Jazz pianist and composer Hiromi. Japan native Hiromi Uehara has gained first-name recognition worldwide since moving to the United States to attend the Berklee College of Music in 1999. The 37-year-old pianist’s recording and touring career began a few years later, and has essentially been split between her 2004-2009 trio with fellow Berklee grads Tony Grey (bass) and Martin … [Read more...]
Zukerman Trio’s regal Beethoven stands out at Broward Center
The Zukerman Trio, from left: Pinchas Zukerman, Angela Cheng and Amanda Forsyth. (Photo by Nicholas Brodard) By Robert Croan There was an atmosphere of disorder and disorganization about the Zukerman Trio’s performance on the Broward Center Classical Series in the Amaturo Theater on Sunday. It had little to do with the excellent performers — violinist Pinchas Zukerman, … [Read more...]
Atos Trio provides spotless evening of Schubert, Suk
The Atos Trio of Germany gave an immaculate concert of music by Rachmaninov, Josef Suk and Franz Schubert in the Flagler Museum’s music series Feb. 18. The Rachmaninoff and Suk pieces were written when both composers were mere teenagers, but their music is anything but sophomoric; it is well-developed, tuneful and one might say, masterly in structure. Kudos to the Atos Trio … [Read more...]
Community theater: Strong acting trio drives ‘Crimes of the Heart’
By Dale King In the play, Arsenic and Old Lace, the lead character, Mortimer Brewster, comments on the mental stability of his relatives. “Insanity runs in my family,” he says. “Actually, it gallops.” The same might be said of the three MaGrath sisters in Crimes of the Heart, the tragicomedy now playing at the Broward Stage Door Theatre. While their cerebral processes may … [Read more...]
A remarkable night with a young trio
Brilliance comes in threes, it appears. Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago, in the second concert of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, three young men — Doori Na, violin; Joseph Lee, cello; and Sean Kennard, piano — thrilled the many concert attendees with their music-making. And indeed, their musicianship was remarkable. Coming together as individuals of astonishing skill … [Read more...]
Merling Trio persuasive in Dvorak at Duncan
As the cellist Bruce Uchimura said, the world is a better place for having once had Antonin Dvořák in it. Uchimura, a member of the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Merling Trio, offered his tribute to the great Czech Romantic composer during the trio’s appearance Wednesday afternoon on the Classical Café series at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West. On the second half of that program, the … [Read more...]
Recent American brass trio proves smart switch at chamber fest
The second concert of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 20th season underwent a programming change, but its tried-and-true finale, which didn’t change, worked its customary magic. A large audience at the Crest Theatre on Sunday afternoon warmly applauded that last work, the Death and the Maiden Quartet (String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810) of Franz Schubert. In one … [Read more...]
Revered acoustic-guitar trio celebrates 20th with Jupiter stop
For a group that named itself for the state where it formed -- doubting that it might ever get to play elsewhere -- the California Guitar Trio (www.cgtrio.com) has achieved stratospheric success. The CGT's three acoustic guitarists, Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya, have recorded a dozen CDs together and navigated several tours of the United States, Canada, South … [Read more...]
Piano trio’s Florida debut offers multi-style mastery
The piano trio literature is perhaps richer than it might otherwise appear at first mental blush, and there are some great works in this genre that are too little-known to general audiences. That can surely be said of the Piano Trio (in G minor, Op. 15) composed in 1855 by Bedrich Smetana, founder of the Czech national school of composition. It can just as confidently be said … [Read more...]
Claremont Trio offers high spirits, taste in Four Arts concert
The Claremont Trio began in modest fashion 11 years ago at the Juilliard School, and since then the threesome has made well-received recordings and built up a strong following. And the three players -- violinist Emily Bruskin and her twin sister, cellist Julia Bruskin, and the Canadian-born pianist Donna Kwong -- have shown some adventurousness in regard to repertory. They've … [Read more...]