Jennifer Orchard, a native of Canada, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School in New York. Ms. Orchard performed as a member of the world-renowned Lark Quartet for eight years. While playing with the Lark Quartet, Jennifer Orchard recorded nine CDs for the Arabesque label in a wide-ranging repertoire that included quartets by Borodin, Schumann, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Schnittke, as well as music of composer and satirist Peter Schickele; among the recordings of important commissioned works was the Pulitzer prize-winning quartet by Aaron J. Kerniss. Ms. Orchard has participated in numerous festivals at home and abroad, including the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival in Vermont and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany.
Mikhail Istomin is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. In 1987, Mr. Istomin joined the Leningrad String Quartet, which two years later won the Grand Prize in the National Soviet Union Competition of String Quartets. During the summer of 1989, following an extensive tour of Western Europe, the Quartet was invited to perform in the United States. At the end of the tour, Mr. Istomin defected, seeking political asylum in the U.S. Mr. Istomin won both the Passamaneck Award granted by the Y Music Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions in 1993. Performing in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and Maryland, Mikhail Istomin has received accolades for the expressive warmth of his playing in his appearances as soloist with numerous orchestras and for his solo recitals. In July, 1998, Mr. Istomin returned to St. Petersburg to perform in the Second World Cello Congress, under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich.
Igor Kraevsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician Igor Kraevsky has won several national music competitions in Russia and Ukraine. He also enjoyed success as a multiple winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions. His artistry, combined with an innate musical sensitivity to others, makes Mr. Kraevsky a much sought after chamber musician and accompanist. Since arriving in the United States in 1993, Igor Kraevsky has continued to perform extensively, concertizing throughout Eastern Europe, France, Germany and Spain as well as in the U.S. In 1998, he recorded chamber music by Armenian composers in Paris with French violinist Patricia Reibaud for commercial release on the Dante label (France). Mr. Kraevsky has explored the works of twentieth century English composers, recording Watercolours by Alec Rowley (1892-1958), in 2001; Three Graces, by C. Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960), appeared in 2002. These critically acclaimed world premiere discs occupy honored spots in the collection of the Library of Congress.
Formed in 1994, the Pittsburgh Piano Trio created the chamber music program at the City Music Center at Duquesne University and established the annual Shady Side Chamber Music Festival. With growing participation every year, the Festival has been a popular destination every summer for young performers, many of whom are playing chamber music for the first time.
Through committed music-making and a thorough examination of the piano trio
literature, the musicians of the Trio aim to develop an ensemble distinguished
by its cultivated sound and exciting interpretations. Commissioning and
premiering several new works by an international array of composers, the
Pittsburgh Piano
Trio has introduced several new works into the repertoire. The Trio has
also recorded and produced three CDs in cooperation with WQED-FM, Pittsburgh
Center
for the Arts, Pittsburgh Art Institute. In 2003, they released a CD entitled
Phantasie, dedicated to the music of Frank Bridge (1879-1941). The Trio's
most popular CD, “Encore, Encore”, contains a collection of short
works from around the world, including "The Four Seasons" by Argentinean
composer Astor Piazzolla. Their newest CD of all-Russian music to commemorate
Shostakovich’s centennial has been released in Dec. 2006. This
collection includes a very special collaboration with soprano Natalya Kraevsky
performing "Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok" by Dmitri
Shostakovich and Sviridov's rarely performed piano trio.
The recordings of the Pittsburgh Piano Trio receive consistently outstanding reviews:
"But more than their skill, their choice of repertoire is what makes this disc hard to take out of the player. The program is chamber works of Frank Bridge: a violin sonata, a cello sonata and his "Phantasie" for piano trio. These relatively obscure pieces are rich, melodic (but not sappy) and emotional works by the British composer who lived from 1879-1941. How quick we were to dismiss anyone writing romantic music in the twentieth century, with these works an others the casualties." ---Andre Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Encores are the answer when music lovers want more. Now the Pittsburgh Piano Trio has followed up its superb album with a second disc this year devoted to those short musical delights. The group brings fresh imagination and zest to its programming and performances of tangos, waltzes, ragtime and other popular miniatures." ---Mark Kanny, Tribune-Review
The upcoming season will find the Pittsburgh Piano Trio touring internationally,
with performances in Russia and Ukraine. The season
also includes extensive travels in Canada and the United States, highlighted
by
its Moscow Conservatory Hall performance of "Episodes Concertants" by
Paul Juon with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir
Fedoseev
on April 25, 2007.
