Eliot Trio in concert Jan. 31

Washington University’s Eliot Trio will perform music of Robert Schumann, Antonín Dvořák and Germaine Tailleferre at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31, in Holmes Lounge.

Tickets are $10, or $5 for seniors and Washington University faculty and staff. Student admission is free. For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.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 cellist Bjorn Ranheim, also with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Named for Washington University founder William Greenleaf Eliot, the group was established by Carlin in the early 1990s and is dedicated to performing masterworks of the piano trio literature. It typically presents one concert each year.

Program

The program will open with “Piano Trio” by Tailleferre (1892-1983), the only female member of Les Six, an influential group of French composers that rose to prominence in the wake of World War I. Though much of her music remained unpublished until recent years, Tailleferre was active as a composer for more than seven decades and created an extensive body of work, ranging from serious concert pieces to children’s songs and film and television scores.

“Piano Trio” originally was written in 1916-17 but was revised in 1978, when Tailleferre was in her 80s. The piece is characterized by rhythmic and spontaneous fast movements and by the lovely harmonies of its slow movement, which bears similarities to 12-bar blues.

Also on the program will be “Trio opus 63 in D minor” by Schumann (1810-56). The program will conclude with “Trio opus 65 in F minor” by Dvořák (1841-1904).

Eliot Trio

Carlin has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world and with conductors such as Roger Norrington, Nicholas McGegan and Leonard Slatkin. In the past several years, he has performed Beethoven’s “Triple” concerto with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque, the period-instrument orchestra.

He has played on French, Swedish, Chinese and German national television and radio and, in recent years, has given concerts in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and England. In 1992-93, he performed the cycle of Schubert’s complete keyboard sonatas on fortepiano in both St. Louis and New York.

Halen — a 2002 recipient of the Saint Louis Arts and Entertainment award for excellence — 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 also coordinates a weeklong summer festival of chamber music performance and training for aspiring artists. He plays a violin made by Johannes Baptiste Guadagnini in Milan in 1753.

Ranheim joined the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and also holds the principal chair of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder. He previously served as associate principal cello of the Fort Worth Symphony and has performed and toured with the orchestras of Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore.

He also has served as principal and assistant principal cello with the New World Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Aspen Festival Orchestra and Quebec City’s critically acclaimed Le Violons du Roy. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Ranheim also has performed world-premiere works by Stephen Paulus, Paul Schoenfield and Steven Heitzig.