The Oregon-based Amelia Piano Trio comes to Omaha for one performance only, arriving with a major reputation. (“You just don’t hear better chamber music playing than this.” San Diego Reader). Since its start in 1999, it has appeared, for example, in New York at the 92nd St Y and Carnegie Hall, at Ravinia in Chicago, the Library of Congress in Washington DC and often on NPR as its 2003 Young Ensemble in Residence. Winner of an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming the group records for Cedille and Naxos records.
One of Dvorak’s best-known known works makes up the second half of the concert, his Piano Trio No. 4 op. 90. Better remembered by being called the “Dumky” Trio, the title suggests a Slavic word meaning laments for captive people. Reflecting that, the composition has often been described as introspectively brooding albeit offset by occasional cheerfulness.
The program also features an early Rachmaninoff trio inspired by Tchaikovsky, Fritz Kreisler’s much- loved Preludium and Allegro, an often fierce but sometimes tender Chopin scherzo for piano plus the compelling Prelude from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No.3. The cellist is Jason Duckles, the pianist Andrew Armstrong and the violinist is Anthea Kreston.
Omaha-based I the Siren offers something from its own special repertoire, given the trio’s unusual components: soprano (Shelby VanNordstrand) oboe (Darci Gamerl) and piano ( Staci Haneline).
This is part of Omaha Chamber Music Society’s Petite Musique Series. Considering the artists and what will be heard, there’s nothing small about it.
FYI: http://ameliapianotrio.com/about/ and http://www.ithesiren.com/
The concert is April 11 at Strauss Performing Arts Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha, 6001 Dodge St. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: Free for students, $4-$5. http://www.omahachambermusic.org/