Puget Sound Piano Trio

TACOMA, Wash. – For its 2018 opening concert, Puget Sound Piano Trio is treating audiences to a novel program: two award-winning young composers from China and Texas, juxtaposed with two luminaries of the Classical and Romantic eras.

Trio members Maria Sampen, violin; Alistair MacRae, cello; and Tanya Stambuk, piano, will perform works by contemporary composers Tianyi Wang and Jason Haney, and by Austria’s classical giant Joseph Haydn and the “father of Czech music,” Bedrich Smetana.

The Puget Sound Piano Trio concert will be held Friday, Feb. 9, beginning at 7:30 p.m., in Schneebeck Concert Hall, near Union Avenue and N. 14th Street on the University of Puget Sound campus. Ticket information and a map of campus are below. The program will include:

Piano Trio No. 44 in E Major, Hob. XV: 28 – Joseph Haydn
Connotations (2013) for violin, cello, and piano; IV. The New Normal – Jason Haney
Dark Blessing (2017) for violin, cello, and piano – Tianyi Wang
Piano Trio in g minor, Opus 15 – Bedrich Smetana

Composer Tianyi Wang, born in China, has had his works performed internationally. His repertoire spans solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, and electronic, as well as film scoring. Following music instruction at Moscow Conservatory, William Jewell College, and Bard College, he is currently continuing his studies at New England Conservatory, in Boston.

Jason Haney, born in Dallas, has had works performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and other venues in the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, South America, and Hong Kong. He currently is on the faculty of the School of Music at James Madison University, in Virginia.

Joseph Haydn and Bedrich Smetana remain towering figures in the music world. Haydn, a teacher of Beethoven, is credited with playing a key role in the development of chamber music. His Piano Trio No. 44 in E Major has been praised for its wide expressive range and virtuosity. Smetana’s music is often identified with the revolutionary protests that sought to give the Czech lands independence from Austro-Hungary. He wrote only the one piano trio, which has been described as a piece of unbridled passion and a milestone of romanticism.

Maria Sampen, professor and chair of the string department, has performed in Europe, Asia, and across North America. A performer of both standard and experimental works, she is a member of The IRIS Orchestra and Brave New Works, and Puget Sound Piano Trio. She has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall Symphony Space, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium, and Chicago Cultural Center. For more visit: pugetsound.edu/faculty-pages/msampen.

Alistair MacRae, cellist and Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel Artist in Residence, has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. He serves as Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s principal cello, as a faculty member at Brevard Music Center, and in the duo Soprello. A passionate advocate for new music, he has performed his own compositions and arrangements across North America. For more, visit: alistairmacrae.net.

Tanya Stambuk, professor of piano, has appeared internationally as a soloist with orchestras including Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, in France; Virginia Symphony Orchestra; Civic Orchestra of Chicago; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, in Norway; and the Seattle Symphony. A performer on radio and television, and at international festivals, she recorded the piano works of Norman Dello Joio on the Centaur label. For more, visit: pugetsound.edu/faculty-pages/tstambuk.

The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.

FOR TICKETS: Tickets are available online at tickets.pugetsound.edu, or at Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty and staff. The concert is free for current Puget Sound students. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the campus: pugetsound.edu/directions
For accessibility information please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3931, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility. 

Press photos of the artists can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.

For More Music Events visit the School of Music calendar.

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