Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Texas State University Trio will present music for horn, violin and piano when the ensemble performs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.
The trio includes Texas State University School of Music faculty members Dr. Lynn Ledbetter, violin; Dr. William McNally, piano; and Dr. Caroline Steiger, horn. Their program will feature Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano by György Ligeti and Horn Trio, Op. 40 by Johannes Brahms, among other selections.
The Ligeti piece was written as a tribute to Brahms’ Trio for the same instrumentation, according to trio member Steiger.
“The work shares a similar four-movement structure and borrows from traditional formal structures,” Steiger said. “However, it employs a number of interesting techniques to create an entirely modern-sounding work.”
Composed in 1865 for the natural horn, violin and piano, the Brahms work is a staple repertoire piece for this type of chamber ensemble and has “inspired many great works to be written for the trio of horn, violin and piano,” Steiger said.
Ledbetter is professor of violin and coordinator of strings at Texas State University. She has served on the music faculties of Eastern New Mexico University, the College of Saint Scholastica, and the University of Southern Mississippi. She has performed and continues to concertize throughout the southwestern and Midwestern United States as a solo-recitalist. As a chamber musician, she has toured Canada, China, Europe, Mexico, and the United States with the Duo Paradox, the Madera Trio, the Freesia Duo and the Lyrian Duo.
Steiger is a member of the Emblems Woodwind Quintet, a Michigan-based quintet focused on performing new and underrepresented works. She has also performed with the Potsdam Brass Quintet, faculty quintet-in-residence at SUNY Potsdam. In 2015, she participated in a chamber music residency at the University of Michigan with New York Philharmonic principal winds. She is a member of the Mid-Texas Symphony and the Round Rock Symphony, and she has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.
In 2013, McNally released a CD of works by Brahms, Reger and Busoni as part of the Victor Elmaleh Collection. He is the first three-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest’s New Rag Contest and performs at ragtime festivals around the country.
The concert is a presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.