Courtesy of Claremont Trio
This Saturday, chamber group Claremont Trio will take the stage at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
The Claremont Trio is an all-female classical chamber group that has received much praise in the nearly 15 years since they launched their career while studying at Juilliard. Winners of awards such as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, the Claremont Trio graduated from Juilliard and into the world of professional performance around 10 years ago. Since then they have collaborated on projects with many great minds, including Rob Kapilow and Daniel Bernard Roumain.
“We love getting the opportunity to tour across the country and around the world performing music that we love,” violinist Emily Bruskin said. “We are thrilled to be returning to Ole Miss to perform on Saturday, and we have a really great program planned.”
The Claremont Trio is also the sole piano trio to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.
The Claremont Trio has been the ensemble in residence at the Laguna Beach Live! music festival and the National Conference of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, according to their webpage. They have also maintained visiting residencies at several universities, including Longwood University and Lynchburg College.
Before the performance Saturday, the trio will take the time to work with some of The University of Mississippi’s music students in a lecture and demo session. The music department is gearing up for both this educational prospect as well as the concert itself.
“I am fortunate to have heard the Claremont Trio in the past and found their playing to be passionate, expressive and highly entertaining,” said Susan Gaston, adjunct instructor in music. “This is a concert not to be missed,”
Each member of the trio is talented in her own right, with awards and performances highlighting each woman.
Emily Bruskin, along with her twin sister Julia, grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and is the trio’s violinist. Emily has degrees in both music and neuroscience from the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange program. She has taught master classes at universities such as Columbia and Duke and has performed as a soloist in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Julia Bruskin, the group’s cellist, started her career after winning the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition and debuting with the orchestra at just 17. She has been a cellist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a soloist for several symphonies. Like her sister, she graduated from the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange program with a double degree. Julia Bruskin is currently a faculty member of Queens College’s School of Music.
Andrea Lam is from Sydney, Australia, and is the trio’s pianist. Lam has performed worldwide in several orchestras and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Silver Medal at the San Antonio Piano Competition in 2009 and the Astral Artists Roster National Auditions in 2010. Lam has degrees from both Yale and Manhattan School of Music.
The Claremont Trio has been actively touring since 2001. With an emphasis on educating youth and sharing their love of music, they have performed with universities, orchestras and guest performers across the United States and internationally.
Now, the trio is set to perform at The University of Mississippi’s Ford Center this Saturday evening. Ford Center Marketing Director Kate Meacham expressed her excitement at the Claremont Trio’s performance.
“The trio plans to perform a piece commissioned this past year,” Meacham said. “We’re very excited about that.”
Emily Bruskin also expressed her excitement about performing this new piece, written for the group by Brooklyn composer Judd Greenstein. Along with this new commission, the trio will also play pieces from their vast repertoire.
“The piece is called ‘A Serious Man,’ and it was written in memory of Judd’s uncle, a Detroit native, who passed away this past winter,” Emily Bruskin said. “In this trio, Judd uses aching falling figures, propulsive rhythms, vividly interlocking lines and glassy harmonics to create a colorful and poignant statement that we are very excited to perform this weekend.”
The trio will also perform Shostakovich’s monumental Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67. This trio was written in 1944 and is also a memorial for a close friend of Shostakovich, as well as a response to the global tragedies surrounding the composer at that time.
The program will end with Schubert’s gorgeous Trio No. 2 in E flat, D. 929, which combines Viennese elegance, bubbling virtuosity and beautiful melodies to thrilling effect, according to Emily Bruskin.
The show will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, and tickets are available online at the Ford Center website.
