DPU faculty to perform music by Beethoven and Frank

The DePauw University School of Music's Faculty Select Series continues Monday night (March 14) in Thompson Recital Hall with a performance by the DePauw Chamber Players, featuring music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Gabriella Lena Frank.

Music professors pianist May Phang, violinist Tarn Travers, and cellist Eric Edberg will open the 7:30 p.m. program with Beethoven's four-movement "Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97." Known by musicians and audiences as the "Archduke" Trio, because it was dedicated to Beethoven's patron Rudolf von Österreich, it is one of the most beloved works in the standard piano trio repertoire.

After a brief intermission, clarinetist Randy Salman will join his colleagues for "Hilos," Gabriella Lena Frank's exciting work, inspired by Peruvian folk music and dance, and combining elements of classical music and jazz.

The four DePauw professors gave their first performance of this piece last month as part of the "Music of the 21st Century" festival.

"It's a piece that's both immensely fun and very challenging to play," Edberg said. "We learned so much working on it with Gabriella while she was here in Greencastle, and it's such a wonderful work. Many of the audience members said they'd love to hear it a second time, so this is a sort of 'command encore performance.'"

Phang performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician, in venues such as the Goethe Institute in Bangkok, Tianjin Conservatory Concert Hall in China, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C., and Chicago Cultural Center, Detroit Institute of Art.

A winner of several competitions, Phang has performed with orchestras such as the Banff Chamber Players, Singapore Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and has also been featured on radio and television in Canada, Singapore and the U.S. Her debut solo CD, "Travels Through Time," inspired by Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," was praised as being "imaginative" and "enchanted."

Noted for his "polished, atmospheric performances," Travers has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. He spent three years in the New World Symphony, often leading the orchestra as concertmaster and also appearing three times as a soloist. He is a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and was Principal Second Violin of the International Beethoven Festival Orchestra in Chicago in 2012 and 2013, where he also performed chamber music live on WFMT.

Currently on the DePauw faculty, Travers has seen his love of teaching has taken him to such far-flung locations as Haiti and Austria, where he joined the faculty of AlpenKammerMusik in 2014 and 2015.

Edberg, a concert organizer, workshop leader and drum circle facilitator committed to enlivening and connecting people through music, is the founder and artistic director of the Greencastle Summer Music Festival, which has "brought the community together with friends making music for friends" since 2005.

An acclaimed cellist, Edberg has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician with artists including Grammy-winning pianist/composer Fernando Otero; pianists Claude Cymerman, Taka Kigawa and May Phang; cellist David Darling; and flutist Paul Horn. Dedicated to music as a healing force and to bringing classical music "everywhere," Edberg has played in nursing homes, schools, hospitals, prisons and even the New York City subways.

Salman is principal clarinetist with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra and has worked professionally with the Indianapolis Symphony and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestras, David Baker, Quincy Jones, Tony Bennett and many others. Salman is the Jazz Editor for The Clarinet Journal where he contributes CD reviews and articles on a regular basis.

An active freelance musician, Salman performs for many famous touring ensembles and shows. He is an active studio musician on a variety of educational recordings for various music publishing companies. An accomplished performer of both jazz and classical music, he has been a faculty member of the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops since the late 1980s. Salman has performed, toured and recorded extensively with both the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Chicago Jazz Orchestra, among others.