The Poulenc Trio will return to Newtown by popular demand to the acoustically excellent auditorium at Edmond Town Hall, performing on Sunday, September 18, at 3 pm. The performance will serve as the 2016-17 season opener of performances sponsored by Newtown Friends of Music.The New York Times praised the Trio for its "elegant rendition" of Piazolla's Tangos. The Washington Post said the trio "does its namesake proud" in "an intriguing and beautifully played program" with "convincing elegance, near effortless lightness and grace."The Palm Beach Post praised the group's "polished loveliness" and The Palm Beach Daily News said the "potent combination" of oboe bassoon and piano had "captured the magic of chamber music" - is regularly rebroadcast on American Public Media's nationally syndicated radio program "Performance Today."Chamber Music magazine, and by The Double Reed Journal . The group was called "virtuosos of classical and contemporary chamber music" in one profile for Russian television.

The polished ensemble of piano, bassoon and oboe is widely recognized as the most active touring piano-wind chamber music group in the world, having performed in more than 45 US states and at dozens of music festivals internationally. On the program for Newtown will be works by Rossini, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky and Poulenc.

The addition of superstar David Shifrin for this one concert will be a first for the Trio, and a triumph for NFM.

In a recent review,

A recent performance in Florida - for which

The Trio has garnered positive attention in recent full-length profiles by

The Trio launched a concert series in 2004 called Music at the Museum, in which musical performances are paired with museum exhibitions, with special appearances from guest artists and curators. As part of the series, the Trio has collaborated with the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, and Hermitage State Museum in Russia. Guest artist collaborators have included violinist Hilary Hahn, the Thibaud Trio of Berlin, soprano Hyunah Yu, and clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Anthony McGill.

The Trio is active in exploring and promoting music that reflects its African, Asian, Eastern European and Jewish roots. Recent concerts have featured works by Afro-Cuban jazz great Paquito D'Rivera, Mexican-American composer Carlos Medina, Russian-American composer Nataliya Medvedovskaya and Yiddish Lexicon, an exploration of Jewish culture by composer Jakov Jakoulov.

The Trio is deeply engaged in educational outreach programs, including Pizza and Poulenc, an informal performance and residency series for younger audiences around the United States. The Trio regularly conducts master classes, with recent engagements at the University of Ohio, San Francisco State University, Florida State University, and the University of Colima in Mexico.

Irina Kaplan has served for over 20 years on the piano faculty at the Peabody Conservatory's Preparatory Division, and trained at the St Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Candlelight Concert Series in Columbia, Maryland.

Ms Kaplan has conducted master classes and workshops around the world. Her students have achieved successful placements at prestigious music schools across the country.

Additionally, Ms Kaplan has performed at the White Nights Festival in Russia, the Ravello, Amalfi Coast and Alba festivals in Italy, and San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico.

Bryan Young was the winner and finalist in competitions including the Gillet International Bassoon Competition and the ARD International Competition in Munich. THE WASHINGTON POST wrote that his playing "dances with a lightness and grace uncommon for his instrument."

Mr Young serves as principal bassoonist of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and is a former member of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis. He studied at Peabody Conservatory and Yale. He gives master classes and workshops at universities across the country, and is a recipient of the Yale Alumni Ventures Award.

Liang Wang joined The New York Philharmonic in 2006 as Principal Oboe, The Alice Tully Chair. Before that, he was principal oboe of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony; and guest principal oboe of the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras.

He is recipient of the 2014 Beijing International Music Festival Artist of the Year award.

Mr Wang gives master classes across the country, and at conservatories in Shanghai and Singapore. at the Cincinnati Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Seoul University, New York University, and the Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, and Singapore conservatories.  He is currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and New York University, and is an honorary professor at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

David Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator. He is one of only two wind players to have been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize since the award's inception in 1974.

A classical clarinetist, Mr Shifrin joined the faculty at the Yale School of Music in 1987, has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School and many other institutions.

He has played with the Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, Houston, and Denver symphonies, Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, and internationally with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Mr Shifrin is the beneficiary of one Solo Recitalists' Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the 1998 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Music Academy of the West. Early in his career, he won the top prize at both the Munich and the Geneva International Competitions.

Single tickets for the September 18 performance at Edmond Town Hall are $25 each, cash or check. They may be purchased at the box office after 2 pm the day of the concert, or purchased in advance by sending a check and a self-addressed stamped envelope to Newtown Friends of Music, PO Box 295, Newtown CT 06470; or by calling 203-426-6470. Students with ID are admitted for free. All seating is general admission.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall. The building is wheelchair-accessible, with elevator accesses to all three floors of the building.

An informal reception will follow the concert in order for patrons to mingle with the musicians and have CDs autographed.

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