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The Verdehr TrioAn acknowledged leader in the field of new music, the Verdehr Trio for over thirty years has concentrated on molding and defining the personality of the violin-clarinet-piano trio. The Trio has created a large repertoire by commissioning some 200 new works from some of the world's most prominent and exciting composers--known and unknown, young and old, from this country and abroad. The Verdehr Trio has performed throughout the world: in seventeen European countries, the former Soviet Union, in South and Central America as well as in Asia, Australia and in all 50 of the United States. Among major concert halls where the Trio has appeared are Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Vienna's Brahmssaal, Sydney Opera House, London's Wigmore Hall, Auditorio de Madrid, Dvorak Hall in Prague, IRCAM Centre in Paris and Leningrad's Philharmonic Chamber Hall. The Trio has also played at various international festivals--the Spoleto Festival, Prague Spring Festival, the Vienna Spring Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the Grand Teton Music Festival. The Trio has received a Creative Programming Award from Chamber Music America. To complement its commissioning efforts the Verdehr Trio has embarked upon a project of making CD recordings of the new works created for the Trio: l8 Volumes in The Making of a Medium CD Series on Crystal Records. A second parallel project is The Making of a Medium Video Series, consisting of 10 half-hour programs with interviews and discussions by both composers and performers as well as a complete performance of each work. The third project, The Making of a Medium Music Publishing Series, has been inaugurated in cooperation with the MSU Press to help disseminate the repertoire as well as information about the trio’s CD recordings and videos (www.msu.edu/unit/msupress ). The Verdehr Trio is in residence at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. An article about the Trio appears in the new Groves Dictionary of Music. WALTER VERDEHR was born in Gottschee, Yugoslavia and received his first violin instruction at the Conservatory of Music in Graz, Austria. A student at the Juilliard School, he was the first violinist to receive the doctorate there and as a Fulbright Scholar, he studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. He has taught at the International Congress of Strings faculty and at Michigan State University where he is Professor of Music. He has made numerous appearances as soloist with orchestras (Houston Symphony, orchestras in Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, California, Czechoslovakia and Turkey) and in solo and chamber music recitals in the U.S. and Europe. The London Times wrote that "his performance was sweeping and vigorous". From the Vienna Express : "he is a perfect violinist with beautiful blossoming tone and noble musicality." He has served on the juries for the Naumberg and Prague Spring International violin competitions and has made solo recordings for Golden Crest Records and NET-TV. He recently was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award by the Arts and Letters College. His students teach in universities and perform in orchestras throughout the US and abroad. He performs on the ex “Stephens-Verdehr” Stradivarius of 1690. ELSA LUDEWIG-VERDEHR studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and at the Eastman School where she received a Performer's Certificate and the DMA degree. She has performed, lectured and given master classes at numerous National and International Clarinet Congresses and for several years was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festivals and touring groups. She has appeared frequently in the U.S., Canada and abroad as a recitalist, clinician and soloist with orchestras and as principal clarinetist of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra. As a member of the Richards Wind Quintet, she played in more than half of the United States, Canada and at the White House. She was recently awarded a Distinguished Faculty Professorship at Michigan State University and her students occupy numerous university and orchestral positions throughout the US and abroad. She has solo recordings on Grenadilla and Mark labels. Her playing has been called "distinguished and musical" by the NY Times. The Boston Globe noted her "musical tone and elegant sense of phrasing" while the Chicago Tribune wrote of her "virtuosity of a most compelling sort". She recently was awarded honorary membership in the International Clarinet Society for her “lifetime achievements as a performer and teacher”. SILVIA ROEDERER was born in Argentina, but her musical training began in the U.S.A. After graduating from the Eastman School with high honors, she completed her doctoral degree as a student of John Perry at the University of Southern California. A winner of several important competitions, including the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, she has also appeared as soloist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony Orchestra. Her Los Angeles debut was an acclaimed recital at the prestigious Ambassador Auditorium, where her "control, introspective poise, and elegantly pointed phrases" drew special praise from the Los Angeles Times. She recently performed for the Myra Hess Series in Chicago. As chamber musician, she has appeared in mainland China and Hong Kong, in Austria, London, Paris, Warsaw, Moscow, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Currently Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, she lives in Kalamazoo with her husband and three children.
"The Making of a Medium" All on Crystal RecordsVol. 1: Works of Mozart, Hovhaness, Frescobaldi, Pasatieri and Bartok, CD 741 To be released in 2008-9Vol. 18: Music from Down Under: Works of Sculthorpe, Mills, Conyngham, Knehans and Marshall Other Recordings by the Verdehr TrioLP Works by Jere Hutcheson and Thomas Christian David, S644, Crystal Records For more information, please visit www.verdehr.com. This presentation is supported by the Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Iowa Arts Council, General Mills Foundation, and Land O’Lakes Foundation.
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