.wvu.edu. For more information on the trio, visit their web site at http://www.aspenstringtrio.com/index.html.
-WVU-
dw/1/8/16
CONTACT: David Welsh, WVU College of Creative Arts
304.293.3397; David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu
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