Friday, March 7, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Albers Trio
with Pei-Yao Wang, piano
All accomplished soloists, the three Albers sisters have flourishing careers as string players. Violist Rebecca Albers played on the Middlebury series last season in a program of chamber music with pianist Pei-Yao Wang. Laura Albers (violin) and Julie Albers (cello), who complete the trio, first perform works by Beethoven and Martinů. Then they join forces with Wang for the grand Piano Quartet in A Major by Johannes Brahms.
Reserved Seating. Tickets: $15/12/5
Pre-performance dinner: Rehearsals Cafe, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $15
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Program:
BEETHOVEN String Trio in G Major, Op. 9, No. 1
I. Adagio, Allegro con brio
II. Adagio, ma non tanto, e cantabile
III. Scherzo, Allegro
IV. Presto
MARTINŮ String Trio
Intermission
BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Poco adagio
III. Scherzo (Poco allegro) & Trio
IV. Allegro
For additional program notes, please contact Events and Residency Manager Allison Coyne Carroll at carroll@middlebury.edu
Artist Biographies:
Albers Trio
From their twos to their twenties the Albers Sisters have been captivating audiences with musical styles as diverse as their distinctive personalities and features. From their early performances on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO the sisters have gone on to perform at such venues as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, National Theatre in Taipei, Severance Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Zankel Hall. Their performances have also been seen and heard on Live from Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center Honors, Japan's NHK, Washington D.C.'s Voice of America, and Bavarian Radio. Their upcoming season includes performances in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.
Violinist Laura is the Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera. She as well as her sisters began studying Suzuki violin with their mother, Ellie LeRoux, at the age of two. Laura went on to receive her Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes. While attending Juilliard, Laura toured with the Astor String Quartet and the Wild Ginger Philharmonic, and also taught Suzuki violin at the Diller-Quaile School of Music. In addition to the opera, Laura performs in the bay area with the Broderick Ensemble and the Empyrean Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York City and Sarasota Opera in Florida. Laura volunteers for California Pacific Medical Center's Soothing Sounds program, bringing music to patients, visitors and employees. She enjoys studying languages and spends most of her free time training as an age group triathlete.
Violist Rebecca resides in Ann Arbor, MI as a member of the Phoenix Quartet. Rebecca received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang. She currently teaches in the Juilliard pre-college with Ms.Castleman and is a touring member Mark O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz Trio. As winner of Juilliard's 2002-03 viola competition she made her solo debut performing the New York premiere of Samuel Adler's Viola Concerto with the Juilliard orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Rebecca has been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove (UK), Music Academy of the West, the Taos School of Music and the Perlman Music Program. As a chamber musician she has performed across the United States, France and Switzerland and has performed with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Richard Goode and members of the Juilliard, St. Lawrence and Guarneri String Quartets. When away from her viola, Becca can be found reading a good book or playing with her chocolate Labrador, Mocha.
Cellist Julie studied with Richard Aaron at The Cleveland Institute of Music. She made her major orchestral debut at the age of 17 with the Cleveland Orchestra, and thereafter has performed in recital and with orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia. Julie has received various awards including the Grand Prize in South Korea's Gyeongnam International Music Competition and Second Prize in Munich's Internationaler Musikwettbewerbes der ARD. In America, she has performed with the orchestras of Indianapolis, Seattle, Colorado, Syracuse, San Antonio, Dayton, and San Diego among others. In addition to solo performances Julie regularly appears at chamber music festivals around the world. Julie is currently in the middle of a three year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. October of 2005 marked the release of her solo debut recording on the Artek Label. In her free time she enjoys traveling and exploring the world's beaches.
The Albers Trio is dedicated to fresh and innovative programming and is deeply committed to expanding and developing audiences for classical music worldwide.
Pianist Pei-Yao Wang has established herself as a prominent soloist and chamber musician. She made her official orchestral debut with the Taipei symphony Orchestra at age 8 and has since performed as soloist with the Stamford Symphony, Orlando Symphony, South Fingerlake Orchestra and Taipei Philharmonic. She also has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia; including venues such as the Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, 92nd street Y, Merkin Halls in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Salle des Varietes in Monte-Carlo, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. As a chamber Musician, Pei-Yao has collaborated with members of the Guarneri , Orion, Chicago, Mendelssohn and Miro quartets; and has performed with other distinguished artists such as Claude Frank, Hilary Hahn, David Shifrin, and Mitsuko Uchida. She is also regularly invited to perform at festivals including Marlboro, Caramoor, Norfolk, La Jolla, Ravinia, and Bridgehampton in New York. She is currently a member of Chamber Music Society Two at Lincoln Center, a program to promote emerging young artists.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Pei-Yao was the youngest pianist ever to receive the overall First Prize in the Taiwan National Piano Competition, at the age of eight. Four years later, she was invited to study at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with Seymour Lipkin and Institute Director Gary Graffman. She then studied with Claude Frank at Yale University, where she received the Master of Music degree, and also pursued a concentration in architecture. She currently resides in New York City, where for several years she was under the tutelage of celebrated pianist Richard Goode. Pei-Yao is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Program.
Artist Website:
http://www.alberstrio.com
Press Quotes:
Reviews below for Julie Albers
"Albers' performance of Dvorák's Cello Concerto at Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra and resident conductor Jahja Ling suggested she will have a fantastic career. Her playing is mature in every sense of the word, from the vibrant sound she produces at all dynamic levels and technical ease with which she traverses treacherous lines to the interpretive poise that enables her to seize the ear." --The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH
"Albers' finger work was crisp in the outer sections and her intonation right on target during the long solo . . . But even more impressive was the depth Albers brought to the performance, the way she shied away from showiness and let the music speak for itself." --The Providence Journal, Providence, RI
"There's no doubt that Albers has much to offer, as she consistently drew elegant and well-controlled tones from her instrument. Her cultivated vibrato gave her sound a gossamer gloss, and from a technical standpoint, Albers displayed a complete mastery of the many obstacles put in her wayall with a determined, focused stage presence." --Newsday, Long Island, NY
"Albers' bright, limpid tone and tight, beautiful vibrato never wearied. She had a wonderful way with dynamics: swelling to make a rhythmic point, or dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that demanded attention. When brilliant technique was needed, she complied with ease, but she was even more impressive in slow passages, where her sense of line was as lively as her tone."--San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, TX
"Beautifully warm vibrato, accurate double stops, lyrical phrasing and gorgeous trills: this was a performance rich in subtlety, capturing every romantic mood of the three movements played without break." --Denver Post, Denver, CO