Merz Trio

Brigid Coleridge, violin
Julia Yang, cello
Lee Dionne, piano

“The incredibly gifted, innovative, and charming Merz Trio” (CutCommon) made a sweep of recent U.S. chamber awards, taking top prizes at the 2021 Naumburg, 2019 Concert Artists Guild, 2019 Fischoff, and 2018 Chesapeake competitions.

“The playing of this young trio, both precise and evocative, promises much for the future” (AllMusic.com). As well, the Trio takes an innovative approach to concert programming and presentation that places them “in a realm of high artistry” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer).

The Merz Trio, previously in residence at the New England Conservatory of Music, possesses “both distinctiveness and subtlety of interpretation, which is a rare combination, [plus] developed and distinctive taste – likewise rare” (Hudson Review).

Pre-concert Talk

Pre-concert Talk one hour before performance at 2pm.

Clayton State music professor Dr.Kurt-Alexander Zeller gives engaging, insightful talks about the music, and often plays recorded excerpts of pieces in the program. These talks begin one hour prior to concert time for selected Strings and Vocal series concerts and are free for all ticket-holders.

Concert Program

Night Journey, exploring night as a time of external and internal darkness – a time of the imagination that harbors our deepest fears and most radiant dreams – in a constellation of short works by Franz SCHUBERT, Antonín DVO ŘÁK, Alban BERG, Florence PRICE, Thelonious MONK, and Pēteris VASKS, closing with Schubert’s sublime Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D. 929.