Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Program
Joseph Fiale: Quartet for Oboe and Strings
Beethoven: String Trio op. 9, no. 3
Murray Adaskin: String Trio
Martinu: String Trio
Mozart: Quartet for Oboe and Strings, K. 370
On Sunday, February 22, 2009, oboist Thomas Gallant joins the Adaskin String Trio in the third concert of the 2008-09 Wilton Candlelight Concert series. Award winning artist Thomas Gallant is one of the world’s few virtuoso solo and chamber music performers on the oboe. His technique and breath control have been compared to that of the great violinists and singers. Praised by the New Yorker as “a player who unites technical mastery with intentness, charm and wit,” Mr. Gallant was First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition. His performances have taken him from Avery Fisher and Carnegie halls to the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Italy’s Spoleto Festival. Among other summer venues, he has appeared at the Ravinia and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has collaborated with such artists as Jean Pierre Rampal, Paula Robison and with the Cuarteto Casals. Mr. Gallant is the solo oboist of the Wind Soloists of New York. He plays on an “Evoluzione” oboe made by Fratelli Patricola.
The Adaskin String Trio has won over audiences internationally with exuberant and stirring performances. Their playing has been hailed for “vigor, precision and stylistic certitude.” Formed in 1994, the trio—violinist Emlyn Ngai, violist Steve Larson, and cellist Mark Fraser—performs extensively throughout the United States and Canada and has appeared at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and in Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Santa Barbara, and Chicago. In addition, the trio’s concerts have been regularly recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and National Public Radio. This dynamic ensemble commands a large string trio repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Dohnányi, Rozsa, Villa-Lobos, and Schnittke. Among contemporary composers from whom they have commissioned works are Murray Adaskin, Robert Carl, Thomas Schuttenhelm, and David Macbride.
Although the Adaskin String Trio is currently based in New England, its members are all originally from Canada. They met in Montreal where they studied chamber music with founding Oxford Quartet cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr. They later completed two years as ensemble-in-residence at The Hartt School under the guidance of the Emerson Quartet. The trio is named in honor of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada ‘s most loved and respected composers.
The February 22nd performance will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church on Route 33 just north of Wilton center. Tickets may be purchased at the door one-half hour prior to performance for $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this program or on subscriptions to the Candlelight Concert series or to request a season brochure, phone 203-762-3401. Wilton Candlelight Concerts are for the benefit of the Wilton Library Association. Tax deductible individual and corporate donations are gratefully accepted.