Haverford, PA— On Sunday,
February 6, 2005 at 4 pm, the Adaskin String Trio will present
a program of music by Beethoven, Eisler, Sibelius and Rózsa
at Haverford College. The concert is part of the on 2004-2005
Guest Artist Series and will be held in Roberts Hall, Marshall
Auditorium on the Haverford College Campus, 370 Lancaster
Avenue, in Haverford. Tickets at $15 (Gen), $12 (Sr), $8 (Students)
and $5 (Children) will be sold at the door the afternoon of
the concert beginning at 3:15pm and can be reserved in advance.
Parking is free, shuttle service is available from the visitor’s
parking lot, and the auditorium is wheelchair accessible.
For more information call 610.896.1011.
Comprised of three exceptional
musicians including Emlyn Ngai, violinist, Steve Larson, violist
and Mark Fraser, cellist, the Adaskin String Trio is the premier
ensemble of its kind in North America. Their program at Haverford
College will consist of four works will including the “String
Trio Op. 9 #3” by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Prelude
and Fugue on B-A-C-H for String Trio, Op.46” by Hanns
Eisler, “Suite in A major for String Trio (1889)”
by Jean Sibelius, and the “String Trio (Serenade), Op.1
(1927)” by Miklós Rózsa.
They brought to the music a focus
and intensity that was all the keener for its selflessness,
its utter lack of star-turn narcissism. Always and without
undue insistence, you felt, they were directing the listener
to the heart of the matter.”
The Boston Globe
The Adaskin String Trio was founded
in 1994 and has performed extensively throughout Canada and
the United States, including New York City at Merkin Concert
Hall, Washington, DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Los
Angeles, Boston, Winnipeg, Virginia, Maine, and South Carolina.
Their concerts have been recorded for CBC Radio, Radio –
Canada (CBC’s French-language counterpart), and National
Public Radio. In 1998, the trio was a finalist for the prestigious
Walter M. Naumburg Foundation chamber music award in New York.
The members of the trio each studied
chamber music with founding Orford String Quartet cellist
Marcel Saint-Cyr at McGill University in Montreal. The trio
later completed two years as the graduate ensemble-in-residence
at the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut under the guidance
of the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet. They also worked
with Steve Tenenbom of the Orion String Quartet, and Daniel
Epstein of the Raphael Piano Trio.
The Adaskin String Trio performs
a diverse and rich repertory, ranging from Bach, Mozart and
Beethoven to Cowell, Schönberg and works of the present
day. Their performances of rarely played works by such composers
as Sergei Taneiev, Lennox Berkeley and Miklós Rózsa
have been revelations to both novice and seasoned chamber
music enthusiasts. The trio has several premieres to its credit
including works written for them by Robert Carl (recipient
of the Charles Ives Fellowship), by composer Murray Adaskin,
and the American premiere of Canadian composer Talivaldis
Kenin’s String Trio. In 1997 the trio commissioned The
Point of Pressure for string trio from renowned German composer
Ingrid Stölzel. The Adaskin Trio also gave successful
performances at the Hartt School with New York composer Elizabeth
Brown performing her own Migration for shakuhachim (Japanese
bamboo flute) and string trio.
The Adaskin Trio is named in honor
of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada’s most loved and respected
composers, and his two brothers, violinist Harry Adaskin and
producer/music educator John Adaskin, whose contributions
to music in Canada are unsurpassed.
Emlyn Ngai, violin, holds degrees
from McGill University, Oberlin College Conservatory and the
Hartt School of Music. He has performed in and recorded for
Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque, and the Smithsonian Chamber
Players and has toured Europe with the Apollo Ensemble and
the Bach Ensemble. First Prize winner at the 1995 Locatelli
Concours Amsterdam on baroque violin, he has given recitals
in Berlin, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington DC, and has recently
released a CD set of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas for
violin and harpsichord with Peter Watchorn on the Musica Omnia
label.
Steve Larson, viola. In 1997, violist
Steve Larson won second prize at the Lionel Tertis International
Viola Competition, UK, receiving a special award for his performance
of the commissioned work. He has been praised by the Montreal
Gazette for his ‘singing tone, eloquent phrasing, expressive
dynamics and flawless intonation.’ He studied violin
with Elman Lowe, Howard Leyton-Brown and Mauricio Fuks, and
viola with Jutta Pucchammer and Steve Tenenbom. Mr. Larson
is Professor of Viola and Chair of the Strings at the Hartt
School of Music at the University of Hartford.
Mark Fraser, cello, holds degrees
from McGill University, l’Université de Montréal,
and the Hartt School of Music. He has studied with Walter
Joachim, Aldo Parisot, and Yuli Turovsky. For many years he
was the Artistic Director of Project Renaissance, an arts
festival near Montreal. He has taught cello at the Connecticut
Conservatory of the Performing Arts and recently released
a CD, with pianist Sooka Wang, of works by Bach, Schumann,
and Prokofiev.
“The Adaskin String Trio
play with carefully conceived unity and striking attention
to detail and nuance/one was struck with the remarkable uniformity
with which the players calibrate dynamics, phrasing tone color
and even the weight and speed of their bows.”
New York Newsday
