Amelia Piano Trio To Open

Newtown Friends Of Music Season

As soon as school buses roam again on Newtown roads and the Newtown Labor Day Parade fades into memory, Newtown Friends of Music are ready to start their musical season. The season running 2006-07 will be the 29th consecutive season of performances sponsored by the all-volunteer organization.

Opening this year’s musical treasures will be the dynamic Amelia Piano Trio. The group will grace the stage at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, September 17, at 3 pm.

Fresh from their triumphant concert at Vermont Mozart Festival and a recent appearance and lengthy interview on NPR’s “Performance Today,” the Amelia Piano Trio has established a glowing international reputation. Called “remarkable” by Strings and “exemplary” by The Strad, the group has quickly become one of its generation’s most sought after ensembles. In its short history (they formed in 1997) the Amelia has already been Grand Prize winner at Yellow Springs National Competition and recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

In 2003 the trio was invited by National Public Radio to be the Young Ensemble in Residence. An exciting week of live concerts and interviews put the Amelia firmly in the foreground of classical music in America, reaching an estimated 1.5 million listeners.

The Amelia Piano Trio is actively involved in arts education and dedicates a substantial amount of time to educational projects, master classes, and coaching children and adults. Members are violinist Anthea Kreston, cellist Jason Duckles and pianist Rieko Aizawa, and all three are professors at Hartt School of Music and Connecticut College.

Piano trios appeal to the greatest number of people because of the uniquely sensual interaction between the strings and the piano. For their performance in Newtown, The Amelia Piano Trio has chosen a program of works by Haydn, Dvorak and Mendelssohn.

The Knabe Concert Grand, which was put in place by Mary Elizabeth Hawley when she had Edmond Town Hall built, was recently completely furbished. Its tone is mellow, warm and supportive of the other instruments being played.

An informal reception will follow the performance, as has become tradition for NFoM concerts.

Tickets for either the entire season or for this one particular concert can be obtained by calling 426-6470 or visiting NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org, where there is an order from. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for senior citizens. Children are always admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket holding adult.

Edmond Town Hall is at 45 Main Street (Route 25) in Newtown. Parking is free, with dozens of spaces available behind the brick building. The building itself is fully equipped for handicap access.