Newtown Friends of Music will present Trio Con Brio Copenhagen in a concert performance on Sunday, October 27. The 3 pm concert will include special guest Ettore Causa, professor of viola at Yale University.

Korean sisters Soo-Jin (violinist) and Soo-Kyung (cellist) Hong along with Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer created Trio Con Brio Copenhagen in Vienna in 1999. The sisters had played together since childhood; and Jens Elvekjaer and Soo-Kyung Hong, now married, had played piano and cello duos together for years. The combination results in profound musicianship and a cross-cultural uniqueness and intensity to all their performances.

“The strong personal bonds among the three of us greatly affect the way we conceive music together,” said Mr Elvekjaer. “We can be one hundred percent honest with each other in rehearsal and performance, and our different cultural backgrounds have provided an unusual perspective that shapes all that we do. It is a process of thinking without boundaries, cultural or otherwise, while staying within the great traditions that the music needs.”

Trio con Brio Copenhagen has earned major awards following competitions around the world, including Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (2005) and Germany’s ARD-Munich Competition (2002).

Critics have praised the trio for its “sparkling joie de vivre” and “magic dialogue”; a review of its performance at the Salzburg Mozarteum stated,  “They cast a spell over their audience...so alive, so musical...ravishing.”

They last appeared on the Newtown stage in November 2008, when The Newtown Bee enthused: “dazzling playing of another kind was displayed in the encore …. It had all the speed and delicacy and sprightliness that anyone could ask for, and it was the perfect way to send a happy audience out into the evening.”

The program for October 27 will include a Trio in C Major by Joseph Haydn, the Mendelssohn Piano Trio Opus 66, and Antonin Dvorák’s Piano Quartet, Opus 87. 

Italian-born violist Ettore Causa, a good friend of the trio and professor of viola at Yale School of Music, will join Trio Con Brio for the Dvorák work. Awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for “the most beautiful sound” at the Lionel Tertis International Viola competition in England, he has been praised for his artistry, intelligence and musicianship. Mr Causa has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world. 

He performs on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudière in 2003.

Tickets are $25, cash or check only. Students K-12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. College students with a valid Student ID will also be admitted for free.

Tickets may be reserved by calling 203-426-6470. Remaining tickets will also be sold at the Edmond Town Hall box office beginning at 2 pm Sunday afternoon.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall and the facility is handicap accessible. An informal reception following the concert will offer ticket holder the opportunity to meet and mingle with the musicians.