Montrose Trio kicks off spring concert season

Published January 23, 2020

The Montrose Trio will visit UB Jan. 31 for the third concert of this year’s Slee Visiting Artist Series presented by the Department of Music.

The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The trio — Martin Beaver, violin; Clive Greensmith, cello; and Jon Kimura Parker, piano — will perform Dvořák’s Trio in E minor, Op. 90, “Dumky,” and Schubert’s Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898.

While this may be the first official visit to UB of the Montrose Trio, it’s a return visit for two of the trio’s members. Beaver and Greensmith are former members of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet, and performed at UB with the quartet during the ensemble’s 2005 and 2007 presentations of the Slee Beethoven String Quartet Cycle, and when the quartet performed at UB during its farewell tour in 2012-13.

More recently, Beaver and Greensmith performed two Brahms sextets with the Miró String Quartet in two concerts the quartet presented in fall 2016 that were co-sponsored by the Department of Music and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society.

The Montrose Trio was formed in 2013, thanks to a collaboration stemming from a long and successful relationship between Parker and the Tokyo String Quartet. Parker was the final guest of the quartet before it disbanded after the 2012-13 season, and a backstage conversation with Beaver and Greensmith led to the Montrose Trio’s creation.

Named after Chateau Montrose, a storied Bordeaux wine long favored after concerts — with a nod to the Montrose Arts District of Houston and the street in Winnipeg where Beaver was raised — the Montrose Trio has quickly established a reputation for performances of the highest distinction. In 2015, the Washington Post raved about its “absolutely top-notch music-making, as fine as one could ever expect to hear … they are poised to become one of the top piano trios in the world.”

Tickets for the Montrose Trio are available through a variety of outlets at the following pricing structure:

UB faculty, staff, alumni, seniors and non-UB students

$10 plus $2.18 fee and minimal credit card charge at eventbrite.

$14 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday)

$17 in person at the door (one hour before concert time)

General public

$15 plus $2.18 fee and minimal credit card charge at eventbrite.

$19 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday)

$22 in person at the door (one hour before concert time)

UB students are admitted free with ID.

For a complete listing of all concerts being presented by the Department of Music, visit the department’s website.