Feb. 11, 2004 – For its third concert of the season, Classics in the Garden presents the Meadowmount Trio, performing Wednesday, Feb. 18, in Tillett Gardens.
The piano trio, formed in 1991, has toured throughout the United States and Europe and recently made its New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. It was the first American chamber ensemble to record for Melodyia/Russian Disc and recently recorded Robert Ward's "Dialogues for Trio and Orchestra" with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on the Citadel label.
The group maintains an extensive performance and recording schedule and serves as ensemble-in-residence at The Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, N.Y., where all three musicians also are on the teaching faculty. The school, a summer program for gifted young violinists, violists, cellists and pianists, counts among its alumni Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Joshua Bell, as well as Bella Hristova, who opened the 2003-04 Classics in the Garden concert series in November.
A Moscow reviewer hailed the ensemble for its "striking artistry," saying that its performance "showed flawless interpretation with young energy, poetic manner and uncompromising refinement."
The trio comprises Gerardo Ribeiro on violin, Owen Carman on cello and Eric Larsen on piano. Ribeiro has replaced former trio member Stephen Shipps for the winter/spring tour schedule following Shipps' retirement from public performance at the end of December due to complications from an arm injury several years ago.
Ribeiro, long hailed as Portugal's premier violinist, graduated with honors from the Lucerne Music Conservatory and later studied at The Juilliard School. He is currently professor of violin and coordinator of the string program at Northwestern University and artistic director of the International Institute for Chamber Music in Munich. He formerly taught on the violin faculty of the Eastman School of Music.
As a concert soloist, Ribeiro has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Montreal, Dallas, Lucerne, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Cali Symphony Orchestras; the Zagreb and Antwerp Philharmonics; the Taiwan and Belgian National Orchestras; and the Radio Orchestras of Paris, Hilversum and North Germany. As a recitalist he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as throughout Europe, South America and the Far East.
Carman, who holds degrees from the Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School, recently retired as professor of cello at Michigan State University, where he had been on the faculty since 1977. He was formerly principal cellist of the Eastern Music Festival, a member of the New College and Beaumont String Quartets and guest artist with the Juilliard String Quartet.
He has concertized throughout North and South America and Europe and has presented master classes at major universities and conservatories. He joined the Meadowmount School faculty in 1981 and was appointed its director as well as president of the Society for Strings Inc. in 1989.
Larsen received his master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and studied in New York, Paris and London. He has performed in the major concert halls of North and South America and Europe as piano soloist and collaborator with leading recitalists. As the recipient of major grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, he has done extensive research on the Grieg Manuscript Collection in Bergen, Norway.
He currently is on the artist faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has recorded for Albany, Bay Cities, Melodyia/Russian Disc and New World.
Performance information
The Feb. 18 concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30. They may be purchased in advance at the Arts Alive office in Tillett Gardens or, using a charge card, by telephoning 775-1929. They also will be available at the door. Seating is numbered, and reservations are recommended.
The program will not be repeated on St. John.
As with all Classics in the Garden presentations, patrons have the option of pre-performance dining in the garden with concert seating at tables. Alexander's of Frenchtown is catering the dinners this season in cooperation with Jack's, the restaurant in the garden. The three-course meal, consisting of salad, choice of entree and dessert, is a prix fixe $30 including gratuity but not beverage service. Reservations are required for dinner and may be made by calling 775-1929.
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