Adaskin String Trio Performs at Haverford

The concert is part of the on 2004-2005 Guest Artist Series and will be held in Roberts Hall, Marshall Auditorium on the Haverford College Campus, 370 Lancaster Avenue, in Haverford. Tickets at $15 (Gen), $12 (Sr), $8 (Students) and $5 (Children) will be sold at the door the afternoon of the concert beginning at 3:15pm and can be reserved in advance. Parking is free, shuttle service is available from the visitor's parking lot, and the auditorium is wheelchair accessible. For more information call 610.896.1011.

Comprised of three exceptional musicians including Emlyn Ngai, violinist, Steve Larson, violist and Mark Fraser, cellist, the Adaskin String Trio is the premier ensemble of its kind in North America. Their program at Haverford College will consist of four works will including the“String Trio Op. 9 #3” by Ludwig van Beethoven,“Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H for String Trio, Op.46” by Hanns Eisler,“Suite in A major for String Trio (1889)” by Jean Sibelius, and the“String Trio (Serenade), Op.1 (1927)” by Miklós Rózsa.

They brought to the music a focus and intensity that was all the keener for its selflessness, its utter lack of star-turn narcissism. Always and without undue insistence, you felt, they were directing the listener to the heart of the matter.”
The Boston Globe

The Adaskin String Trio was founded in 1994 and has performed extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including New York City at Merkin Concert Hall, Washington, DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Los Angeles, Boston, Winnipeg, Virginia, Maine, and South Carolina. Their concerts have been recorded for CBC Radio, Radio – Canada (CBC's French-language counterpart), and National Public Radio. In 1998, the trio was a finalist for the prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Foundation chamber music award in New York.

The members of the trio each studied chamber music with founding Orford String Quartet cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr at McGill University in Montreal. The trio later completed two years as the graduate ensemble-in-residence at the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut under the guidance of the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet. They also worked with Steve Tenenbom of the Orion String Quartet, and Daniel Epstein of the Raphael Piano Trio.

The Adaskin String Trio performs a diverse and rich repertory, ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Cowell, Schönberg and works of the present day. Their performances of rarely played works by such composers as Sergei Taneiev, Lennox Berkeley and Miklós Rózsa have been revelations to both novice and seasoned chamber music enthusiasts. The trio has several premieres to its credit including works written for them by Robert Carl (recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship), by composer Murray Adaskin, and the American premiere of Canadian composer Talivaldis Kenin's String Trio. In 1997 the trio commissioned The Point of Pressure for string trio from renowned German composer Ingrid Stölzel. The Adaskin Trio also gave successful performances at the Hartt School with New York composer Elizabeth Brown performing her own Migration for shakuhachim (Japanese bamboo flute) and string trio.

The Adaskin Trio is named in honor of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada's most loved and respected composers, and his two brothers, violinist Harry Adaskin and producer/music educator John Adaskin, whose contributions to music in Canada are unsurpassed.

Emlyn Ngai, violin, holds degrees from McGill University, Oberlin College Conservatory and the Hartt School of Music. He has performed in and recorded for Apollo's Fire, Boston Baroque, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players and has toured Europe with the Apollo Ensemble and the Bach Ensemble. First Prize winner at the 1995 Locatelli Concours Amsterdam on baroque violin, he has given recitals in Berlin, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington DC, and has recently released a CD set of J.S. Bach's complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Peter Watchorn on the Musica Omnia label.

Steve Larson, viola. In 1997, violist Steve Larson won second prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, UK, receiving a special award for his performance of the commissioned work. He has been praised by the Montreal Gazette for his ‘singing tone, eloquent phrasing, expressive dynamics and flawless intonation.' He studied violin with Elman Lowe, Howard Leyton-Brown and Mauricio Fuks, and viola with Jutta Pucchammer and Steve Tenenbom. Mr. Larson is Professor of Viola and Chair of the Strings at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

Mark Fraser, cello, holds degrees from McGill University, l'Université de Montréal, and the Hartt School of Music. He has studied with Walter Joachim, Aldo Parisot, and Yuli Turovsky. For many years he was the Artistic Director of Project Renaissance, an arts festival near Montreal. He has taught cello at the Connecticut Conservatory of the Performing Arts and recently released a CD, with pianist Sooka Wang, of works by Bach, Schumann, and Prokofiev.

“The Adaskin String Trio play with carefully conceived unity and striking attention to detail and nuance/one was struck with the remarkable uniformity with which the players calibrate dynamics, phrasing tone color and even the weight and speed of their bows.”
New York Newsday