Acclaimed Trio Valtorna Appearing at Goodwin Hall Wednesday 2018-01-31

Trio Valtorna's members are, left to right, French horn
player David Jolley, pianist Gilles Vonsattel, andviolinist Ida Kavafian.

On Wednesday night 2018-Jan-31 at 7:30 pm The Auburn Chamber Music Society (on Facebook) will present Trio Valtorna (website) at Auburn University's Goodwin Hall, 320 W. Samford Ave. Click here for the event page. Tickets are $25/$10. From the group's bio...

"Fred Kirshnit, writing in the New York Sun, called Ms. Kavafian’s artistry 'meaningful and affecting', while the New Yorker has praised Mr. Jolley’s 'richly melancholy horn solos', and David Weininger in the Boston Globe observed the 'clarity and light touch' of Gilles Vonsattel."

Below are some words about the event from ACMS co-president Virginia Transue. And she writes exactly like she talks. -PMc

This is an unusual formation for a trio, and we are in for a fascinating evening. We’ll not often get to hear, live, pieces written for these 3 instruments. The middle piece for the evening will be Grieg’s Sonata for violin and piano, a particularly lovely piece, also not often performed.

Here are a couple of different observations on this concert.

1) we are always wanting to book combinations of instruments other than string and piano when we can, when we can find a GOOD one. Ones that tour are not all that easy to come by, and scheduling within our time constraints also limits us. So when we learned that these three had formed a trio I jumped at it, got in touch with their agent. This SLIGHTLY leads to...

2) The ‘expected’ way that ensembles form is that musicians get to know each other through school, or in summer festivals, early on in their careers. Or sometimes, several who know each other are ready to change directions from the careers they have been following. In the case of the Valtorna, an acclaimed solo violinist, Ida Kavafian, at the height of her career, got to know hornist David Jolley, considered by some to be the best horn player on the planet, just 6 1/2 years ago, at the New Mexico festival that Ida runs. They decided they wanted to work together, but would need a third. They were fortunate enough to capture the interest of young pianist Gilles Vonsattel, who was winning awards right and left, all over the place, and he agreed to join them.