Monumental Piano Trios
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:46 |
| 2. | Mendelssohn Hensel: Trio in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 11 | 00:28:39 |
| 3. | Ravel: Trio in A minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello | 00:29:04 |
| 4. | Closing | 00:00:30 |
The piano trio gained popularity amongst composers in the 18th century with Haydn composing around 40 of them and composers like Mozart and Beethoven following suit as the instrumentation allowed perfect flexibility for salon performances. Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn)’s Piano Trio premiered in 1847 at one of her Sunday salons to celebrate her sister, Rebecka’s birthday. Though sharing a key with her brother Felix’s earlier piano trio, Hensel’s trio uses a mostly chromatic melody alluding to her sister’s vocal talent as well as her fondness for the works of Frédéric Chopin. By the time Maurice Ravel composed his Trio in A minor, he had established a successful career and become a well-known public figure. This trio has come to be a classic of the literature and showcases an imagination and complexity unique to Ravel and this trio.
PROGRAM
|
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847) |
Trio in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 11 (1847) Michael Stephen Brown, piano; James Thompson, violin; Paul Watkins, cello |
|
Maurice Ravel (1875–1912) |
Trio in A minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1914) Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Mihai Marica, cello |
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| Streaming live | {{ViewModel.StreamingOn.date}}, {{ViewModel.StreamingOn.time}} |
| Off-sale on | {{ViewModel.OffSaleDate.date}}, {{ViewModel.OffSaleDate.time}} |
| Available on-demand until | {{ViewModel.AvailableUntil.date}}, {{ViewModel.AvailableUntil.time}} |
{{ViewModel.BuySubscription.prompt}}
Michael Stephen Brown
James Thompson
Paul Watkins
Erin Keefe
Mihai Marica
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” The 2026 Andrew Wolf Award Winner and a recent fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo, he is also a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Brown performs internationally and receives commissions from orchestras, soloists, and festivals around the world. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall for CMS, and collaborations with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann. He is currently composing The Carnival of Endangered Wonders, a CMS-led project co-presented by a consortium of US presenters. His first album devoted entirely to his music, Twelve Blocks, will be released in February 2026. Brown is also composing the score for Angeline Gragasin’s upcoming film Look But Don’t Touch and lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
Violinist/violist James Thompson enjoys a multifaceted career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, educator, and lecturer. He is a recent graduate of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. Thompson performs regularly for chamber music organizations across the country, and he serves as the director of Music@Menlo’s annual winter residency in California. Solo engagements include appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Asheville Symphony, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the Cleveland Pops orchestra. He currently serves as concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, and the Caroga Arts Ensemble. As a guest artist, he has recently led classes for the Eastman School of Music and the Music Institute of Chicago, among others. Thompson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and artist diploma degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music; his primary teachers include Jaime Laredo, William Preucil, and Paul Kantor.
Paul Watkins enjoys a varied and distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. The cellist of the Emerson String Quartet from 2013 until its disbanding in 2023, he is also the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and in 2019 he was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yale School of Music. He has performed as concerto soloist with prestigious orchestras throughout the world. A dedicated chamber musician, he was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 until 2013 and is a regular guest artist at CMS. Watkins has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. His extensive discography as a cellist includes more than 70 recordings, and his first recording as a conductor, of the Britten and Berg violin concertos with Daniel Hope, received a Grammy nomination.
American violinist Erin Keefe is the Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and joined the violin faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in the fall of 2022. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Pro Musicis International Award as well as numerous international competitions, she has appeared as soloist in recent seasons with the Minnesota Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic and the Gottingen Symphony and has given recitals throughout the United States, Austria, Italy, Germany, Korea, Poland, Finland, Japan and Denmark.
An avid chamber musician, she has been a frequent artist with CMS since 2005 and has been featured on Live from Lincoln Center. She is a member of Accordo, a string ensemble composed of present and former principal string players of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra and has performed frequently with the Brooklyn and Boston Chamber Music Societies.
Ms. Keefe has collaborated with many leading artists including the Emerson String Quartet, Edgar Meyer, Gary Hoffman, David Finckel, Wu Han, Richard Goode, Augustin Hadelich, James Ehnes, Roberto and Andrés Díaz, Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman, and Leon Fleisher. Her festival appearances have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, La Jolla Summerfest, Mainly Mozart, Music Academy of the West, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia and the Seattle, OK Mozart, Mimir, Bravo! Vail Valley, Colorado College, Skaneateles, Salt Bay, Music in the Vineyards, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals.
As a guest concertmaster, Ms. Keefe has appeared in recent seasons with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Keefe earned a master’s degree from the Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, Brian Lewis, and Teri Einfeldt. She performs on a Nicolò Gagliano violin from 1732.
Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a first-prize winner of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, as well as the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer. He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. He recently joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.