The UMBC Department of Music wishes to thank UMBC faculty and staff for their extraordinary commitment to the campus to begin the Thanksgiving holiday season at this free concert in the beautiful new concert hall!

“Individually excellent, they are even more impressive together,” wrote the Gazzetta di Mantova after a concert by the Italian-SwissTrio des Alpes, thereby describing one of this Trio’s essential qualities: three independent, all-round successful personalities meeting as a trio. What attracts them is the quintessence of chamber music: dialogue, a shared sound and the blending of three instruments into a single whole.

In this special “Rush Hour” concert, the Trio will be joined by UMBC faculty E. Michael Richards (clarinet), Airi Yoshioka (violin), and Christian Tremblay (violin) in performances of the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 by Johannes Brahms, and the Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, by Antonín Dvořák.

Mirjam Tschopp, who gave her debut as a soloist aged 13, is equally successful on the violin and the viola, appearing as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the WDR Symphonieorchester Köln under Semyon Bychkov and in chamber music with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Mandelring Quartet, among others. Claude Hauri has made his name as solo cellist of several excellent groups such as the Ensemble Nuovo Contrappunto in Florence and the Ensemble Algoritmo in Rome, and as a performer of new music. He has premiered a multitude of works, several dedicated to him, by important composers. Corrado Greco’s versatility adds further impetus to the Trio des Alpes. Besides performing with such personalities as Bruno Canino ormembers of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he is professor of musical communication and multimedia in Varese, where he also directs the Università dell’Insubria concert series.

This event is supported in part by Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council.

Admission is free.