Lawson Trio to Present Chamber Music Classics in Intimate Setting

A January 24th concert by The Lawson Trio will provide an opportunity to experience works by three legends of chamber music performed in a distinctively intimate setting. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 pm in Daniel Recital Hall on the campus of Converse College, and will feature works by Ernest Bloch, Antonin Dvořák and Felix Mendelssohn.

The concert is an offering of the Lawson Series of events: a collection of concerts, masterclasses and opportunities presented by Converse’s Lawson Academy of the Arts. While the concert is free, donations to the Lawson Series are appreciated.

The Lawson Trio is comprised of Linda Sickles, violin, Kathy Foster, cello, and Erica Pauly, piano. All are members of the faculty for the Lawson Academy of the Arts at Converse.

“In an intimate performance such as ours, the audience will be able to (better appreciate) the individual ‘voices’ of the violin, cello and piano, and how they compliment one another. That’s far different than a full orchestral performance which may contain more than 20 violinists and cellists alone,” said Foster, who also performs on a regular basis with the Lyric Opera (Asheville, N.C.), the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Greenville Symphony, the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony.

The concert will feature Three Nocturnes by Ernest Bloch, Trio “Dumky” in E minor, Op. 90 by Antonin Dvořák and Trio in C minor, Op. 66 by Felix Mendelssohn.

“Three Nocturnes is the only trio composed by Bloch,” said Pauly, who has performed extensively throughout the Carolinas with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, the Spartanburg Repertory Company, and orchestras in Greenville, Spartanburg and Brevard. “The three short pieces have the most gorgeous melodies that recur throughout the entire trio.”

In describing Dvořák’s Trio “Dumky” in E minor, Op. 90, Pauly said “it’s very ‘bohemian’ with a lot of Eastern European folk tunes and even the sound of birds singing.” Foster added “I love romantic music and there is a section of the Trio that has some of the most beautiful piano melodies…every time I hear Erica play it I nearly cry.”

According to Sickles, who performs frequently in the Upstate as both a soloist (violin and viola) and ensemble player, Mendelssohn’s Trio in C minor, Op. 66 provides a balance to the atmospheric Three Nocturnes and melodic Trio by Dvořák. “Mendelssohn’s composition is very powerful and energetic,” she said. “It begins quietly but comes back full force in triple forte. I love its energy!”