Sigma Alpha Iota

10 Summer 2022 • sai-national.org The Verdehr Trio Archival Series Music Notes SAI National Arts Associate Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, a member of the Verdehr Trio, recently shared the release of three volumes of CDs under the Blue Griffin Records label. e first volume contains transcriptions made for the Trio with music by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Grieg and other well-known composers. e second volume contains pieces commissioned by the Trio from European composers, while the third volume includes works commissioned from American composers. "ere is quite a variety of music on the CDs - from the 17th century on to the present day - and we hope you will enjoy listening to the different works," said Elsa. "We're in process now of having the music from the four CDs of transcriptions copied with a view to publishing four volumes of the music sometime next year. We hope this will appeal to advanced high school students, as well as to collegiate and professional groups. We also hope to publish the first two works on each CD of the International Composers…So it's quite a long- term project!" A leader in the field of new music, the Verdehr Trio — violinist Walter Verdehr, clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, the late pianist Gary Kirkpatrick, and current pianist Silvia Roederer — has concentrated on molding and defining the personality of the violin-clarinet-piano trio for over thirty years. e Trio has created a large repertoire by commissioning over 200 new works from some of the world's most prominent and exciting composers. e Verdehr Trio has performed throughout the world: in seventeen European countries, the former Soviet Union, in South and Central America as well as in Asia, Australia, and in almost all of the United States. Among the major concert halls where they have appeared are e Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, Vienna's Brahmssaal, the Sydney Opera House, and London's Wigmore Hall, to name a few. Trio member Walter Verdehr was born in Gottschee, Yugoslavia, and received his first violin instruction at the Conservatory of Music in Graz, Austria. A student at the Juilliard School, he was the first violinist to receive a doctorate there, and on a Fulbright Fellowship he studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. He was a member of the International Congress of Strings faculty for several summers and Chairman of the String Department at Michigan State University School of Music where he was Professor of Music. Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at the Eastman School, from which she received a Performer's Certificate and Doctor of Musical Arts degree. She has performed and lectured at many International Clarinet Congresses and for several years was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and touring groups. Gary Kirkpatrick, the former pianist for the Trio who passed in February 2021, was an American concert pianist from Junction City, Kansas. He received his Bachelor of Music at Eastman School of Music and his artist's diploma from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Kirkpatrick was professor of music at William Paterson University, where he taught from 1973 to 2019. New member Silvia Roederer was born in Argentina, but her musical training began in the U.S. Aer graduating from the Eastman School with high honors, she completed her doctoral degree as a student of John Perry at the University of Southern California. She is currently Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, where she serves as Chair of the Keyboard Area, teaches piano, chamber music, pedagogy, and coordinates graduate assistant teaching. To learn more about the Verdehr Trio, visit: verdehr.com I. Transcriptions made by the Verdehr Trio: I. Transcriptions made by the Verdehr Trio: four CDs, 26 masterpieces from the 18th four CDs, 26 masterpieces from the 18th and 19th centuries transcribed for the and 19th centuries transcribed for the violin-clarinet-piano trio. BGR557 violin-clarinet-piano trio. BGR557 II. Commissioned Works by International II. Commissioned Works by International Composers, three CDs. 15 compositions. BGR571 Composers, three CDs. 15 compositions. BGR571 III. Commissioned Works by American III. Commissioned Works by American Composers, two CDs. 13 compositions. BGR575 Composers, two CDs. 13 compositions. BGR575

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