Apr 25, 2019
The Manhattan Piano Trio will perform the works of Dvorak, Haydn and Shostakovich in a performance set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

This is the final concert in the 2018-2019 Friends of Good Music performance season. Underwritten by Erick and Marianne Laine, it is presented as a free bonus concert to Friends of Good Music subscribers, who are invited to a reception in the Quick Center following the performance.

For others, single tickets are $20 at full price, $16 for senior citizens and St. Bonaventure employees, and $5 for students.

The Manhattan Piano Trio is composed of Wayne Lee on violin, Dmitry Kouzov on cello, and pianist Milana Strezeva. Now in its 15th season, the trio has been among the busiest groups on the classical music scene, having performed hundreds of concerts for enthusiastic audiences in almost 40 states, and at venues such as Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, Merkin Hall in New York’s Kaufman Music Center, and the Ravinia Festival outside of Chicago.

The Washington Post described the trio as “impressive” and “outstanding,” while the Sarasota Herald Tribune said of its sound: “One seldom is privileged to enjoy music of such a wide range of styles performed with self-effacing skill and relaxed assurance.”

The group’s third album, a disc of Schumann and Chopin trios in honor of the bicentennial of the composers’ births, was successfully released on the Marquis Classics label.

Shortly after its formation in 2004, the Manhattan Piano Trio captured grand prizes at the Plowman Competition & Festival in Columbia, Missouri, and Ohio’s Yellow Springs Competition, and received the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Listeners’ Choice Award at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.

Since then, MPT has carved out a unique niche for itself by performing concerts in a much wider range of settings, from major concert halls around the country to venues in smaller cities. The trio has performed in prestigious venues such as the Kravis Performing Arts Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona, and Pro Musica of Detroit. In addition to these high-profile engagements, the trio is committed to establishing and encouraging new concert series to grow in places often bypassed by other major classical groups. The group has also toured South Africa, with performances in Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban; and Italy, performing in Bologna, Rovereto and Portici.

In addition to their rigorous concert schedule, the members of MPT are devoted teachers, chamber musicians, and entrepreneurs. Strezeva is an artistic director and founder of the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida; Kouzov is an associate professor of cello at the University of Illinois; and Lee is a member of the Formosa Quartet, co-director of the Piedmont Chamber Music Festival, and a lecturer of violin at the University of Illinois. The performers all completed graduate degrees at the Juilliard School, and the group still enjoys an active presence in Manhattan.

For tickets and information, call The Quick Center at (716) 375-2494.

For each Friends of Good Music performance, The Quick Center will open its galleries one hour before the performance and keep them open throughout the intermission. Regular gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 

Museum admission is free and open to the public year round. For more information, visit www.sbu.edu/quickcenter. 

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