Sunday, February 4, 3:00 pm, Sweeney Concert Hall
Multiple prize-winners, innovative programmers, damned good.Their program, “Night Songs,” consists of brief works by Hildegard of Bingen, Alma Mahler, Thelonious Monk and others, as well as Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op. 80 and Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8.
Taken from Merz’s website:
Hailing from opposite corners of the globe, Merz Trio’s members can only agree on two things: (1) how to pronounce the word ‘Merz’ in a faux German accent, and (2) that shopping for concert clothes should be classified as a form of torture. The Trio met in the middle of a snow storm in NYC in December 2016; hilariously – and gloriously – we now spend the majority of our lives together, rehearsing, traveling and arguing: usually over music and whether Australian English is better than American English. Together, we’ve walked onto stages around the world and are humbled to have been recognized as Winners of the Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, and Chesapeake Competitions.
But whether concerts or competitions, large or small, the most thrilling thing about these experiences is the energetic communities that have emerged from them. Merz Trio love to be in community with others. We love talking and getting carried away – in the rehearsal room, on stage, after the concert. We understand what we do as a conversation between ourselves, the composer, our audience, and the changing world we step into each day. Our name, Merz, speaks to this: It’s the term coined by German artist and polymath Kurt Schwitters, who once floor-to-ceiling decorated his parents’ house in Hanover with found objects and insisted that art only occurred in shared spaces. So Merz refers to connection, to sharing, to possibility. And yes, we’re very glad Schwitters didn’t live with us. Read more on their website.