 |
||||
|
||||
|
PITTSBURGH PIANO TRIO RETURNING TO UPT FOR THIRD TIME Part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
TITUSVILLE, Jan. 12, 2007 – The Pittsburgh Piano Trio, part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, will perform at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville on Monday, February 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Henne Auditorium. This is their third encore performance on campus. Their evening repertoire will span a 100-year period as the Trio performs the compositions of three great composers: German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Moscow-born composer Paul Juon (1872-1940), and Detroit-born composer Paul Schoenfield, (1947-present). The Pittsburgh Piano Trio is comprised of Mikhail Istomin on cello, Jennifer Orchard on violin and Igor Kraevsky on the piano. Under Istomin’s expert direction, the Trio promises to deliver another memorable classical evening. Celebrating its thirteenth season, the Pittsburgh Piano Trio continues to excite audiences with dynamic and highly emotional performances throughout the United States and abroad. The Trio is currently in residence at Duquesne University and the City Music Center where its members enjoy sharing their passion and enthusiasm for music with the younger generation. Jennifer Orchard, a native of Canada, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School in New York. Orchard performed as a member of the world-renowned Lark Quartet for eight years. While playing with the Lark Quartet, Orchard recorded nine CDs for the Arabesque label in a wide-ranging repertoire that included quartets by Borodin, Schumann, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Schnittke, as well as the music of composer and satirist Peter Schickele. Among the recordings of important commissioned works was the Pulitzer prize-winning quartet by Aaron J. Kerniss. Orchard has participated in numerous festivals at home and abroad, including the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival in Vermont and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany. Mikhail Istomin is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. In 1987, Istomin joined the Leningrad String Quartet, which two years later won the Grand Prize in the National Soviet Union Competition of String Quartets. During the summer of 1989, following an extensive tour of Western Europe, the Quartet was invited to perform in the United States. At the end of the tour, Istomin defected, seeking political asylum in the U.S. Istomin won both the Passamaneck Award granted by the Y Music Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions in 1993. Performing in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and Maryland, Istomin has received accolades for the expressive warmth of his playing in his appearances as soloist with numerous orchestras and for his solo recitals. In July, 1998, Istomin returned to St. Petersburg to perform in the Second World Cello Congress under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich. Igor Kraevsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, Kraevsky won several national music competitions in Russia and Ukraine. He also enjoyed success as a multiple winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions. His artistry, combined with an innate musical sensitivity to others, makes Kraevsky a much sought-after chamber musician and accompanist. Since arriving in the United States in 1993, Kraevsky has continued to perform extensively, concertizing throughout Eastern Europe, France, Germany and Spain as well as in the U.S. In 1998, he recorded chamber music by Armenian composers in Paris with French violinist Patricia Reibaud for commercial release on the Dante label (France). Kraevsky has explored the works of twentieth century English composers, recording “Watercolours” by Alec Rowley (1892-1958) in 2001 and “Three Graces” by C. Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) in 2002. These critically acclaimed, world premiere discs occupy honored spots in the collection of the Library of Congress. Formed in 1994, the Pittsburgh Piano Trio created the chamber music program at the City Music Center at Duquesne University and established the annual Shady Side Chamber Music Festival. With growing participation every year, the Festival has become a popular destination every summer for young performers, many of whom are playing chamber music for the first time. Through committed music-making and a thorough examination of the piano trio literature, the musicians of the Trio aim to develop an ensemble distinguished by its cultivated sound and exciting interpretations. Commissioning and premiering several new works by an international array of composers, the Pittsburgh Piano Trio has introduced several new works into their repertoire. The Trio also has recorded and produced three CDs in cooperation with WQED-FM, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and the Pittsburgh Art Institute. In 2003, they released a CD entitled “Phantasie,” dedicated to the music of Frank Bridge (1879-1941). The Trio's most popular CD, “Encore, Encore,” contains a collection of short works from around the world, including "The Four Seasons" by Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Their newest CD of all-Russian music to commemorate Shostakovich’s centennial was released in December 2006. This collection includes a very special collaboration with soprano Natalya Kraevsky performing "Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok" by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sviridov's rarely performed piano trio. The upcoming season will find the Pittsburgh Piano Trio touring extensively in Canada and the United States. They will tour internationally in the Ukraine and Russia, highlighted by a Moscow Conservatory Hall performance of "Episodes Concertants" by Paul Juon with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Fedoseev on April 25, 2007. For more information or to reserve tickets, call the UPT Public Relations Office at 827-4503 or 827-4429. # # #
|
||||
|
|
||||
