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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesGRYPHON TRIO AT SCHOOL OF THE ARTS THURSDAY

GRYPHON TRIO AT SCHOOL OF THE ARTS THURSDAY

The Gryphon Trio will close out the 1999-2000 Classics on St. John concert season Thursday, performing works by Haydn, Schumann and Mendelssohn.
This will be the second appearance at the St. John School of the Arts for the Toronto- based group, which also closed the season two years ago — to standing ovations. But it will be the third performance in the hall for two of its members, violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon and cellist Roman Borys.
The two were in the Virgin Islands last year along with other chamber musicians to perform for guests of the Rosewood Hotels and Resorts properties — Caneel Bay and Little Dix Bay. At that time, Rosewood management also arranged for a public concert at the St. John school.
All three of the musicians — the third being pianist Jamie Parker — do play from time to time with other groups, Patipatanakoon and Borys with a Toronto string quartet and also with the Canadian opera Company Orchestra, and Borys also with Esprit, a new contemporary music orchestra. All teach music as well. But they all say The Gryphon Trio "is by far the primarily group," as Borys puts it.
The piano trio recently made a three-week tour that encompassed performances in western Canada, Washington State and Los Angeles; then the musicians flew off to Russia for two concerts in St. Petersburg, followed by another in Helsinki, Finland; then it was back to Toronto for a performance there.
With all this globe trotting, they all still have fond memories of their evenings spent at the St. John School of the Arts.
"That little room that Sis Frank has the concerts in is just loaded up with people there to enjoy a concert for the concert's sake," Borys says. "For people to be able to hold a series like this together is a real tribute. Chamber music is not something that is growing in popularity by any stretch. And yet, the intimacy of the experience in a small venue gives people a feeling of how this music was meant to be played."
Recognized worldwide for its integrity of interpretation of both the standard classical repertoire and contemporary works, The Gryphon Trio has commissioned and premiered a number of new works. It is meantime exploring the artistic opportunities of collaborating in performance with other mediums such as dance, lighting design and visual arts, notably on a commissioned work called "Constantinople" that is to have its music-portion debut in October. In 1997, the group performed live on the Internet from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Broadcast Centre in Toronto.
Patipatanakoon and Borys have performed together since 1985, when they accounted for two-thirds of the Trio Lyrika. In 1993, With the addition of Parker, they formed The Gryphon Trio, choosing to take the name for a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. (Americans spell the word "griffin.") Legend has it that the gryphon is a guardian of treasures, symbolizing the relationship between cosmic force and psychic energy. This, the musicians felt, would be fitting for a piano trio known for fidelity in the performance of both traditional and modern works.
Among them, the three musicians have studied at the Banff Centre, the Curtis Institute, Indiana University, the Juilliard School, the University of British Columbia and Yale University. Borys and Patipatanakoon are on the string faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Parker teaches piano at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. The trio is currently the ensemble-in-residence for the "Music Toronto" series.
The Gryphon Trio's recordings of the Haydn Piano Trios and Mendelssohn/Dvorak Trios won audience and critical acclaim as well as nominations for Juno Awards. Last year, in response to audience demand, the group recorded a CD of commissioned contemporary works that is to be released soon.
Thursday's concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for general admission and $10 for students. Reservations, as always, are highly recommended, as seating is limited. Call 779-4322 or 776-6777.

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