Mendelssohn Piano Trio celebrates composer’s 200th birthday

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The Mendelssohn Piano Trio is the remarkable collaboration of three international artists whose 1997 debut in Baltimore echoed their love of the composer’s music. This week they mark the 200th anniversary of his birth with a performance of his D minor and C minor trios recorded on their latest CD.

Each member is a consummate soloist who performs throughout the world; together they purvey a powerhouse repertoire spanning four centuries. Violinist Peter Sirotin made his debut at age 14 with the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra in his native Ukraine. After studying in Moscow and playing with the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, he accepted a scholarship to Peabody Institute. There he met Taiwanese pianist Ya-Ting Chang, who came to this country as part of the Taiwanese Gifted Children program and studied both piano and flute with renowned Peabody teachers.

Now married and residents of Potomac, Md., the couple collaborated with cellist Fiona Thompson to found the trio under the guidance of celebrated professors Earl Carlyss and Ann Scheinth. A native of England, Thompson is a member of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, recently toured Japan with the Kennedy Center Opera, and as principal cellist of the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra performed with Arlo Guthrie at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

“We love Mendelssohn, but we love other composers and feel fortunate to have come across the Erich Korngold trio in the Library of Congress and recorded it because there is only one other recording of it,” Sirotin says. “We’re also pleased to show Richard Strauss from a new angle. It’s little known that he was a huge fan of Wolfgang Mozart and his early music is more classical and inventive.”

The trio is currently the ensemble in residence for both Washington’s Embassy Series and Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., where they work with students several days a week coaching chamber groups, teaching master classes and giving private lessons. The weeklong festival they’ve run there for the past four summers features concerts with prominent guest artists.

During October, they trio performed in the magnificent National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, and recorded all new music influenced by Taiwanese folk tunes. The trios were composed for them by Ching-Ju-Shih, who now teaches in California, and Chia-Chu-Ho.”

The trio returns to more traditional works for the next few months beginning with a performance of Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio in D minor” at the National Gallery of Art Feb. 22 in conjunction with the Mendelssohn on the Mall project. It is followed by two Embassy Series concerts, one at the Hungarian Embassy March 20 to honor the 200th anniversary of Franz Joseph Haydn’s death and another at the German Embassy April 3 for the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth.

“We’ve been together so long that we’ve had the luxury of playing most of the major trios many times, and each time we come back to a specific work we find something new about it,” Sirotin says. “It’s a joy to introduce a piano trio to a new audience and help them connect to a beautiful life experience created on the spot.”