Monumental Piano Trios
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:46 |
| 2. | Mendelssohn Hensel: Trio in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 11 | 00:28:39 |
| 3. | Ravel: Trio in A minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello | 00:29:04 |
| 4. | Closing | 00:00:30 |
The piano trio gained popularity amongst composers in the 18th century with Haydn composing around 40 of them and composers like Mozart and Beethoven following suit as the instrumentation allowed perfect flexibility for salon performances. Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn)’s Piano Trio premiered in 1847 at one of her Sunday salons to celebrate her sister, Rebecka’s birthday. Though sharing a key with her brother Felix’s earlier piano trio, Hensel’s trio uses a mostly chromatic melody alluding to her sister’s vocal talent as well as her fondness for the works of Frédéric Chopin. By the time Maurice Ravel composed his Trio in A minor, he had established a successful career and become a well-known public figure. This trio has come to be a classic of the literature and showcases an imagination and complexity unique to Ravel and this trio.
PROGRAM
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Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847) |
Trio in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 11 (1847) Michael Stephen Brown, piano; James Thompson, violin; Paul Watkins, cello |
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Maurice Ravel (1875–1912) |
Trio in A minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1914) Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Mihai Marica, cello |
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Michael Stephen Brown
James Thompson
Paul Watkins
Mihai Marica
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” He has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, Phoenix Symphony, and Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum, and performs at major festivals worldwide. The recipient of the 2026 Andrew Wolf Award, Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he was recently in residence at MacDowell and Yaddo. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall with CMS and collaborations with longtime artistic partner Nicholas Canellakis, as well as Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann. His first album devoted entirely to his own music, Twelve Blocks, was released in 2026 to critical acclaim. Current projects include The Carnival of Endangered Wonders and the score for Angeline Gragasin’s film Look But Don’t Touch. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Brown lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
Violinist/violist James Thompson enjoys a multifaceted career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, educator, and lecturer. He is a recent graduate of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. Thompson performs regularly for chamber music organizations across the country, and he serves as the director of Music@Menlo’s annual winter residency in California. Solo engagements include appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Asheville Symphony, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the Cleveland Pops orchestra. He currently serves as concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, and the Caroga Arts Ensemble. As a guest artist, he has recently led classes for the Eastman School of Music and the Music Institute of Chicago, among others. Thompson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and artist diploma degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music; his primary teachers include Jaime Laredo, William Preucil, and Paul Kantor.
Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. The cellist of the Emerson String Quartet from 2013 until its disbanding in 2023, he was also Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival from 2014 to 2026, and in 2019 was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yale School of Music. He has performed as soloist with prestigious orchestras worldwide. A dedicated chamber musician, he was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 until 2013 and appears regularly at CMS. Watkins has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. His extensive discography as a cellist includes more than 70 recordings, and his first recording as a conductor, of the Britten and Berg violin concertos with Daniel Hope, received a Grammy nomination. His recent recording of the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Alessio Bax was Gramophone’s June 2026 Recording of the Month.
Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a first-prize winner of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, as well as the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer. He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. He recently joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.