The Villager Voice ~ from Alan
I’m in a musical mood this morning. The birds outside my window sang me awake this morning; I heard a splendid rendition of Schumann’s Spring Symphony on the way into work; and I’m really excited about the Essex Piano Trio’s concert in our sanctuary Sunday afternoon.
First, to answer a question I’ve heard more than once as we began planning this concert, a piano trio is not three pianos playing together; it is a trio in which one of the instruments is a piano – the other two are violin and cello. Two of the instrumentalists are friends of mine. Ashley Offret (violin) and I shared the principal second violin stand in the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years; she also is a Suzuki violin instructor, and her students regularly serenaded concertgoers before each NSPO concert. It was a warm reminder of the years my own daughters studied the Suzuki method. Cellist David Cabral was also a member of the NSPO for a number of years, and plays a variety of instruments; these days he plays the pipe in a fife and drum corps. Beverly Soll is a pianist and a music professor at Salem State University. I had not met Beverly until about two weeks ago when I went up to Massachusetts to rehearse with the trio – she is a gifted musician.
Proceeds from Sunday’s performance (suggested donation of $10) will provide summer camp scholarships for Chester youth. If you watched “20 Towns in 20 Days” on Tuesday you saw that WFSB made a $1000 donation to Camp Hazen; Chester Rotary also provides funds for summer campers; still, in a conversation I had with folks at Town Hall, I learned that there is still a considerable need for assistance, and we agreed that this would be the perfect benefit for a Spring concert.
I hope to see you this Sunday afternoon at 3:00. It promises to be a delightful experience.