by Mike Telin
If you were to ask just about any musician why they enjoy playing chamber music, they will tell you that it’s because they get to make music with people they enjoy. Case in point, the Butler Trio — Sandy Yamamoto (violin), Joshua Gindele (cello), and Colette Valentine (piano).
“We are all on faculty at the University of Texas, but the Trio formed when I left the Miró Quartet back in 2011,” Yamamoto said by telephone from Austin. “Josh [the cellist in the Miró] and I weren’t quite ready to be done with making music together, so we talked about playing in a piano trio. At the time Colette had joined the faculty so we asked her if she would play some trios with us.”
On Monday, February 6 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will play host to the Butler Trio. The program will include Rachmaninoff’s Trio Élégiaque No. 1, Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D (“Ghost”), and Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat with guest violist Lembi Veskimets. The concert is free. Click here to access the live stream.
What is it about the piano trio instrumentation that appealed to Yamamoto? “The quartet repertoire is amazing, but the trio repertoire is too. It would also allow me to have a different voice — I had spent most of my time playing second violin in the quartet. So playing piano trios I have a more soloistic voice than a supporting one. It’s a nice challenge and a real treat to be learning to play together with Josh and Colette in this format.”
The violinist said that she looks forward to playing the Schumann with Veskimets. “Lembi and I have been playing chamber music together since our college days. And I recently started teaching at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont where Lembi also teaches, so we’ve started playing chamber music again over the summers.”
Yamamoto said they chose Beethoven’s “Ghost” because they hadn’t played it for some time. “But we wanted the program to be a little longer and we thought the Rachmaninoff would make a great opener for the program. We didn’t have a theme in mind, it all just kind of came to be,” she said, adding, “We’re looking forward to the concert and sharing our music.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com February 1, 2023.
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