The University at Albany Department of Music is pleased to present the
premiere performance of the Capital
Trio, the new piano trio in residence at the UAlbany, on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 7:30pm in the Recital
Hall of the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. The concert will feature Beethoven’s famous
“Ghost” Trio, “From a Book of Hours” by William Matthews written especially for
this group and Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio, the piece Dvorak wrote for his farewell
tour of his homeland before he left for America.
The Capital Trio
began as the Cecilia Piano Trio in 1997, named not only for the patron saint of
music but also for the cellist’s daughter who was two years old at the
time. Founding and current members
Duncan Cumming and Şölen Dikener
were surprised to discover at their first rehearsal that their teachers, Frank
Glazer and Paul Tortelier, had performed together in Paris and Boston almost 70 years
earlier and the young performers immediately forged a musical bond of
friendship. Violinist Hilary Cumming
joined the group in 1999 and they gave concerts and master classes from New England to the Midwest. A review from the
Kalamazoo Gazette described the
trio as “convincing both as strong individual musical personalities and as a
cohesive unit.” At the suggestion and
encouragement of former Dean Joan Wick-Pelletier, the new trio at
UAlbany was established and they have taken on a new name to reflect their new
incarnation in New York.
Now in
his second year on the UAlbany faculty, pianist Duncan Cumming has performed
concertos, recitals and chamber music concerts in cities across the United
States as well as in Europe. The Kennedy Center in Washington DC,
Merkin Hall and Carnegie Hall in New
York City and the Wallenstein Palace in Prague, Czech
Republic are among the concert halls in
which he has appeared. A recent review from the Portland Press Herald describes his playing as “technically
flawless… thoughtful, deliberate and balanced, without a wasted gesture or any
histrionics, rather like Rachmaninoff.” In 2002 Cumming joined the faculty of the
Boston University Tanglewood Institute where he continues to teach, coach
chamber music and perform as Assistant Director of the Young Artists Piano
Program.
Violinist Hilary
Walther Cumming is currently on the faculty at the State University of New York
at Albany. She is concertmaster of the Cape Cod
Sinfonietta and has been heard as soloist with this ensemble as well as with
the Reading Symphony, Concord Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A versatile artist, she is comfortable in many
styles including classical, baroque and Irish traditional music. Ms. Cumming has participated in concerts from
South America to the former Soviet bloc and continues to
be active in performances across the Northeast USA. Her most recent compact disc recording is
available from AFKA Records.
Şölen Dikener began his cello studies at the age of eight and attended
the State Conservatory of Music in Ankara, Turkey in the class of “Highly
Gifted Students.” Following his college graduation at the age of 18, he worked
with Professor Tobias Kühne in Vienna, Austria and became an assistant
to legendary Paul and Maud Tortelier in Nice, France where he also worked
with Frieder Lenz and Michel Lethiec. Dikener continues his music career in
the USA as cello/bass professor
and director of the university symphony orchestra at Marshall University and
he also works in Turkey where he is the director
of the international summer music academy and chamber music festival, Akademi Datca.
Dikener has performed in the US, Turkey, Germany, Austria and France as a recitalist,
chamber musician and soloist with orchestras. As a dedicated chamber musician,
Dikener has shared the stage with the Shanghai String Quartet as well as several
other groups. In the recording studio,
Dikener has premiered the cello works by Turkish composers for the AK Muzik
and Yesa labels. His first CD, which features the world premiere recording
of the Elegy by Paul Tortelier, was released in 1998. Another CD includes
the music of living Turkish composer Ilhan Baran (2002).
Tickets are $8 for the general public and $4 for students and
may be purchased through the Performing Arts Center Box Office. For further information, contact the Box Office
at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.
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