Kaufman Music Center – Tuesday Matinees: Merz Trio – Ink Spills

Inspired by Merz Trio’s 2021 debut album “INK,” Ink Spills offers a unique and personal account of Ravel’s Piano Trio, a work he finished penning in 1914 at a time of immense catastrophe and change for Europe and the world. Ranging from the court of Louis XV to the 21st century, the program places Ravel not only within an immensely rich, multinational tradition (French and Basque), but also includes a number of works from the immediate decades around the Trio’s composition, interweaving the work with pieces Ravel himself would have known and heard. Throughout the concert, Merz Trio’s members will contribute readings of poetry and prose that further illuminate the music and speak to the era.

VINCENT SCOTTO & JOSEPHINE BAKER (arr. Merz Trio): Sous les ponts de Paris (Under the bridges of Paris, 1913)

JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU (arr. Merz Trio): Pieces for Harpsichord in Concert (1741) – Fifth “Concert” in D Minor, RCT 11

LILI BOULANGER: Three Pieces (1914) – D’un vieux jardin (arr. Merz Trio)

GABRIEL FAURÉ: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 (1923)

MAURICE RAVEL:Piano Trio in A minor (1914) 1. Modéré

LEE DIONNE: Zortziko – Fandango (2020)

MAURICE RAVEL: Piano Trio in A minor

MÉLANIE BONIS: Two Pieces (1907)

NADIA BOULANGER (arr. Merz Trio): Heures ternes (Stagnant hours, 1910)

MAURICE RAVEL: Piano Trio in A minor

Merz Trio are First Prize winners at the 2021 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition. Composed of players hailed as “impressive” (New York Times), “impeccable” (Fanfare Magazine), and praised for “a sense of joyful virtuosity” (South Florida Classical Review), Merz Trio has quickly emerged as a unique and award-winning ensemble, garnering the First Prize at the 2019 Fischoff Competition and the 2019 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 Chesapeake Competition. Seamlessly tacking between traditional repertoire, the music of our time and their own arrangements, the Trio are committed to vibrantly dynamic programming that takes them beyond the concert hall into theaters, galleries and community spaces. The Trio are known for their wide-ranging collaborations and interdisciplinary work, bringing music into conversation with other art forms ranging from dance to the culinary arts.