The Boston Trio and Marcus Thompson at MIT: A Ruehr Retrospective

Program

Piano Trio 3: Winter Night (2020)

Piano Quartet 2: Maple (2024)

Piano Trio 4: Ski, Kayak, Bike (2021)

Piano Trio 5: Troubled Times (World Premiere) (2022)

About Elena Ruehr

Elena Ruehr says of her music “the idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complex.” And from Gramophone Magazine, “The sound world is wholly Ruehr: it never sounds like anyone else and the effect is exhilarating…her output is unified by her desire to communicate effectively without compromise…”

Currently composer in residence with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, she has a major list of recordings including her orchestral works (O’Keeffe Images, BMOP Sound) as well as the opera Toussaint Before the Spirits (BMOP Sound), her cantatas Averno (with the Trinity Choir, Avie), and her Six String Quartets (the Cypress String Quartet, Borromeo Quartet and Stephen Salters, Avie). Her other recordings include Icarus (Avie), Jane Wang considers the Dragonfly (Albany), Lift (Avie), Shimmer (Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble on Albany) and Shadow Light (The New Orchestra of Washington with Marcus Thompson, Acis), as well as many others.

In addition to having a standing collaboration with QuartetES, her works have been commissioned, recorded, and performed by numerous other string quartets, including the Arneis, Biava, Borromeo, Cypress, Delgani, Lark, Quartet Nouveau, Roco and Shanghai string quartets. An award winning faculty member at MIT, she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Known for her vocal music and collaboration with poets, she has written five operas, five cantatas and a number of songs. She has also written extensively for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, opera, dance and silent film. Her work has been performed internationally and described as “sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies” (The New York Times), and “unspeakably gorgeous” (Gramophone).

Dr. Ruehr has taught at MIT since 1992 and lives in Boston.

About the Boston Trio

“Whenever this trio plays, drop everything and go hear them!” hailed the Boston Globe on the occasion of the Boston Trio’s Tanglewood debut at Ozawa Hall. Acclaimed for their superb sense of ensemble and wondrous balance, these virtuosic and profound musicians are committed to creating exceptional and daring performances of the standard and contemporary repertoire.

Violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Heng-Jin Park each have distinguished careers as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and have appeared with major orchestras and premier music festivals throughout the United States and Europe.

Recent highlights for the Boston Trio include performances at the prestigious Newport Classical (including a piece by Stacy Garrop which was commissioned for the trio by Newport Classical), Sanibel Music Festival, St. Olaf College (MN), Halcyon Music Festival, Feldman Chamber Music Society (Norfolk, VA), Charleston Chamber Music Society (Charleston, WV), and Park International Center for Music (Kansas City), among others. The trio has performed also at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Maui Classical Music Festival, Virtuosi Concerts at University of Winnipeg, Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, University of Maine at Collins Center, University of Maryland, Neskowin Chamber Music Series (OR), Flagler Museum (Palm Beach, FL), Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg (VA), the Kalliroscope Gallery (MA), Gold Coast Chamber Players (CA), and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Boston Philharmonic.

The Boston Trio is passionately committed to furthering the exposure and performances of new music. They have premiered several works written for and dedicated to them. The trio has been invited to perform on numerous prestigious music series including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series, 'First Monday' series at NEC, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, Harvard Musical Association, Concerts at the Point, Brigham Young University, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Howland Chamber Music Circle, University of Arkansas, Merkin Hall, and nationally televised performance at Belgrade Music Festival at Kolarac Foundation Hall in Serbia. The Boston Trio has released several acclaimed recordings. Their latest one titled “Elegy and Blue” was released by the Centaur label.

Actively involved in the education of the next generation of musicians, the Boston Trio has held mini-residencies at the Dickinson College (PA), Gordon College (MA), St. Olaf College (MN), and Luther College (IA). The trio members have coached chamber music at Tanglewood Institute of Music, Harvard University, and MIT, and served as Ensemble-in-Residence at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and at the New England Conservatory. The Trio is committed to bringing chamber music to a broader community through outreach activities at public schools and assisted living centers. The Boston Trio’s individual members serve on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the University of Maryland, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and are in demand as master class teachers throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.

www.bostontrio.com

About Marcus Thompson

Marcus Thompson, violist, has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and in chamber music series throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. He has been a soloist with the orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis; The National Symphony, the Boston Pops and the Czech National Symphony in Prague. He performed Keith Jarrett’s Bridge of Light with the Atlanta Symphony, the West Coast premiere of John Harbison’s Viola Concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with the composer conducting; the Chicago premiere with the Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Boston premiere with the New England Conservatory Honors Orchestra. He has received critical acclaim for performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto with the MIT Symphony Orchestra in Boston, and London, U.K., for the premiere of Elena Ruehr's new Viola Concerto Shadow/Light with the New Orchestra of Washington, and for the premiere of Olly Wilson's Viola Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic. He has performed Hindemith's Viola D'Amore Concerto, Kammermusik #6, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga, and Concertos by Vivaldi at the Bravo Festival in Colorado and at Aston Magna in Great Barrington, MA.

He has premiered and performed many recital and chamber works by MIT composers including Peter Child, Keeril Makan, Charles Shadle, John Harbison, and recorded Barry Vercoe's iconic Synapse for Viola and Computer. His recording of Concerto for Viola, Chamber Orchestra, and Percussion commissioned from composer and organist Anthony Newman in 1985 has just been re-released with concertos for five other instruments by the composer. Thompson's recordings with orchestra also include concertos by Hindemith, Bartok, Serly, and Bloch along with works by Francaix, Martin, and Jongen. Two new releases include Elena Ruehr’s Shadow/Light with the New Orchestra of Washington, and John Harbison’s Viola Concerto with BMOP.

Mr. Thompson has been a guest of the Audubon, Borromeo, Cleveland, Da Ponte, Emerson, Fine Arts, Jupiter, Lydian, Miami, Muir, Orion, Parker, Shanghai, and Vermeer String Quartets; and a frequent participant at chamber music festivals in Anchorage, Seattle, Sitka, Los Angeles, Montreal, Edmonton, Rockport (MA and ME), Rio de Janeiro, Spoleto, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik and Okinawa. He has appeared as a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and on a Live from Lincoln Center telecast. He appears on recordings of chamber works with artists for the Sitka Summer Music Festival, Stichting Reizend Muziekgezelschap, and the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Born and raised in The Bronx, NYC, Mr. Thompson earned the doctorate degree at The Juilliard School. He currently lives in Boston where he is a member of the viola faculty at New England Conservatory of Music, and violist and Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 2009. Marcus Thompson is the founder of the MIT Chamber Music Society and of the Emerson/Harris private study program named for MIT alumnus, Cherry Emerson (SM 1941) and Ellen Harris (Associate Provost and Class of 1949 Professor of Music Emeritus). In 1995 he was named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music. In 2015 he was appointed Institute Professor. In 2022, at its 47th International Viola Congress, Marcus Thompson was awarded the American Viola Society’s Career Achievement Award “In recognition of distinguished contributions to viola performance and viola pedagogy through his influential recordings and his celebrated tenure at the New England Conservatory of Music and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hosting the 1985 International Congress, and for advocacy and leadership on behalf of the viola.”

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