September Prelude Chamber Music Festival of the Triangle

DATE: September 9 2005, 8 PM

There will be a 7:15 PM pre-concert talk by Annegret Fauser, Associate Professor and Adjunct Associate Professor in Women's Studies at UNC Chapel Hill.

SITE: Fletcher Theater, BTI Center, Raleigh   Map 

TICKETS: Combination package (Sept 9 & Sept 11) $30; Students, $15. Single tickets -$20, $10.

(919) 821 2030 or (919) 684-4444

Buy now online!

PROGRAM

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The nationally acclaimed piano trio Triple Helix was named "2002 Musicians of the Year" by the Boston Globe is ensemble-in-residence at Wellesley College. The individual members of the trio serve on the music faculties of several Greater Boston colleges. "Emotionally charged, virtuoso playing," said the Boston Globe of Triple Helix. The Los Angeles Times noted the trio's "splendid musical chemistry, virtually perfect dynamic balance, firm collective sense of rhythm, and fervor and authority when needed."

Triple Helix was established in 1995 by three award-winning musicians.

Violinist Bayla Keyes was a founder and long-time member of the Evian- and Naumburg-award-winning Muir String Quartet. She teaches at Boston University College of Fine Arts, and is artistic director of the Interlochen Chamber Music Festival and the founding director of the String Quartet Institute at Tanglewood. She is also an active performer with Musica Viva.

Cellist Rhonda Rider was the founding cellist of the Naumburg-award-winning Lydian String Quartet. She performs with the chamber players at Boston Conservatory, where she heads the chamber music program and is the founding director of the Cello Seminar. She has premiered works by contemporary composers Elliott Carter, Lee Hyla, Donald Martino and Steve Mackey.

Pianist Lois Shapiro has concertized as soloist and collaborative artist throughout the US and abroad in concerts ranging from 18th century period-instrument performances to premieres of pieces. A winner of the New York Concert Artists Guild Award, Shapiro has recorded on Afka, Channel Classics, Centaur, MLAR and Pierrot. She is on the faculty of Wellesley, Longy School of Music, and Brandeis.

At Wellesley College, Triple Helix is completing the third and final year of a Beethoven Festival. "The runaway hit of the chamber music season," said the Boston Globe. Also at Wellesley, Triple Helix takes lecture-recitals directly into classrooms in which poetry, history of art, philosophy, Russian history, math, or astronomy is taught. The group ties the music to the particular curriculum being studied and thereby enhances students' grasp of the cultural and social aspects of a given period or country. The Triple Helix musicians are also regular guests on WGBH-FM radio, where they offer performances and lecture-recitals.

In calling themselves Triple Helix, the artists were inspired by the double helix, the spiraling energies that generate life. They saw a parallel in the partnership of violin, cello and piano - each instrument entrusted by the composer with its own share of "the genetic material" of the music.

Advocates for new music, Triple Helix has premiered 8 new works written especially for the group.

Artist Website: www.triplehelixpianotrio.org

Aside from the many concerts he performs each year as a member of the Ciompi Quartet, Jonathan Bagg appears often as solo violist, in recital and on occasion as a concerto soloist. Recently he performed the Walton Concerto with orchestras in Massachusetts (Pioneer Valley Symphony) and North Carolina (Duke Symphony Orchestra). Past appearances have been with the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Monadnock Festival Orchestra, and on numerous occasions with orchestras in North Carolina.

In his solo recitals, Mr. Bagg has shown an ongoing interest in bringing new and unfamiliar works to life, and he has had many newly composed works dedicated to him. Recital appearances have brought him to the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C. and Jordan Hall in Boston, as well as frequent concerts at Duke University and many venues in North Carolina. In addition to performing and teaching, his duties at Duke have included several years' service as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. The father of two talented musicians, he occasionally persuades his daughter, violinist Eliza, and pianist son, Sam, to share the stage in popular family recitals.

In addition to many recordings as a member of the Ciompi Quartet, he has recorded the solo music for viola and piano by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), as well as contemporary solo works by Malcolm Peyton and Donald Wheelock. His newest disc, of music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann with pianist Jane Hawkins, was released in 2002 on the Centaur label. Mr. Bagg graduated with honors from both Yale University (B.A.), and the New England Conservatory (M.M.), where he was a student of Walter Trampler.