DELPHI TRIO piano trio

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P raised for “spot-on ensemble playing and a beautifully blended sound” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “rich, committed string tone, dazzling pianism, rhythmic

flexibility, and risky tempi” (Sarasota Herald Tribune), the Delphi Trio has become a powerfully eloquent voice in the world of chamber music.

Prizewinners of the 2015 Orlando Concours in the Netherlands, the Delphi Trio has performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and across the United States. Recent highlights include the world premiere of William Bolcom’s Piano Trio; a concerto residency with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra and Barbara Day Turner; the West Coast premiere of Paul Juon’s Episodes Concertantes (1912) with Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony; and performances throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and WFMT Studios Chicago.

The Delphi Trio is grounded in the immensely rich classic repertoire for piano trio and is committed to the exploration of its deep, lasting meaning for performers and audience alike. The Trio sees contemporary music as a natural extension of the standard repertoire and is therefore dedicated to the music of our time. Delphi has given acclaimed world premieres of William Bolcom’s Piano Trio (2014), Max Stoffregen’s Coyote Plan (2013) and Sahba Aminikia’s Deltangi-ha (2012) and Shab o Meh (2014). The Trio will be premiering a new work by Evan Price, composer and jazz violinist formerly of the Turtle Island Quartet, in the 2017–18 season.

The Delphi Trio believes chamber music is an ideal model for education. Delphi is committed to supporting young artists as they begin their careers and has established their Emerging Artist Program to collaborate with collegiate students in their first professional chamber music concert. The Trio also curates the Practice Project, a social media group dedicated to fostering community, openness, and vulnerability among both professional and amateur artists

The ensemble is built on trust and communication; to that end, each Delphi rehearsal starts in the same way — a meal, conversation, and music.

“LaDeur made the complex density of the piano part in Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49 outstandingly lucid while Kwon handled the cello’s big melodic statements with generous expression and centered tone. Bérubé’s violin playing ranged over virtuosic passages to melodic turns with searching mastery. Throughout the playing was tightly rhythmic, cunningly balanced and powerfully expressive. The finale was eye-opening, fast and communicative. … In all, a remarkable performance, as memorable as any I have heard in my 27 years as a music reviewer.”

–David Williams, Charleston Gazette-Mail

“The energy was contagious and the way in which each performer communicated with the others was a veritable lesson in ensemble playing...Throughout the evening these three expressive musicians, who first got together as students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, performed with confidence, precision and a masterful ability to capture the subtle expressions in a wide variety of music.”

–Heather Morris, Peninsula Reviews

short bio

press“...Delphi captured those evocative qualities that one would associate with the best of lyric poetry.”

–Stephen Smoliar, San Francisco Examiner

“One of my most pleasurable commissions recently has been a piano trio, asked for by a young, up-and-coming group, the Delphi, whom I first heard in concert a few years ago; the trio’s maturity of tone and unusual expressivity were a standout, and I wrote the piece with delight. I have heard them play it, and already they have realized the new piece exquisitely. I find the Delphi Trio shows the potential of great depth in future years in whatever they play.”

–William Bolcom, composer

P H O T O B Y J I YA N G C H E N

DELPHI TRIO piano trio

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AMONG FRIENDS

With the program “Among Friends,” the Delphi Trio focuses on

the intimacy of conversation. The three works on the program

demonstrate the dynamic nature of emotional dialogue and

the rich meaning it brings to music. Each composer featured

on the program has a distinct voice: Schumann uses coded

language to show his love for his wife, Chan Ka Nin uses

extended techniques to create humorous speech-like effects,

and Schubert uses the power of simplicity to share the poignant

fragility of the human condition. Music Among Friends is

chamber music at its best; one of the most important aspects

of both music and friendship is the ability to share our inner

emotional worlds with each other.

Works to be performed on the “Among Friends” program include:

Robert Schumann, Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op. 80

Chan Ka Nin, Among Friends

Franz Schubert, Trio No. 2 in Eb Major, Op. 100

LES FRANÇAIS

Tracing the lineage of great French composers, the Delphi Trio

presents a program featuring the trios of Fauré, Roussel, and Ravel.

Fauré composed his only piano trio, Op. 120, during his last years

when deafness had isolated him to a large extent from the outside

world. Fauré’s late works could not be mistaken for any other

composer’s voice – a combination of passion and quiet ecstasy.

Albert Roussel’s early Piano Trio Op. 2 integrates the influence of

his contemporaries such as Debussy, Dukas, Chausson, and Faure,

while maintaining a strongly individual voice. The piece is written

on a vast canvas that reflects Roussel’s seafaring years in the

French Navy, with its watery introduction and ebullient outer

movements. The second movement combines the popular and

exotic – Parisian cafe meets Japanese tea garden. The plaintive

lyricism of Roussel’s melodic writing may have influenced Ravel,

though the former’s trio is essentially sunny in its character, written

over ten years before the “Great War” changed the world forever.

Ravel’s Trio (1914) is undisputed as a landmark achievement of

twentieth-century music and chamber music in general.

The precision with which he crafts the architecture of the work

contributes to its overwhelming impact as a dramatic journey.

Musical inspirations range from Basque folk dance and Malaysian

poetry to the ancient-sounding Passacaglia and the chilling

fanfares of World War I. Yet, the piece remains unique to Ravel

in its startling juxtapositions of childlike wonder and fantasy

with the atrocities of war.

