Program Notes (in their own words: Trio Vita)

Trio Vita will perform Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music Saturday, April 12 on Introductions (Photo Copyright 2007by Christiane Michaud)

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 12, Trio Vita will be performing with Simply Brass (11AM - 12PM). Both are quarter-finalists in this year's Fischoff Competition. Below are bios of Trio Vita (Simply Brass info hopefully coming soon!) and also a description of what they'll be playing, in their own words:

Program Notes:

Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
1. Molto allegro agitato

While we have not had a "funny" story about the piece, we did have a "panicky" moment about it. About an hour before performing at Harris Theater, we discovered that the violinist forgot to bring his music; my mom quickly scurried away to photocopy the piano score while our violinist called his father and asked him to bring the music. When asked how long it would take before the music arrived, our violinist replied (rather nonchalantly): "About an hour." In a rather large state of disarray, we did the best we could from memory. Needless to say, memory is no substitute for having a piece of paper telling you what to play. To bring everything to a happy ending, our violinist did indeed receive his music on time, we did play onstage, and we did (and still do) badger him about the occasion.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is a German composer of the early Romantic period. He is often regarded as the greatest musical child prodigy after Mozart. He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, appeared in concert at nine and wrote his first piano quartet by age of thirteen. Between the ages of 12 to 14, he wrote twelve string symphonies. Between the ages of 16 and 17, he wrote a String Octet and the Overture to Shakespere’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Mendelssohn was greatly influenced by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. His work has shown an intuitive grasp of form, harmony, and color. His work has a distinctive blend of fanciful romanticism and graceful classicism. He wrote many notable paino pieces, piano and violin concertos, choral music and chamber music for strings, piano and other instruments, including the one we will be playing today, the first movement of Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49.

This piece was completed in 1839. It is one of his most popular ensemble works. After Mendelssohn composed it, he took the advise of a fellow composer, Ferdinand Hill, to revise the piano part to be more romantic. The revision was reviewed by Robert Schumann, who declared Mendelssohn to be the Mozart of the nineteenth century. It is filled with catchy themes and unique styles and contains one of the hardest chamber music piano parts ever written. It is not only technically difficult, but it is also hard to synchronize with the other string instruments.

The first movement, molto allegro agitato, is written in the classic sonata form. It begins with a cantabile main theme in D minor played by the cello, with the piano providing a syncopated accompaniment. The second theme, also introduced by the cello, is changed to the fuller and more romantic A major. Throughout the movement, the sense of agitation is enforced by the accents off the downbeat of the piano and the restless rhythmic accompaniment of triplets. The murmuring eighth notes underline the two string instruments in the second theme and the accelerated triplets in the recapitulation also add a lot of tension to the movement.


Schoenfield Cafe Music
2. Andante Moderato

We love to play this piece because it really challenges us to shift our style and mood from the more traditionally classical sounds and to a more relaxed, soulful sound.

Of the three pieces that we are playing, the Café Music is the newest music. Paul Schoenfield is a living composer who was born in 1947 in Detroit.

Paul Schoenfield studied piano and started composing at the young age of seven. Schoenfield has stated that his music “ is not the kind of music for relaxation, but the kind that makes people sweat; not only the performer, but the audience.” Schoenfield’s composition style has been compared to Gershwin, and I think that the piece that we are playing, Café Music, is of that nature. Schoenfield’s music is interesting because it incorporates many styles, including jazz, blues and klezmer.

Schoenfield was apparently inspired to write Café Music by a trio which played at a restaurant in Minneapolis. His idea was to write a kind of “high-class” dinner music which might “just barely” find its way into a concert hall. While the first and third movements of this piece are quite exciting, the movement we are playing has more of a melancholy feel. The second movement incorporates a beautiful Chassidic melody. One of the really great things about this piece is that it sounds as though the trio is improvising when, in fact, the piece, with all of its jazz inspired sounds, is composed out. Café Music was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and was premiered in January 1987.

Brian Chang, Piano:

I am 17 years old. I am from Naperville and a junior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. I have studied piano since I was 5 years old and my current teacher is Mr. James Giles at Northwestern University. I have also studied with Mr. Emilio Del Rosario in Music Institute of Chicago and Ms. Marilyn Anderson in Wheaton College.

My favorite part of playing music is knowing when I have made beautiful music. Absolutely no feeling compares to working for hours and finally being able to play a section as delicately or as passionately as I have wanted to play it and knowing that that sound is going to make the music shine. I feel like I have been broadening my scope of music over the years and I have been able to connect more into the music than I had been able to previously. While I know I still have an enormous amount of work ahead of me, I feel proud of my accomplishments and of how I have grown musically over the years.

At school, my favorite subjects are math and science. As cliché as it sounds, I want to be a physician when I grow up so I can help people out (kids mostly, though I promise I will not be biased). I absolutely love chemistry and biology and, as all mathematicians and chemists do, I love to rap. I love listening to jazz and (occasionally) playing it and in my free time (which is next to none), I play basketball also (…occasionally can shoot ten 3-pointers in a row…).

I have played with several ensembles in the last four years, two under the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and two under Midwest Young Artist. My groups have competed and won many competitions and have advanced to semi-finals in national Fischoff competition.

Concerning solo piano, I love playing piano concertos; the most difficult piece I have played was Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 – all three movements. I like to play compositions by contemporary composers. Generally speaking, I compete in three to four competitions each year. Most recently, I have won first place in the Steinway Young Artist Competition (which allowed me to record in WFMT studio), 2nd place in Music Teachers National Association Piano Competition at Illinois and I was the overall winner in Open and Senior Piano divisions in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition. In the past few years, I have performed at the Cultural Center of Chicago, The Pianoforte Salon Series (with WFMT live broadcast), and Harris Theatre with Trio Vita. We performed in the NPR’s From the Top program recently, which was a lot of fun!

Stanley Moore, Cello

At the age of 16, Stanley has been playing the cello for 10 years. He currently studies cello under Hans Jensen at Northwestern University and intends to major in music. He goes to Elgin High School and participates in Student Council, Mathletes, Scholastic Bowl, and National Honor Society after school. He just recently played the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Illinois Symphony orchestra and has won the 1st place String division of the Walgreens Concerto Competition, and his trio has recently won the Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition and the Chicago Chamber Music Competition. Stanley also enjoys playing football, basketball, reading, paintball, and reading news on the net in his spare time.

Ryan Murphy, Violin

I am fifteen years old and a sophomore at Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. I study violin with Almita and Roland Vamos and Marko Dreher at the Music Institute of Chicago. Most of my time is divided between school and violin. Before I started High School, I speed-skated, played soccer and piano. In my free time now, I talk to friends and watch the food network. I like to make people laugh.

I have participated in Midwest Young Artists Orchestras for six years and have been a member of a piano trio there for three years. I have really enjoyed being in the piano trio and have had some great experiences with the trio, including playing on WFMT, playing on From the Top and with the Rembrandt Chamber players. The trio has gone to the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition for the past three years, which is always a lot of fun.

I try to do several competitions each year. Competitions help motivate me. I won the Midwest Young Artists junior strings division of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition in 2005 and won second place in the senior division of that competition in 2007. I also won the Music Teachers National Association ("MTNA") Illinois Junior Strings Competition in 2005 and honorable mention in the North Central Division of MTNA in 2006. I recently won the North Suburban Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and soloed with that orchestra this past March which was a lot of fun. I won’t mention the competitions that I didn’t do so well in . . . . .