Lysander Piano Trio Comes to Cooperstown

The award-winning Lysander Piano Trio will perform a program of chamber masterworks at the Otesaga Resort Hotel ballroom on Sunday, August 18 at 7:30pm. The performance is the third concert in the mainstage lineup of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival.

The Lysander Piano Trio, praised for their "unanimity of approach" by The Washington Post and for their "passionate playing... imaginative ideas, and wide palette of colours" by The Strad, will be joined by flutist Linda Chesis, CSMF's Founder and Artistic Director, for a program of pieces by Russian and Czech composers sponsored by NBT Bank.

The highly decorated trio -- Itamar Zorman, violin, Michael Katz, cello, and Liza Stepanova, piano -- has won prizes at numerous competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild, Coleman, Arriaga, and Fischoff Competitions. Zorman himself was the top prize-winner at the renowned Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, and was a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2013.

The program includes two sumptuous Romantic chamber works, Rachmaninoff's Trio elegiaque No. 1 in G minor and Dvorak's Trio No. 3 in F Minor, that will allow the Lysanders to showcase their considerable artistry and interpretive prowess. Martinu's playful Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, for which Chesis will join Katz and Stepanova, offers the audience a palate-cleansing contrast.

For Zorman, this program fosters the chance for a deep emotional connection with the audience. "I find Eastern European music, such as the Rachmaninoff, Martinu and Dvorak, to be some of the most soulful music," he says. "Truly straight from the heart."

Chesis finds that the opportunity for collaboration carries its own thrill. "I am delighted to be working with these artists to bring the Martinu to life," says Chesis. "The piece uses the full range of colors that these three instruments have to offer, and exploring those colors with such inventive musicians is great fun."

Zorman agrees. "What I love most about chamber music is the musical interaction: making music on the spot, initiating and reacting to other players," he says.

This musical interaction translates directly to the audience's experience, Zorman says. "The effect of the sheer physical experience of the sound, together with the performer's personality, is very powerful."

Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students for all CSMF events. Tickets can be purchased in a variety of ways:

• Online at Cooperstownmusicfest.org

• Phone: Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006, open 24/7. Never any service charges!

• Tickets sold at the door, as available.