MANNES COLLEGE OF MUSIC PRESENTS
THE MANNES TRIO ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2002 AT 4:30 PM

Program to feature Robert Cuckson's Piano Trio (1992)
and Ned Rorem's Spring Music for Piano Trio (1990)

(New York, NY – September 13, 2002) Mannes College of Music will present the Mannes Trio, an Ensemble-in-Residence, at Mannes on Sunday, October 27, 2002 at 4:30 p.m. at the Mannes Concert Hall, 150 West 85th Street, NYC. (Take the #1 train to 86th Street.) Admission is free. For further information, call (212) 496-8524. The program will feature Robert Cuckson's Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello (1992) and Ned Rorem's Spring Music for Piano Trio (1990).

The members of the Mannes Trio are violinist Hiroko Yajima, cellist Wilhelmina Smith, and pianist Thomas Sauer. The Mannes Trio has performed nationwide in cities including New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

Mannes faculty member Robert Cuckson's Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello (1992) was premiered in 1995 by the Yajima-Ni-MacDonald Trio in 1995. On the piece, Cuckson says, "In writing a work of this scale, one senses that it begins gradually to dream its own dreams, that it has a setting and a cast of characters. However, not being a novel, its story cannot be put into words. Rather, I note that the dramatic ebb and low of the first movement – part Fantasia, part Sonata Allegro – is followed by a somber lament for the cello in the second movement, varied with a dreamlike middle-episode, and the work is concluded by a perpetuum mobile of the stop-and-go variety. A certain flamboyance is very much part of the language of Piano-Trio writing, and affects some aspects of the form of this work. The first movement has concerto-like moments for all three instruments; and as in some concertos, the most lyrical element of the second subject does not appear until the second exposition." Born in 1942 in the U.K., Robert Cuckson grew up in Australia. He studied composition and piano in Australia, in the U.K., and the U.S., and has lived and worked in New York City at Mannes College of Music since 1974. His recent works have been performed in the U.S., Australia, the Far East, Europe and Israel. He holds a D.M.A. degree in Composition from Yale University.

ARTISTS BIOS

Hiroko Yajima, described as an "artist of real distinction" by The New York Times, has built an impressive reputation as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician. As winner of the Young Concert Artists International Competition, she has concertized extensively throughout the United States, and abroad in London's Wigmore and Purcell Halls. She has participated in many summer festivals, including Marlboro, Aspen, Bravo Colorado, and Mostly Mozart, has been a guest at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has performed on numerous Musicians from Marlboro concert tours. Ms. Yajima is a member of the Mannes Trio and, since 1989, of the Saito Kinen Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. That orchestra was featured in the millenium celebrations in Tokyo and Matsumoto, Japan. She is currently Chair of the string department at the Mannes College of Music.

Wilhelmina Smith has performed nationally and internationally as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician. Hailed by The New York Times as "winningly individual," she was a prizewinner in the 1997 Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and made her debut as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1988. She has been engaged as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall (1995), and on tours with "Musicians from Marlboro", New York Philomusica, The American Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae and Bargemusic. In addition to the Mannes Trio, Ms. Smith is a member of Music from the Copland House, a chamber group that specializes in the music of Aaron Copland and his contemporaries, and has recently performed to critical acclaim in New York's Merkin and Carnegie Halls. She is founder and Artistic Director of The Salt Bay Chamberfest (Damariscotta, Maine), and currently serves as artistic director of the Pensacola, Florida's "Classicfest".

Thomas Sauer is active as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. In addition to his work with the Mannes Trio, Mr. Sauer collaborates frequently with the renowned instrumentalists Midori and Colin Carr. Recent appearances include solo recitals at Oxford University, New York's "Sunday's on City Island" series, the Garden City Chamber Music Society, Mannes and Vassar Colleges; a series of recitals devoted to twentieth-century music with violinist Mark Steinberg at Princeton and Yale Universities; performances at the Portland, Seattle, El Paso Pro Musica and Salt Bay Chamber Music Festivals; recitals with Midori at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels; performances with the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress; and numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet. His recording with Misha Amory of two Hindemith viola sonatas is available on the Musical Heritage Society label, and a recording of five Haydn piano sonatas is forthcoming for Musicians Showcase Recordings. Mr. Sauer serves as Artistic Director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute, a week-long summer program devoted to the chamber music of Beethoven, and is Co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Quad Cities, a performing organization based in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa. A member of the piano faculty of the Mannes College since 1993, Mr. Sauer is also Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Vassar College.

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Mannes College of Music, founded in 1916, is one of the world's major conservatories of music. A division of New School University, Mannes offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as a Professional Studies Diploma program. Notable alumni from Mannes include soprano Frederica von Stade, pianists Murray Perahia and Richard Goode, and conductors Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, JoAnn Falletta and Julius Rudel. Joel Lester is Dean of the College. For further information on Mannes, call (212) 580-0210 or go to the Web site at www.mannes.edu

New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is a New York City university comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and Eugene Lang College and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, Jazz and Contemporary Music Program, and Actors Studio Drama School. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call 877-528-3321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu