Chamber Music in Grantham festival features two public concerts at Messiah College
July 18th, 2008
GRANTHAM, Pa. (July 18, 2008) – Chamber Music in Grantham, an annual one-week intensive program for advanced students of violin, viola, cello, piano and composition, will host two performances at Messiah College: a faculty recital, featuring artist-in-residence Mendelssohn Piano Trio on Aug. 10 at 4 p.m.; and a concert on Aug. 14 at 7:30 p.m. featuring guest artists Ann Schein and Earl Carlyss. Both performances are free and open to the public and will take place in Poorman Recital Hall in the Climenhaga Fine Arts Center on the college’s Grantham campus. Donations towards next year’s Chamber Music in Grantham program will be accepted.
About Ann Schein and Earl Carlyss
The “Washington Post” writes of pianist Schein, “Thank heaven for Ann Schein…what a relief it is to hear a pianist who, with no muss or fuss, simply reaches right into the heart of whatever she is playing—and creates music so powerful you cannot tear yourself away.” Schein, who has performed with renowned conductors and major orchestras, has been an artist-faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1984. In 2006 she was chosen to hold the Victoria and Ronald Simms Chair, awarded to a member of the Aspen piano faculty for two years. Her award was extended in special recognition of her teaching prominence.
Carlyss, who began violin studies at age 10, was a member of the Julliard String Quartet for 20 years before becoming director of the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, a summer program designed for intensive study by young professional string quartets. Carlyss also remains on the faculty of the Julliard School in New York City, where he teaches violin and chamber music.
This husband-and-wife duo will perform a program that includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eroica Variations for piano in E-flat major and Ottorino Respighi Sonata for violin and piano in B minor.
About the Mendelssohn Piano Trio
“Mendelssohn Piano Trio members are three of the most stellar young artists of our time,” say Schein and Carlyss, co-tutors of the Trio. Such praise does not surpass the achievements of the group, which has been giving performances both in the United States and internationally for nearly a decade. Its members consist of Ya-Ting Chang (piano), Peter Sirotin (violin) and Fiona Thompson (cello); pianist and composer Richard Roberson, dean of the school of the arts at Messiah College, will join the Trio in performing on Aug. 10. Currently the ensemble-in-residence at Messiah College, as well as at the Embassy Series in Washington, D.C., the group’s members share a talent for teaching in addition to performing.
The Mendelssohn Piano Trio and Roberson will perform Johannes Brahms’ Sonata for violin and piano in G major, No. 1, Op. 78 as well as his Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8.
For more information about the Chamber Music in Grantham program, visit http://www.messiah.edu/departments/music/chamber_music_workshop.shtml.
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 2,800 undergraduate students in 55 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.