Claremont Trio 11/16/2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
8:00 P.M.
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Claremont Trio
Emily Bruskin, violin
Julia Bruskin, cello
Donna Kwong, piano
The award-winning Claremont Trio, whose playing has been called "positively spellbinding" (Palm Beach Daily News), offers a unique blend of soulful insight into works of the standard repertoire along with an enthusiastic appetite for performing the greatest 20th and 21st century works and commissioning new ones as well. The Trio spent a busy summer with return engagements at such prestigious festivals as the Bard Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, and the Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival, adding debut appearances at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. This young trio, first recipients of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, will perform in major venues throughout the country in the 2007-08 season.
The group has been invited to present the complete piano trios of Schumann and Brahms in a 3-concert series at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; they will tour Hawaii and the Midwest, and will appear at prominent concert halls in Buffalo, St. Paul, Providence, Tulsa, and New York, among others.
Twin sisters Emily Bruskin and Julia Bruskin formed the Trio with Donna Kwong in 1999 at The Juilliard School. After winning the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Claremont Trio launched their touring career with an acclaimed New York debut at the 92nd Street Y. The Claremonts are based in New York City near their namesake: Claremont Avenue.
At Middlebury the Claremont Trio will perform works by Claude Debussy, Frank Martin, and Anton Arensky.
Reserved Seating. Tickets: $15/12/5
Pre-performance dinner at Rehearsals Cafe, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $15
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
***The Claremont Trio concert is presented in lieu of the formerly scheduled performance on the same date/time by Baiba Skride, violin, and Lauma Skride, piano. Tickets sold for the previously announced concert will be honored normally for this updated performance. There is no need to exchange previously-purchased tickets.
***CANCELLED--SEE ABOVE***
November 16, Friday
Baiba Skride, violin; Lauma Skride, piano
8:00 P.M., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
The concert appearance by Baiba and Lauma Skride will not take place due to artist health concerns. A new concert event has been scheduled for this date and time-- see above for details.
Program:
DEBUSSY Piano Trio in G
Andantino con moto allegro
Scherzo: Intermezzo: Moderato con allegro
Andante espressivo
Finale: Appassionato
MARTIN Piano Trio on Irish Folk Tunes
Allegro moderato
Adagio
Gigue
Intermission
ARENSKY Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 32
Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Elegia: Allegro
Allegro non troppo
For additional program notes, please contact Events and Residency Manager Allison Coyne Carroll at carroll@middlebury.edu
Artist Biographies:
CLAREMONT TRIO
The award-winning Claremont Trio (Emily Bruskin, vln., Julia Bruskin, vc, Donna Kwong, pno.) whose playing has been called "positively spellbinding" (Palm Beach Daily News), offers a unique blend of soulful insight into works of the standard repertoire along with an enthusiastic appetite for performing the greatest 20th and 21st century works and commissioning new ones as well. The Trio launches the 2007-08 season with return engagements at such prestigious summer festivals as the Bard Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, and the Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival, adding debut appearances at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. This young trio, first recipients of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, will perform in major venues throughout the country in the 2007-08 season. The group has been invited to present the complete piano trios of Schumann and Brahms in a 3-concert series at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; they will tour Hawaii and the Midwest, and will appear at prominent concert halls in Buffalo, St.Paul, Providence, Tulsa and New York, among others.
Highlights of the Trio’s 2006-07 season included the conclusion of their cycle of Beethoven’s complete works for piano trio at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a tour with guest violist Ida Kavafian, and performances sponsored by the La Jolla Music Society, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Los Alamos Concert Association, the Des Moines Art Center, and Worcester’s Tuckerman Hall. The Claremonts, whose reading of the Shostakovich Trio No.2 was described by the Los Angeles Times as "an inspiring, forceful performance," celebrated the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth with the release of a recording of both his piano trios, coupled with Arensky’s Trio in D minor, Op.32.
In recent seasons the Claremonts have performed at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples, FL, the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, FL, Wolf Trap, and have been featured guests of the chamber music societies of Detroit, Cincinnati, Utica, Kansas City, Sedona and Louisville. Among the group’s frequent New York appearances were their performance at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on the occasion of receiving the Classical Recording Foundation Debut Artist Award; a cutting edge evening at the Guggenheim Museum, which featured the Trio in its Works and Process series in a performance of Mason Bates’ String Band , a work the Trio commissioned; and the group’s 2005-06 season finale performance for the New York Prism Concerts at Central Synagogue , which was enthusiastically received by the New York Times.
During recent summers the Claremont Trio has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Ravinia, Bard, Norfolk, Moab, Deer Valley, Cape Cod Chamber Music, and Great Lakes Festivals. The Trio frequently performs the Beethoven Triple Concerto with orchestras such as the Utah Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony. It has also performed with many distinguished guest artists including Toby Appel, Joseph Kalichstein, Martha Katz, Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Sharon Robinson, and Richard Young. The group’s mentors have included Isaac Stern and Robert McDonald.
The Claremont Trio’s debut CD of Mendelssohn trios was released on the Arabesque label in 2004 to overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim. Gramophone magazine praised the disc for giving "large-scale performances with a sweeping, romantic sense of space and strong dramatic contrasts," while Strings celebrated the Trio’s ability to "find a cool equilibrium between industry and frivolity where an elegant, totally Mendelssohnian sexiness resides." The Claremont Trio has been featured on both Japanese and American television, and also is heard frequently in interviews on radio stations throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Australia’s ABC, New York’s WQXR, Boston’s WGBH, Chicago’s WFMT, Salt Lake City’s KBYU, and Columbia University’s WKCR.
