Archduke Trio + more! Concert February 26 at Laidlaw!

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Posted on February 19, 2015 by Keith Bohnet

Keith Bohnet

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On February 26, 2015 at 7:30 p.m., Mobile's own Archduke Trio and guest musicians will perform a Chamber Music Recital on USA's Musical Arts Concert Series. The Archduke Trio (named for Archduke Rudolph of Austria) is composed of violinist Enen Yu, cellist Guo-Sheng Huang and pianist Robert Holm, and they will welcome guest violist Rudolf Haken and violinist Gosia Leska to this performance. The "Archduke +Rudolf Trio" will present quartets by Mahler and Faure, and then Haken's own "Variations on a Theme of Bartok for Piano Quintet" will add Leska to the ensemble.

Tickets for this Musical Arts Series event will be sold at the door only. Admission is $8 general and $5 for USA faculty & staff, USA students, youths under 18 and all senior citizens (cash or check only). Persons needing more information about this event or in need of special accommodation may call (251) 460-7116 or (251) 460-6136.

About the music

Gustav Mahler completed only the first movement of his Piano Quartet in 1876 while studying at the Vienna Conservatory.  It is his only chamber piece for instruments without a vocalist.

Violist Rudolf Haken scored his Variations on a Theme of Bartok in 2011 for Piano Quintet.
The 7 variations and finale are based on the opening melody of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok's Piano Suite, op. 14.

The final work on the program is Faure's Second Piano Quartet in G minor, which he completed three years after his First Piano Quartet in 1886. The outer movements are energetic and passionate throughout.  The second movement, Scherzo, contains rhythmic figures and dramatic twists that have been compared to Schubert's famous Erlking.

Faure himself explained what he heard in the third (slow) movement: "Such sound gives rise to a vague reverie, which...is not translatable into words.  It often happens...that some external thing plunges us into thoughts that are so imprecise, they're not really thoughts at all, though the mind certainly finds them pleasurable.  Perhaps, it's a desire for something beyond what actually exists; and there music is very much at home."

About the musicians

Enen Yu, co-concertmaster of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Mobile Opera Orchestra and Mobile Ballet Orchestra is also a string teacher and coach for Mobile Symphony Education programs. Ms. Yu is a founder and the first violinist of the Horizon String Quartet and performs in chamber music concerts throughout the Gulf Coast. She is a founding member of the Archduke Trio, formed in 2006.

Guo-Sheng Huang is currently the principal cellist of the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra in Biloxi, Mississippi, and cellist in the Mobile Symphony. He is also a co-founder and cellist of the Archduke Piano Trio and the author of the Huang Cello Method: An analytical approach to taking the guess work out of scales and arpeggios. Since he began working with Mobile Symphony in 2003, Huang has dedicated himself to promoting cello study and chamber music in the Gulf Coast area. He created a String Academy that provides orchestral and chamber music training for young students. Huang is also the director of the Mobile Symphony Chamber Music Festival, a program that introduces chamber music performance to students in the Gulf Coast area.

Robert Holm is Professor of Music and head of the piano division at the University of South Alabama. Added to the roster of Steinway Artists in Spring 2010, Holm is principal pianist for the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and pianist at Dauphin Way Baptist Church. He is a founding member of the Archduke Trio, formed in 2006, and he has performed as soloist with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, Mobile Youth Symphony, USA Symphony, University of Mobile Orchestra and Mobile Symphonic Pops and will perform next season with the Johnson City Orchestra.

Rudolf Haken is a composer and violist internationally renowned for his creative melding of disparate musical styles and genres. He is particularly known for his work with extended-range violas, appearing in concert on four continents with his Rivinus five-string viola and Jensen six-string electric viola. Haken is currently a viola professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, having previously served on the faculty of West Virginia University.

Gosia Leska currently serves as a violin, viola, and string method instructor at the University of South Alabama. She is also a member of several regional ensembles, including the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, and she often collaborates with the Magnolia Chamber Orchestra.

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Need directions to Laidlaw? Just go to Google Maps at www.maps.google.com and enter "USA Laidlaw Performing Arts Center." We're actually on the corner of University Blvd. and USA Drive South.

Musical Arts Series Season Pass Holders may now reserve their place at concerts if they contact events coordinator Keith Bohnet by 5:00 p.m. the day previous to the event! Call (251) 460-7116 or email kbohnet@southalabama.edu. Please mention the amount of seats needed AND be sure you are planning on being in place at least 20 minutes in advance of the concert! (Pass Holders only please! Held seats not claimed within 20 minutes of the performance may be offered to other concert attendees.)

For information on how to join the Musical Arts Society, visit our website at www.southalabama.edu/music and click on "events and programs" to see everything you need to know about the Musical Arts Concert Series and USA's Musical Arts Society.

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