Caldwell Fine Arts 2009-2010 Season

September 17
Thursday, 7:30 pm

$10 - $12 adult; $6 - $8 student/child
Upper level seats are listed first. Includes all fees

The Langroise Trio and tenor Corey McKnight, formerly with Chanticleer, perform music by Idaho composer Jim Cockey. Soprano Mari Jo Tynon; Mezzo Soprano, Marianne Saunders; pianists Lisa Derry, Paul Moulton, Robyn Wells, and Betsi Hodges (adjunct for the fall) and organist Sean Rogers, plus various instrumental faculty members will provide a variety of music which will please the audience. For example, Dr. Moulton, who teaches music history and literature, has discovered many interesting stories about Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s music and her relationship to Felix Mendelssohn, her famous younger brother. He will play one of her selections: Lied, which translates to “Song.”

The Langroise Trio was established in 1991 through a bequest by Gladys Langroise who also provided the Langroise Fine Arts Building on the College of Idaho campus. The Trio has performed on chamber music series across the United States, including performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Their repertoire includes music from the Romantic, Classical, Baroque and Renaissance eras, as well as 20th and 21st Century. They have had particularly successful premiers of works by Idaho composers, Jim Cockey and David Alan Earnest.

Dr. Robert Hendren, president of The College, conducted a national search for a violinist, violist, and cellist. Those selected were to exemplify for students, educators and professional musicians a broad education, specialized skills, and diversified experience to shape the Treasure Valley's musical and cultural future. As Artists-in-Residence at The College of Idaho, the Langroise Trio provides students with a unique chamber music emphasis and intensive training in their individual instruments within a traditional liberal arts curriculum. As members of the Boise Philharmonic, the Langroise Trio members have been concerto soloists and play prominent roles within the orchestra.

The British-born violinist Geoffrey Trabichoff graduated from London's Guildhall School of Music at the age of eighteen. While continuing his studies with the renowned Russian pedagogue Sascha Lasserson, he began his career freelancing with the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. For 15 years, he was the concertmaster and frequent soloist with the B.B.C. Scottish Symphony Orchestra and has collaborated with many conductors in Europe. Since arriving in America in 1997 to become a member of the Langroise Trio, he became the concertmaster of the Boise Philharmonic and has been the assistant concertmaster with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony for several years.

Violist David Johnson won a position in the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic as a high school senior. He attended Butler University in Indianapolis before transferring to Indiana University where he completed a bachelors and masters degrees with high distinction. At Indiana, he studied with Abraham Skernick and performed a series of concerts in Carnegie Recital Hall. After college, David became Principal Viola with the Iceland Symphony, and then returned to the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic as Principal Violist for 9 years. He became a founding member of the Freimann String Quartet and Assistant Principal Violist of the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago for 12 years. He joined the Langroise Trio in 1992. His three sons have occasionally joined him for a family quartet.

Cellist Sam Smith attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he studied with Joseph Saunders and was principal cellist with the Richmond, Anderson, and Muncie Symphonies. He also served as adjunct faculty at Anderson College and on the summer faculty at Ball State. Then he began a two-year tenure with the Florida Symphony. In 1981, Sam became the St. Wayne Philharmonic's principal cellist and a member of the Freimann Strin Quartet, a position he held for ten season. During the summers, he played with the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago from 1983-1991. Then, he became the first member of the Langroise Trio where he teaches cello and directs The College of Idaho Sinfonia. He combines the study of cello and martial arts and served as founder and artistic director of the Sawtooth Cello Festival. With the Boise Philharmonic, Sam has performed concerti by Saint-Saens, Shostokovich and Barber, as well as the world premiere of a cello concerto composed for him by David Alan Earnest.

Countertenor Corey McKnight, a graduate of Vallivue High School, started studying voice in 1984 with Dorothy Barnes at the University of Idaho, and later with voice instructor William Miller, Professor Emeritus from the University of Illinois. In 1991, Mr. McKnight was summoned to sing with Chanticleer, the Grammy Award Winning 12-member a' cappella professional vocal ensemble, based in San Francisco. During this time he performed in Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, Holland, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, The Philippines and all 50 states in the U.S.

While singing with Chanticleer, Corey had the privilege of singing with the San Francisco Symphony, The New York Philharmonic, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Alcatraz. He has had the fortune of singing on 12 Chanticleer recordings, two of which can now be heard as part of the movie soundtrack in the Jack Black film, "Nacho Libre." In 1997, he sang with The American Bach Soloists, The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and The Schola Cantorum at the Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Corey can be found on a CD entitled "Christmas with the Stars," which includes artists Placido Domingo, Natalie Cole and Enya. The American Record Guide has described his voice as exquisite. In 2005, Corey released a solo CD entitled "My Solitude”, which has been getting some great reviews. One of the tracks, "the Gift", has been included as part of a movie soundtrack. The film is called "The Books of John" and will be released at the end of this year.

Currently, Mr. McKnight lives in Boise, where he sings occasionally as a soloist with the St. Michael's Cathedral Choir, the Boise Philharmonic, Boise Baroque Orchestra, Opera Idaho, and the Langroise Trio. Mr. McKnight has voice students in Boise as well as at The College of Idaho, where he is an Adjunct Voice Instructor. He likes to write and record music whenever he has spare time.

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