Beethoven at the Barn / Essex Piano Trio / Classical concert

Essex Piano Trio bio

Essex Piano Trio, photo by Paula Morin, 2023

After playing together for several years throughout New England, the musical friends known as the Essex Piano Trio(EPT) formalized their working relationship in 2017.  Their signature concert title “Conversation among Friends,” borrowing a descriptive phrase from American biographer Catherine Bowen, alludes to their audience-friendly concert format of interesting music interspersed with casual commentary.  The trio’s primary goal has been to grow as musicians while making the best music possible to share with audiences.  All from Essex County communities along Boston’s North Shore, violinist Ashley Offret of Salem, cellist David Cabral of Lynn, and pianist Beverly Soll of Rockport believe that their “Conversation among Friends” approach reflects their relationship to the music and to each other.  EPT members bring many perspectives from their academic backgrounds and professional lives as educators and performers to their collective as a trio.  Pianist Beverly Soll (University of Illinois and University of Maryland) holds a DMA in chamber music/piano.  Ashley Offret is a violinist (University of Maine) and music historian (MM, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music).  Cellist David Cabral studied at the Boston Conservatory but works as the chief echocardiographer at Boston Medical Center’s Department of Pediatric Cardiology.

Since their inaugural concerts in 2017, the Essex Piano Trio (EPT) has explored the creative genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, playing most of his trios for this ensemble, as well as his unique Triple Concerto for Piano Trio and Orchestra.  Having presented his three Opus 1 trios in March 2020, just before the pandemic shut down, in October of that long, quarantine year, EPT made and posted online an “in-studio” recording of these trios to mark the special Beethoven 250th birthday year.

On Sunday, September 15, 2024, the Essex Piano Trio will appear at The Barn, a return engagement after a sold-out performance in summer of 2023.  This concert, entitled Beethoven at the Barn, is a sampler of Ludwig van Beethoven’s musical styles from the earliest to the latest works of this master.

First on the program are two movements from Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 1, first performed in 1794 with the composer at the piano when he was only 24 years old.  The entire Archduke Trio, Op. 97 of 1811, one of the most spectacular trios of all time, written when the composer was completely deaf, forms the heart of the program.  The concert closes with Beethoven’s final work for this instrumentation, the gentle, one-movement Trio in B flat, Wo39, written in 1812.