Press Release

For Immediate Release:
March 13, 2006

Second Ensemble Hand-Picked for Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program

The Tel-Aviv Trio, only the second ensemble chosen to take part in New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional Piano Trio Training Program, will appear in concert at NEC’s Jordan Hall, April 2 at 8 p.m. Under the direction of Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, the professional program provides intensive training and coaching for exceptional groups that show the talent and commitment necessary to pursue a concert career.

Composed of Jonathan Aner, piano; Matan Givol, violin; and Ira Givol, cello, the Tel-Aviv Trio performed together for the first time in 1994 when the musicians were still in their early teens. The players were reunited in 1998 under the auspices of the Jerusalem Music Centre. At the centre, they have worked with artists such as Miriam Fried, Isaac Stern, Leon Fleischer, Bernard Greenhouse, Steven Isserlis, and members of the Emerson and Juilliard Quartets.

The trio won First Prize at the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Haute Alsace and was a prize-winner of the Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music Competition in Florence, the Città di Trapani International Chamber Music Competition, the Joseph Joachim and the Erst-Klassik Competitions in Germany. Most recently, it was Third Prize-winner at the prestigious 2003 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.

Already well established as concert artists, the trio has performed in many Israeli and European concert halls and played live broadcasts on European radio. Issued on the Jerusalem Music Centre’s JMC label, the trio’s first CD features works by Haydn, Ben-Haim, and Chausson.

Among the works on the trio’s April 2 program is Trio in Three Movements by Benjamin Yusupov (b.1962), aTajjik-born Israeli conductor and composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and piano works. Yusupov studied at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow from 1981-90 and earned his doctorate at Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 2001. Among his honors are the Association Prize of the USSR Composers Union (1989), the Clone Prize of the Israeli Composers League (1993), First Prize in a competition in celebration of the opening of the Gabriel House in the Jordan Valley (1993), and the Award of the Israeli Prime Minister (1999).

The Tel Aviv Trio’s program follows:

J. Haydn: Trio in E flat Major, Hob: XV/29

            Poco Allegretto
            Andantino et innocentemente
            Finale in the German Style- Presto assai

Benjamin Yusupov: Trio in Three Movements

Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes

            Andante
            Andante quieto
            Tempestoso

Johannes Brahms: Trio in c-minor, Op.101

            Allegro energico
            Presto non assai
            Andante grazioso
            Allegro molto

For more information, visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts

Or visit the Tel-Aviv Trio’s website at
www.telavivtrio.com

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.