Award-Winning Claremont Trio to Play Tulsa Oct. 26, 27
The award-winning Claremont Trio (Emily Bruskin, Julia Bruskin and Donna Kwong) 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. They added debut appearances at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. This young trio 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 three-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.
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.
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 2008-09 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 and Julia formed the Trio with Kwong in 1999 at the Julliard 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 Ave.
For more information about the Claremont Trio, visit www.claremonttrio.com.
Updated 10-27-2007
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