Allegheny Trio Presents 'Schumann the Romantic' February 22

SALISBURY, MD---Guest mezzo soprano Christina Carr joins the Allegheny Trio in concert 7 p.m. Sunday, February 22, in the Great Hall of Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall.

The program features two major works by Robert Schumann. Liederkreis, Op. 39, is a set of songs written in 1840 based on poems by Joseph von Eichendorff which Schumann described as his “most romantic music ever.” Piano Trio No. 1, written in 1847 and described by the composer as a “time of gloomy moods,” is idiosyncratic and multifaceted and considered one of the definitive piano trios of the period.

Comprised of cellist Jeffrey Schoyen, violinist Sachiho Murasugi and pianist Ernest Baretta, the trio is named for the Allegheny River, which flows through the Pittsburgh area where the musicians originally played together. They reunited as a trio upon moving to the Eastern Shore.

Conductor and music director of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the Salisbury Youth Orchestra, Schoyen teaches cello and bass at SU.  He has given concerts throughout the United States, Germany, Mexico and Spain, and received a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant to study in London with William Pleeth. He is also a Tanglewood Gustav Golden Award recipient. Schoyen honed his cello skills at the New England Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Mellon University, before earning his D.M.A. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Murasugi has performed extensively as a professional orchestral and chamber musician. She has been concertmaster of the Sorg Opera Orchestra in Ohio and the Filarmonic del Bajio in Mexico. She also has been a member of the West Virginia Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and Springfield Symphony. She received the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant in chamber music and performed a recital at Museo del Prado in Madrid that was broadcast on Radio Nacional de Espana. Holding a D.M.A. from Ohio State University, she is concertmaster for the SSO.

A successful soloist and chamber musician, Barretta has performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada. A member of the piano faculty at Juilliard School of Music, he recently appeared at the Seoul Music Festival and Academy in South Korea. A collaborative artist, he has played with such internationally recognized musicians as baritone Christopher Robertson and trumpeter Terry Everson. He studied at Oberlin Conservatory and earned a D.M.A. from Peabody Conservatory.

Hailed by The New York Times as a “show stealer,” Carr has performed with operatic companies throughout the United States in roles including Amneris (Aida) and Isolde (Tristan and Isolde). Additional roles have included Venus (Tannhäuser), Kundry (Parsifal), and Fricka and Schwertleite (Die Walküre). A first-prize winner in the New York Vocal Artists competition, a MacAllister Award finalist and a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, she has soloed at Alice Tully Hall. She also created the role of Jane Gordon in the world premiere of Mollicone’s Gabriel’s Daughter.

Sponsored by the Department of Music, admission is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6385 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.