Neave Trio Performs Music By Ravel and Tailleferre at The Bard Music Festival

On Saturday, August 7 and Sunday, August 8, 2021 at 1pm, the Boston-based Neave Trio will perform on two concerts presented as part of Bard Music Festival's 12-concert series, Nadia Boulanger and Her World. The concerts will be performed for a live audience at the Fisher Center's LUMA Theater at Bard College (Manor Ave.) and livestreamed online.

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 31st season with an exploration of the life and work of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), the pioneering Parisian pedagogue, composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and indomitable personality who shaped more than a generation of American musicians. Through a series of themed concert programs, lectures, and panel discussions, Nadia Boulanger and Her World pays tribute to one of the most important female figures in the history of classical music.

On Program Two, "Contemporaries and Colleagues," August 7 at 1pm, Neave Trio will perform Ravel's Piano Trio on a concert which traces Nadia Boulanger's early musical relationships. The program couples songs she wrote in her teens with chamber works by then-preeminent Debussy, her composition teacher Fauré, and renowned classmates George Enescu and Ravel. Ravel composed his only piano trio after nearly six years of sketching and planning. But following the beginning of World War I in 1914, Ravel was motivated to quickly complete the work before enlisting in the French army. In a letter to Igor Stravinsky, he wrote, "The idea that I should be leaving at once made me get through five months' work in five weeks! My Trio is finished." Complete program and ticket information: https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/boulanger-p2/

On August 8 at 1pm, Program Four, "The Epitome of Chic: Paris Between the Wars," offers a snapshot of post-World War I era through vocal and chamber works by both Boulanger sisters and a host of their fellow Parisians. Neave Trio will perform Tailleferre's Piano Trio. Tailleferre was the sole woman composer of Les Six. She composed her melodically captivating and boldly rhythmic trio between 1916-17, but did not publish the work until after she revisited it 60 years later around 1978. Complete program and ticket information: https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/boulanger-p4/

Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio - violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura - has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. WQXR explains, "'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The Boston Musical Intelligencer reports, "it is inconceivable that they will not soon be among the busiest chamber ensembles going," and "their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier."

Neave has performed at many esteemed concert series and at festivals worldwide, including Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 92nd Street Y, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Chamber Music Series (United Kingdom), and the Samoylov and Rimsky Korsakow Museums' Chamber Music Series in St. Petersburg (Russia). The Trio has held residency positions at Brown University, University of Virginia, San Diego State University as the first ever Fisch/Axelrod Trio-in-Residence, and the Banff Centre (Canada), among many other institutions. Neave Trio was also in residence at the MIT School of Architecture and Design in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Richard Colton. In the fall of 2017, the Trio joined the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College as Alumni Artists, Faculty Ensemble in Residence.

Neave Trio strives to champion new works by living composers and reach wider audiences through innovative concert presentations, regularly collaborating with artists of all mediums. These collaborations include D-Cell: an Exhibition & Durational Performance, conceived and directed by multi-disciplinary visual artist David Michalek; as well as performances with the Blythe Barton Dance Company; with dance collective BodySonnet; with projection designer Ryan Brady; in the interactive concert series "STEIN2.0," with composer Amanuel Zarzowski; in Klee Musings by acclaimed American composer Augusta Read Thomas, which was premiered by Neave; in the premiere of Eric Nathan's Missing Words V, sponsored by Coretet; in Leah Read's Cloud Burst for piano trio and electronics; in Dale Trumbore's Another Chance; and in a music video by filmmaker Amanda Alvarez Díaz of Astor Piazzolla's "Otoño Porteño."

Gramophone described Neave Trio's latest album Her Voice as, "a splendid introduction to these three pioneering female composers," while The Guardian describes the three compositions by Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke, and Louise Farrenc as, "distinctive and distinguished chamber works." Neave Trio's other critically acclaimed recordings include Celebrating Piazzolla (Azica Records, 2018), which features mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski; French Moments (Chandos Records, 2018); and its debut album, American Moments (Chandos Records, 2016).

During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the Neave Trio continued to find meaningful ways to perform safely. The Trio has performed virtual concerts for The Violin Channel's "Living Room Live" series, the "Notes of Hope: Music for the Frontline" series, and for Longy School of Music of Bard College's Virtual Benefit. Other recent and upcoming livestream concerts include performances presented by the Asheville Chamber Music Series and the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at University of Idaho. Recent outdoor, socially distanced concerts include performances at PS21 in Chatham, NY; the Walnut Hill School's "Summer of Art, Six Feet Apart" festival; and Newport Music Festival.

For more information, visit www.neavetrio.com.

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