PORT TOWNSEND — “La Vie en Rose,” “undiluted days,” “Samradh, Samradh”: These are three of the nine short pieces on the program as the Merz Trio, a multiple-competition-winning ensemble, arrives this Sunday.
The Boston-based trio is offering the first concert in the 2022 Port Townsend Chamber Music Series, a Centrum presentation in the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden State Park.
Merz Trio cellist Julia Yang is full of anticipation for the 2 p.m. matinee.
“I think audiences have been picking up,” as in-person concerts return, Yang said in a telephone interview Wednesday night.
Tickets to and information about Sunday’s performance can be found at www.centrum.org/port-townsend-chamber-music-festival/ or by phoning the Centrum box office at 360-385-3102, ext. 110. Youngsters 17 and younger will be admitted free, but they are asked to call the box office to reserve a seat; adult tickets are $45. Proof of vaccination and masking are required at Centrum concerts.
As the Merz Trio — Yang, pianist Lee Dionne and violinist Brigid Coleridge — travel around the country, they are noticing anew the effect live music has on listeners.
After one concert in North Carolina, one Yang thought went just OK, she met a couple of audience members who were so moved that they were weeping.
It was a reminder, she said, of how powerful this art form is — and how strong the human connection can be at a concert.
The Merz Trio members built Sunday’s concert program around emotions: love, longing, grief and hope.
First up is Nicola Matteis’ “Preludio e fantasia;” then come Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 45 in E-flat major, Jeffrey Mumford’s “undiluted days,” Alma Mahler’s “Laue Sommernacht” (“Balmy Summer Night”), Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose,” Carlo Gesualdo’s “Moro, lasso, al mio duolo,” and “Samradh Samradh” (“Summer, Summer”), an Irish traditional. These were all chosen to lead up to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, the second-to-last work in the concert.
The final piece is Richard Strauss’ “Morgen!” (“Tomorrow!”) about a reunion with a lover —”a beautiful, tender song,” Yang said.
Gregg Miller, Centrum’s program manager for the chamber series, marveled at the program’s variety. This is a traditional piano-violin-cello ensemble playing the pillars of the classical repertoire — Haydn, Tchaikovsky — while making a point of choosing newer works, he said. And the music in Sunday’s concert ranges from some 300 years old to a little more than 20 years old.
The trio, Miller added, recently won the prestigious Naumberg Chamber Music Competition in New York City.
“They’re rapidly making a name for themselves and their calendar is filling up,” he said.
“We feel lucky to be able to present them.”
Centrum’s Port Townsend Chamber Music Series will continue this spring with a concert by the Brasil Guitar Duo — João Luiz & Douglas Lora — on April 2, and a performance by the Dover Quartet on June 12. Both will be at 2 p.m. in the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden.
For more about the coming season’s musical events, see www.centrum.org.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