Other highlights of previous seasons include performances in the concert series at the American Academy in Rome; concerts in Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center; and a collaboration with Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet, on a ballet based on Café Music by Paul Schoenfield. The Trio also has appeared at the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Harvard Musical Association in Boston, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, and in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2002, the Claremont Trio traveled to Serbia, Bosnia, and Slovenia as part of a cultural exchange co-sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Carnegie Hall.
Deeply committed to expanding the piano trio repertoire, the group has commissioned and premiered compositions by Daniel Kellogg, Mason Bates, and Hillary Zipper. Some of its new commissioning projects include a collaboration with the innovative composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, a new piano trio by Nico Muhly to be premiered at the Kennedy Center during their 10th anniversary season in ’08-’09, and a new work by Howard Frazin. The Trio is extensively involved in music education and has been recognized for its engaging and interactive programs for students of all ages.
Twin sisters Emily Bruskin and Julia Bruskin formed the Trio with Donna Kwong in 1999 at The Juilliard School. After winning the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Claremont Trio launched their touring career with an acclaimed New York debut at the 92nd Street Y. The Claremonts are based in New York City near their namesake: Claremont Avenue.
EMILY BRUSKIN, violin
Emily Bruskin has performed as soloist with the Quincy (MA) Symphony Orchestra and the Milton Academy Orchestra and has given solo recitals in Boston and at The Juilliard School's Paul Hall. As a member of the Firebird String Quartet, Ms. Bruskin was a prize-winner in the 1998 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (Junior Division) and a recipient of the New England Conservatory's Eugene Lehner Chamber Music Award. She has also performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and participated in the Ravinia, Lucerne, La Jolla, Moab, Norfolk, Aspen, Encore, and Musicorda summer festivals. Ms. Bruskin began studying the violin at the age of four. She attended the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she received the Frances B. Lanier Award. In May, 2002, Ms. Bruskin graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in Neuroscience. The following year, she received her MM from The Juilliard School. Currently she is doing post-graduate studies at Juillliard, where she works with Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes. She has also studied with Naoko Tanaka, Cho-Liang Lin, James Buswell, Susan Kent Reed, Gregory Fulkerson, and David Updergraff.
JULIA BRUSKIN, cello
Julia Bruskin made her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra when she was 17, after winning their Young Artist Competition. Last spring she made her New York concerto debut in Avery Fisher Hall performing Barber's Cello Concerto with Jahja Ling and The Juilliard Symphony. Additional concerto appearances include playing the Walton Cello Concerto with Benjamin Zander and the NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Jordan Hall, Boston. In addition to winning competition at The Juilliard School and at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Julia Bruskin holds prizes from the Harvard Musical Association and the Arts Recognition Talent Search sponsored by the NFAA, and received the Frances B. Lanier Award and the Eugene Lehner Chamber Music Award. In the summers, she has performed at La Jolla Summerfest, the Taos School of Music, and at the Lucerne, Bard, Ravinia, Norfok, Great Lakes, and Moab music festivals. Born in Boston, Ms. Bruskin began cello lessons at age four. Her major teachers have included Timothy Eddy, Joel Krosnick, Andras Diaz, Norman Fischer, and Nancy Hair. She graduated from Columbia University in 2002 with a degree in Eastern European History, and was elected to their chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. When she received her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, she became one of the few students to complete the five-year BA/MM exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University
DONNA KWONG, piano
Donna Kwong made her concerto debut with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of thirteen, and has since appeared as soloist with various orchestras, included L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Pacific Symphony, Virginia Symphony and the Vancouver Academy Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Canada and the U.S., including Lincoln Center, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the festivals of Bowdoin, Taos, Lucerne, Ravinia, Yale/Norfolk and Moab. Ms. Kwong has been featured on CBC Radio and on New York's WQXR Radio. Donna Kwong grew up in Vancouver, Canada, where she began her piano studies at the age of seven. Only two years later she received national recognition, winning top prizes at the Canadian Music Competitions, Dorothy A. Andersen International Piano Competition, B.C. Festival of the Arts, CIBC National Competition, and Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition at Juilliard. In addition, she won the gold medal for the Royal Conservatory of Music's Associateship in Piano. Ms. Kwong received her Bachelor's and Master's of Music in the prestigious Accelerated Bacherlors/Masters degree program at The Juilliard School, where she was a Piano Minor Teaching Fellow. She has studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert McDonald, Lorraine Ambrose, and Jane Coop. She is now a member of the award-winning Claremont Trio, which actively tours the U.S. and abroad.
Artist Websites:
Claremont Trio
Arts Managment Group
Press Quotes:
"The highlight turned out to be Mendelssohn's first piano trio performed by the Claremont Trio." -- New York Times
"The chic young women prove their mastery of Shostakovich with an inspiring, forceful performance." -- Los Angeles Times
"They've got a unified conception, and the ability to move together." - Chamber Music America Magazine
"The Claremont Trio is on the fast track to success." -- Strad Magazine
"The Claremont threesome...plays with astonishing facility and ensemble precision. Beethoven would have beamed on their performance of his Op. 1, No. 1...which unfolded in velvety tones and featured extraordinary timing (I think their hearts beat together)." -- Washington Post
