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Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series presents:
The Peabody Trio

Sunday, Febuary 13, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
at the Gualala Arts Center
Buy tickets
online

The Peabody Trio
The Peabody Trio
Violaine Melançon, violin
Natasha Brofsky, cello
Seth Knopp, piano
Gualala Arts will host the Peabody Trio on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 4:00 p.m.

Since winning the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1989, the Peabody Trio has established itself as an important presence in the chamber music world as vivid interpreters of the classics of the repertoire, advocates for new music, and dedicated teachers and mentors to a generation of young musicians.

The Peabody Trio gave its New York debut in 1990 at Alice Tully Hall and has since performed in the most important chamber music series in North America, including New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Internationally, they tour frequently in England, making repeat appearances at London's Wigmore Hall, and in Japan and Israel. Their reputation as champions of new music garnered them an invitation to the first Biennale for contemporary music, Tempus Fugit, in Tel Aviv.

Festivals including Tanglewood, Skaneateles, Cape and Islands, and Rockport have played home to their summer performances. Their radio broadcasts include performances on Saint Paul Sunday Morning, NPR's Performance Today, Morning Pro Musica, CBC, Radio-Canada, WGBH in Boston, and WQXR in New York. The Peabody Trio collaborates frequently with such eminent artists as clarinetist Charles Neidich, violists Roger Tapping and Maria Lambros, soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and actor Andre De Shields. Working with Walter van Dyck and Elizabeth Mansfield, the Peabody Trio is at the forefront of chamber music theater with a series of innovative, collaborative projects involving piano trio and actor.

The Peabody Trio currently serves as the resident faculty ensemble of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, a position they have held since 1989. They are frequently asked to perform educational residencies for chamber music organizations and have served as visiting professors at universities and conservatories both in the United States and abroad. They spend summers as ensemble-in-residence at the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival in Putney, Vermont.

More information at peabodytrio.org.

Violinist Violaine Melançon, is from Quebec, Canada and after receiving First Prize in violin at the Conservatoire de Musique she continued her studies with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Isadore Tinkleman at the San Francisco Conservatory. While at Curtis, she was a member of the Nisaika Quartet, prize winner of the 8th International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. Ms. Melançon is also the recipient of many awards for solo performance including the 1984 Prix d'Europe. Since then, her activities as a chamber musician, soloist with orchestras, and teacher have taken her to many major Canadian and American music centers, Europe, the Middle East, and Japan.

Cellist Natasha Brofsky has enjoyed a career in both the United States and Europe. In addition to her work with the Peabody Trio, Ms. Brofsky has performed as guest with numerous ensembles, including the Takács, Prazak, Norwegian, Borromeo, Jupiter and Ying Quartets. During nearly a decade in Europe, Ms. Brofsky held principal positions in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under Iona Brown. In addition she was a member of the Serapion Ensemble, performing with them in Germany and Austria, and the string trio, Opus 3, which performed throughout Norway. She recorded Olav Anton Thommessen's concerto for cello and winds for Aurora Records and was a regular participant at Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England.

A sought after teacher, Ms. Brofsky joined the cello faculty of the New England Conservatory in 2004 and serves as assistant chair of strings at the school. Since 2001, she has been on the faculty at the Yellow Barn Festival in Vermont. She was previously on the faculty of the Barratt-Due Musikk Institutt in Oslo Norway and she has given master classes at many colleges and conservatories in the US and abroad, including for El Sistema in Venezuela in 2008.

Pianist Seth Knopp is a founding member of the Peabody Trio and serves on the piano and chamber music faculties of the Peabody Conservatory where the trio has been ensemble-in-residence since 1987. In 2000 he was named Artistic Director of the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival, an international gathering of artists who meet each summer to explore the vast riches of the chamber music repertoire. Knopp studied at the New England Conservatory with Leonard Shure, at the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with Nathan Schwartz, and with Leon Fleisher.

In 1983, Mr. Knopp met violinist Violaine Melançon forming the Knopp-Melançon Duo, an artistic collaboration which would eventually expand to become the Peabody Trio. In 1987, as a result of having been appointed USIA Artistic Ambassadors, the duo toured abroad extensively and made their Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center. Since that time, this husband and wife team has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Egypt. Seth Knopp's solo and chamber music performances can be heard on the Albany Records, Analekta, Artek, CRI, Koch and New World Records labels.


Tickets are $25 advance; $5 more day of concert (buy your tickets early!). Children and young people ages 7 through 17 are admitted free.

For advance purchase, go to Brown Paper Tickets or call them at 800-838-3006.
To purchase in person, visit the Gualala Arts Center or Dolphin Gallery in Gualala.


Gualala Arts 50th anniversary logo

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Join us in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Gualala Arts, 1961 - 2011

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.