Works to be performed on the “Les Français”

program include:

Gabriel Fauré, Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 120

Albert Roussel, Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 2

Maurice Ravel, Trio in A Minor

PERSPECTIVES

This program explores the dynamic process of active listening

and cultivation of empathy, centering around a new work by

American composer and jazz violinist Evan Price. Fluent in many

musical languages, Price challenges the performer and listener

to participate in a real-time dialogue that engages both in the

search for understanding and acceptance.

Dmitri Shostakovich was a master of synthesis, juxtaposing

various musical traditions while subversively attacking a regime

of persecution. His second piano trio is one of the most deeply

affecting of his works, incorporating Jewish folk music in a way

that gives voice to the victims that could no longer speak, a

musical witness to the tragedy of war.

Brahms’ warmly optimistic Trio in C Major Op.87 imagines the

view of another culture in a different way. While no less deeply

felt, Brahms’ writing in the Hungarian style in the second

movement affirms his lifelong admiration for the music of gypsy

folk tradition, combining the economy of compositional means

with soaring melodies and good humor.

Works to be performed on the “Perspectives” program include:

Evan Price, Forthcoming Commissioned Work

Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67

Johannes Brahms, Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87

program offerings

DELPHI TRIO piano trio

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DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION

In this program, the Delphi Trio explores musical reflections on the

transience of this life and the mystery of the next. Toru Takemitsu’s

Between Tides (1993) speaks a language colored by Debussy and

Messiaen, yet unique to the composer’s expressive voice. At the

time of composition of his Trio in G Minor, Op. 110, Schumann was

struggling with the decline of his mental health. Initially stormy,

roiling, and disturbed, the trio is ultimately uplifting, reflecting

the composer’s hope for recovery. Riding the high of Schumann’s

optimism, the Trio in E flat Major, Op. 70 No. 2 is Beethoven at his

most pastoral and serene. With shades of heavenly grace shining

into the work from the very opening, the work is gentle, joyous,

and a perennial favorite of the Delphi Trio.

Works to be performed on the “Death and Transfiguration”

program include:

Toru Takemitsu, Between Tides (1993)

Schumann, Trio in G Minor, Op. 110

Beethoven, Trio in E flat Major, Op. 70 No. 2

P H O T O B Y J I YA N G C H E N

DELPHI TRIO piano trio

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CONCERTO RESIDENCY

The Delphi Trio is pleased to offer this unique series of programs

with orchestra, exploring the individuality and unity of the piano

trio. Designed as either a three- or four-concert residency over

the course of a season or festival, the members of the Delphi

Trio perform solo concertos culminating in a performance of

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. The following are sample programs,

final repertoire to be determined in consultation with Delphi.

THREE-CONCERT SERIES

Program 1 – Jeffrey LaDeur, piano One of the following: Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58* Schumann, Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 Medtner, Piano Concerto in C Minor, Op. 50

Program 2 – Liana Bérubé, violin and Michelle Kwon, cello Haydn, Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1 Bernstein, Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”) for violin, string orchestra, harp, and percussion*

Program 3 – Delphi Trio Beethoven, Triple Concerto, Op. 56

FOUR-CONCERT SERIES

Program 1 – Jeffrey LaDeur, piano One of the following: Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58* Schumann, Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 Medtner, Piano Concerto in C Minor, Op. 50

Program 2 – Michelle Kwon, cello One of the following: Haydn, Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1 Schumann, Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129* Elgar, Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85

Program 3 – Liana Bérubé, violin One of the following: Mozart, Violin Concerto in G Major, K. 216* Bernstein, Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”) for violin, string orchestra, harp, and percussion* Bartók, Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112

Program 4 – Delphi Trio Beethoven, Triple Concerto, Op. 56

*Chamber Orchestra Scoring available

PRACTICE CLINIC

Most musicians grow up learning the physicality of how to

practice, but music education often neglects our individual

relationships with our instruments and our practice psychology.

The Delphi Trio draws on its extensive research from the

Practice Project to bring this clinic on practice and rehearsal to

students, professionals, and amateur musicians alike. Liana,

Michelle, and Jeffrey have learned from experience that the

best performances come from physically and emotionally

healthy artists, and they encourage participants in this clinic to

seek positive relationships with themselves and their colleagues

throughout the practice and rehearsal process. Emphasis is

placed on self-awareness, asking questions, and open artistic

exploration.

PANEL DISCUSSION (ALSO AVAILABLE AS POST-CONCERT CHAT)

In this offering, the Delphi Trio invites audience members into

discussion about different aspects of artistic life. Drawing on the

Trio’s individual experiences and their research from the Practice

Project, topics can include commissioning new compositions,

getting an ensemble off the ground, rehearsal technique, practice

and performance psychology, artistic philosophy, life as a chamber

musician, fundraising and the grant application process, the

importance of trust within an ensemble, and more. Areas of

discussion will be tailored to specific audiences, and listeners

are encouraged both to ask questions and participate in the

conversation with the Trio. This offering is available as a separate

event or as an informal post-concert chat.

MASTER CLASSES AND CHAMBER MUSIC COACHINGS

Liana, Michelle, and Jeffrey believe strongly in the value and

importance of sharing their knowledge, experience, and love for

music with others through teaching. The Delphi Trio emphasizes

the essential communicative aspect of chamber music and an

approach to interpretation based on the unity of the score

rather than the separation of its parts.

Having worked with students of all ages and levels of experience,

the trio has become known for their inspiring chamber music

workshops and master classes around the country. Having

worked with students of all ages and levels of experience,

the trio has become known for their inspiring chamber music

workshops and master classes around the country.

additional offerings