
2 February (Sunday)
7:30 pm | Walter Hall
Free Admission
Curated by Norbert Palej
Featuring:
Sirius Duo: Pei-Chen Chen and Mengjie Xiong, piano
Bedford Trio: Alessia Disimino, violin; Lucia Ticho, cello; Jialiang Zhu, piano
Guest artist: Lindsay McIntyre, soprano
Program
Before Gravity
David Lang
The Ringing Earth from Afterimages
Alexina Louie
Nostalgia
Ching-Yu Hsiau
Effervescent Air
Nancy Galbraith
After Gravity
David Lang
Intermission
A Recession of Glass (Winning piece of the 2024-25 University of Toronto Piano Trio Composition Competition)
William Cheng
Love Drunk (Folk Songs, Set No. 16B)
Reza Vali
Piececitos (Little Feet), select movements
Joelle Wallach
Piano Trio, select movements
Reena Esmail
Biography
“A triple header of virtuosity,” (Toronto Concert Reviews), Bedford Trio presents passionate performances of contemporary and traditional repertoire, with a deep commitment to reshaping the future of piano trio music through contemporary commissions and multi-disciplinary artistic collaborations. The trio’s performances interweave a respect for the traditional forms alongside a deep desire to launch to the future, engage with the art and culture of our time, and promote a spirit of artistic collaboration of the highest excellence.
The trio is the 2023/2024 Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto, and will host and adjudicate the Piano Trio Composition Competition as part of the New Music Festival, a position they have held since the Competition’s inaugural edition in 2020/2021. Bedford Trio is lauded for their series IMMERSED, currently in it’s third edition, which highlights their dedication to multi-artistic collaboration of contemporary works written for the trio, alongside captivating digital, lighting, dance, and visual art. Bedford Trio’s yearly concert series has received support by both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council, and frequently features guest instrumentalists, composers, and artists.
Bedford Trio has performed in Canada, the United States, and Europe. They were a finalist in the 2018 Anton Rubinstein International Chamber Music (Germany) and a semi-finalist group in the 2019 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (USA). Past appearances include the Career Development Residency at Ottawa Chamberfest under the mentorship of Gryphon Trio. Despite the challenges presented by the 2020 pandemic, the trio performed virtually at several international events, including the season opening gala concert at the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste, Italy, the 2020 Refugee Student Fund Benefit Concert at the University of Toronto’s Innis College, “Concert in the Cloud,” a virtual concert in China celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday, Music in the Atrium at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and the Skyky Multicultural Learning Foundation’s Youth Fundraising Concert for SickKids Foundation.
Bedford Trio is committed to commissioning and performing contemporary repertoire by both established and emerging composers. Since 2018, the trio has been working with grade 11 composition students at Earl Haig Secondary School, workshopping their compositions throughout the academic year and performing them as part of the year-end showcase. The trio is dedicated to bringing live music performance to a diverse audience and has given recitals in senior residences, community centres, hospices, and hospitals across Ontario. During the 2019-2020 season, the trio delivered sensory-friendly concerts for autistic youth and their families and performed for adults with Alzheimer in collaboration with the charity organization Xenia Concerts.
Bedford Trio was founded in 2016, and features award winning instrumentalists Alessia Disimino (violin), Emma Schmiedecke (cello), and Jialiang Zhu (piano) and is currently based in Toronto, Canada. To learn about Bedford Trio’s latest events, please visit bedfordtrio.com/concerts and follow them on Instagram @bedford trio.
Founded in 2019, Sirius Piano Duo is passionate about connecting Canadian and Chinese culture through music by promoting Canadian music, arranging Chinese literature into piano music, and merging classical music with different genres. Sirius Piano Duo was founded by pianists Dr. Pei-Chen Chen and Dr. Mengjie Xiong. They met in graduate school in Toronto. In 2021, Sirius Piano Duo recorded the Canadian piano duet series- The Northern Lights.