Washington University’s Eliot Trio in concert April 22

Washington University’s Eliot Trio will perform piano trios by Franz Joseph Haydn, Camille Saint-Saëns and Johannes Brahms at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22, in the auditorium of Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering.

Tickets are $15, or $10 for seniors and Washington University faculty and staff. Student admission is free. Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543; through all MetroTix outlets; and at the door.

Whitaker Hall is located on the university’s Danforth Campus, at the intersection of Forest Park Parkway and Hoyt Drive. For more information, call (314) 935-4841 or email staylor@wustl.edu.

The Eliot Trio consists of Seth Carlin, professor of music and director of the piano program in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences; violinist David Halen, concertmaster for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; and Daniel Lee, principal cellist for the symphony orchestra. Founded by Carlin in the early 1990s, the group is named for William Greenleaf Eliot, the founder of Washington University, and is dedicated to performing masterworks of the piano trio literature. It typically presents one concert each year.

The April 22 program will open with Piano Trio no. 40 in F-sharp minor by Haydn (1732-1809). Written during the composer’s “London period” of the early 1790s, this minor-key trio — dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter, a wealthy heiress with whom Haydn had an affair — is notable for its sense of private emotion, especially in its introspective second movement.

The program continues with Piano Trio in F Major, op. 18, by Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). The popular French composer, teacher and organist is perhaps best known for his Carnival of the Animals for two pianos and orchestra, “Organ” Symphony and opera Samson et Dalila. This trio, written in 1863, is joyous in character but also distinctive for its subtleties, which place it in sharp contrast to the composer’s larger, weightier works of the period.

Concluding the program is Piano Trio no. 2 in C Major, op 87, by Brahms (1833-1897). Composed between 1880-82 in Bad Ischl — festive summer home to the Habsburg emporer — this sizable work was written at a time when Brahms’ attention to works for piano, his own instrument, was at its peak. It closely followed the premiere of his monumental Second Piano Concerto (1881), a masterpiece of the genre, but also features lighter touches, including waltz-like passages that may have been inspired by Brahms’ contact at the time with Johann Strauss, Jr.

Carlin has performed with orchestras around the world and with conductors such as Nicholas McGegan, Leonard Slatkin and Roger Norrington. He has appeared in recital at major international festivals and with Pinchas Zukerman, Anner Bylsma and Malcolm Bilson, among others. In 1991-92 Carlin performed the complete Schubert fortepiano sonatas in New York City — concerts that were broadcast nationally on National Public Radio. More recently he performed as soloist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto as well as with San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque, the period-instrument orchestra.

Halen has been with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and was appointed concertmaster in 1995. He frequently appears as a soloist, both with the symphony orchestra and in performance around the country, and often teams with Carlin for local chamber concerts. As co-founder and artistic director of the Innsbrook Institute, at Innsbrook, MO, Halen coordinates a weeklong summer festival of chamber music performance and training for aspiring artists. He plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin made in Milan in 1763.

Lee, who was named the symphony orchestra’s principal cellist in 2005, has performed with ensembles around the world and previously served as principal cello for the San Diego Symphony. A protégé of Mstislav Rostropovich, who viewed him as a prodigy, Lee graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and also studied in the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Artist Diploma Program. Over the years he has collaborated with such leading conductors as Jahja Ling, JoAnn Falleta, Zdenek Macal, Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Gerard Schwarz.