By Paul Nelson
Some members of the audience at Saturday?s piano trio concert might expect to find three pianos, but instead they will find a piano, violin and cello, combining to form the art of the trio.
Violinist Monte Belknap, cellist Julie Reed and pianist Jeffrey Shumway formed this ensemble two years ago and will combine their wealth of experience to perform ?The Ghost,? by Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Piano Trio in G Minor, OP. 15, by Bedrich Smetana.
?If you like chamber music, this is a wonderful thing to come to,? Belknap said. ?They?re more openly expressive on an individual basis and so you kind of get to say what you want to say.?
Belknap will let his violin do all the talking this Saturday as he expresses the art of the piano trio through a solo on the piece by Smetana.
?It is very romantic in nature,? Belknap said. ?Being a violinist it has a big cadenza at the beginning and so I said, ?I want to do this one.??
Unlike performing in large ensembles, Belknap said the exposure of playing in a trio requires exceptional soloist talent. He also said many people confuse a piano trio as being three pianos, but the official trio is formed from by a piano, violin, and cello.
?For some reason when you have the piano with violin and cello, there is real solo playing going on,? Belknap said. ?It?s a wonderful venue because that?s really what we train to do all the time.?
Reed, the faculty trio cellist, has performed the Beethoven trio numerous times and the Smetana 25 years ago in Chicago. She looks forward to playing her antique cello with her colleagues.
?I love playing the cello because it has such a great sound,? Reed said. ?My cello, which I have owned for 34 years; a great old Italian cello made in 1721.?
Reed, a native of Utah, received her musical training at BYU and University of Southern California where she received a master?s degree. Reed is a former member of the Testore Piano Trio, the Fontenelle String Quartet, the Chicago String Ensemble and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
Belknap previously studied and performed chamber music with some of the world?s leading ensembles including the Tokyo, Julliard and LaSalle String Quartets.
Shumway, also a BYU alumnus, has performed extensive solo and chamber music and is a member of the internationally known American Piano Quartet. He is now serving as professor of piano and head of keyboard studies at BYU after numerous awards and accomplishments in his career.
The trio performs once or twice a year on campus as well as other venues and has desires to share their unique blend with the world in the future.
?We would like to perform more and kind of take it on the road,? Belknap said. ?But we are still looking for funding and all that kind of stuff.?
BYU?s renowned faculty piano trio will be performing Saturday in the Madsen Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.
