Verdehr Trio
Encyclopedia
Clarinet-violin-piano trio
A clarinet-violin-piano trio is a standardized chamber musical ensemble made up of one clarinet, one violin, and one piano participating in relatively equal roles, or the name of a piece written for such a group....
repertoire through international commissions
Commission (art)
In art, a commission is the hiring and payment for the creation of a piece, often on behalf of another.In classical music, ensembles often commission pieces from composers, where the ensemble secures the composer's payment from private or public organizations or donors.- Commissions for public art...
, recording
Recording
Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....
s, and performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
s. The trio features Walter Verdehr on violin, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr
Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr
Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr is an American clarinetist and music educator whose contributions to the Verdehr Trio have resulted in an extensive modern body of work for the clarinet-violin-piano trio medium.- Biography :...
on clarinet, and Silvia Roederer
Silvia Roederer
Silvia Roederer DMA is a native of Argentina. Her focus on piano began after emigrating to the U.S. and includes study with John Perry at USC, David Burge at Eastman, and Menahem Pressler at festivals in Banff, Long Beach, and Ravinia....
on piano. The Ludewig-Verdehrs were married in 1971 and founded the trio in 1972 at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
where it has remained in residence. Former pianists include Gary Kirkpatrick
Gary Kirkpatrick
Gary Kirkpatrick is an American Concert Pianist hailing from Kansas. He is the recipient of the Top Prize in the International Piano Competition in Jaen, Spain and the Stepenov Piano Competition. He made his New York City debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. He has maintained an active career as...
.
Inspired by existing pieces for violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
-clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
-piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
by 20th century composers Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
(Contrasts (Bartók)
Contrasts (Bartók)
Contrasts is a 1938 composition scored for clarinet-violin-piano trio by Béla Bartók . It is based on Hungarian and Romanian dance melodies and has three movements with a combined duration of 17-20 minutes. Bartók wrote the work in response to a letter from violinist Joseph Szigeti, although it...
), Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
, Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
, Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
and Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, the trio commissioned over 200 new works. To round out their repertoire they discovered or transcribed 18th and 19th century pieces for violin-clarinet-piano. The trio has also commissioned trio concertos from composers including Buhr, David, Ott
David Ott
David Ott is an American composer of classical music.Born in Crystal Falls, Michigan, Ott's works include four symphonies, an opera , the Annapolis Overture, written for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and various pieces of children's music. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music ...
, Skrowaczewski, and Wallace. They have commissioned violin-clarinet double concertos from James Niblock, William Wallace, Dinos Constantinides, Paul Chihara
Paul Chihara
Paul Seiko Chihara is an American composer.Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent several years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho....
, Ian Krouse and Richard Mills
Richard Mills
Richard John Mills AM, DMus BA Qld, is an Australian conductor and composer. He currently works as Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera and Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria...
.
To make this music available the trio released The Making of a Medium CD Series on Crystal Records
Crystal Records
Crystal Records, Inc. is an American producer and distributor of classical chamber and solo music recordings. The company was founded in 1966 by Peter George Christ and is incorporated in the state of Washington....
and a parallel Video Series including performances, interviews and discussions by the composers as well as a complete performance of the work. Series I includes composers Leslie Bassett
Leslie Bassett
Leslie Bassett is an American composer of classical music, and the University of Michigan’s Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition...
, Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
, Karel Husa
Karel Husa
Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
, Thea Musgrave
Thea Musgrave
Thea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music.-Biography:Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Thea Musgrave studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger...
(Pierrot
Pierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...
), Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
, and Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
. Series II, hosted by Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele
Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
, includes trios by Alexander Arutiunian
Alexander Arutiunian
Alexander Grigorevich Arutiunian , also known as Arutunian, Arutyunyan, Arutjunjan or Harutiunian Alexander Grigorevich Arutiunian (Arm. Ալեքսանդր Գրիգորի Հարությունյան), also known as Arutunian, Arutyunyan, Arutjunjan or Harutiunian Alexander Grigorevich Arutiunian (Arm. Ալեքսանդր Գրիգորի...
, David Diamond
David Diamond (composer)
David Leo Diamond was an American composer of classical music.-Life and career:He was born in Rochester, New York and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music under Bernard Rogers, also receiving lessons from Roger Sessions in New York City and Nadia Boulanger in...
, William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
, Betsy Jolas
Betsy Jolas
Betsy Jolas is a French composer.Betsy Jolas was born in Paris. Resident in the United States from 1940 until 1946, she studied composition with Paul Boepple and piano with Helen Schnabel. On her return to France she continued her studies with Simone Plé-Caussade, Darius Milhaud and Olivier...
, Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over fifteen operas...
, Philippe Manoury
Philippe Manoury
Philippe Manoury is a French composer.-Biography:Philippe Manoury was born in Tulle. His first composition studies were at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, with Gérard Condé and Max Deutsch. He continued his studies from 1974 to 1978 at the Conservatoire de Paris with Michel Philippot, Ivo...
, Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
, Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
, Peter Schickele and Joan Tower
Joan Tower
Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...
. A publishing project has also been launched.
Accomplishments
The trio received a Creative Programming Award from Chamber Music America and an Adventuresome Programming Award from ASCAP and Chamber Music America. An article about the Trio appears in the New Grove Dictionary of Music.Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr is praised for her range of timbre and pitch, especially the clarinet's "chalumeau" or lowest register.
Other composers premiered
- William Averitt - Tripartita (1988)
- Paul ChiharaPaul ChiharaPaul Seiko Chihara is an American composer.Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent several years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho....
- Shogun (1987, trio) - Ge Gan-Ru - Si
- Tomas MarcoTomás MarcoTomás Marco Aragón is a Spanish composer and writer on music.-Life and work:Marco studied violin and composition in Madrid while at the same time pursuing the study of law...
- Aequatorialis - Gunther SchullerGunther SchullerGunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
- A trio setting - Douglas KnehansDouglas KnehansDouglas Knehans is an Australian/American composer and academic.Between 2008 and 2010 he was Dean of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.-External links:* ²* ¹...
- rive - Douglas KnehansDouglas KnehansDouglas Knehans is an Australian/American composer and academic.Between 2008 and 2010 he was Dean of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.-External links:* ²* ¹...
- glow - concerto for violin, clarinet and orchestra
External links
- http://www.verdehr.com/
- NYTimes.com: Verdehr Trio Contrast Review By John Rockwell, Published: February 18, 1988
Viewing
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSNyAyLI-h0
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtTtVjuTr88