Archive for January, 2011

Trio Con Brio

Trio Con Brio will bring the music of Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) and Antonin Dvorak (1841-1884) to Quincy University on Sunday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m.

The concert will take place in the auditorium on QU’s North Campus, 18th and Seminary Road.

Smetana and Dvorak were both born in Bohemia which at that time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Vienna as its capital and German its official language. However, they composed music that captured the flavor of the region’s folk songs and dances and depicted its landscape, legends and folk tales, thus contributing to the rising spirit of Bohemian nationalism.

Smetana was doubly ostracized – for writing music that glorified the Bohemian cause and for having participated in an armed revolt. Smetana’s music made a powerful impression on Dvorak who also felt a deep affection for his native land. He, however, was not a revolutionary and did not want to have anything to do with politics.

Trio Con Brio will perform Trio in G minor by Smetana and Trio in F minor by Dvorak. Both works must be regarded as most important examples of chamber music in the second half of the 19th century, as striking for the individuality of their ideas as for the powerful sincerity with which they are expressed.

Members of Trio Con Brio are Leonora Suppan-Gehrich, piano; Brian Gehrich, violin; and Helga Winold, cello. Leonora is artist-in-residence at Quincy University; Brian is assistant concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony, a member of the Heartland Festival Orchestra and violinist in Tango Espejo; Helga is a professor of music at Indiana University.

For more information, call 228-5432, ext. 3160.