Trium to perform free show in Exeter

Looking to relax and enjoy some sophisticated music after a long day of voting? A free vocal performance by a trio of sopranos at Phillips Exeter Academy might be just the thing. Trium will perform a show titled “Brief Is Life, but Love Is Long” inside Phillips Church at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 8—beginning an hour before the primary polls close down in Exeter.

Sopranos Gail Abbey, Margaret Johnson and Susan Trout sing compositions written by artists from a variety of eras, including Dunstable, Dufay, Rossi, Luzzaschi, Mendelsohn, Holst, Schumann and Bernstein. The singers will pull from 600 years worth of classical love songs, delving into both the torment and glory that love has evoked throughout the history of humankind.

Abbey, Johnson and Trout began singing together as members of Emmanuel Music’s soprano section and formed their own trio in 1997. Since then, they have premiered in Martin Boykan’s “Three Songs from Shakespeare” and, in 2006, performed a program of Schumann trios in Emmanuel Music’s Chamber Music Series. Trium has released one CD, called “Songs of Three.”
Phillips Church is located at the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street near downtown Exeter. The performance on Tuesday is part of the Academy’s concert series, which will feature faculty recitals on Jan. 29 and Feb. 5, and a student concert on Feb. 12. For a full schedule of music events, visit www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_2990.aspx. Trium’s show is free and open to the public. 

Oscar Peterson dies
at 82

Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson died of kidney failure at his home in Ontario on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 23. Considered one of the greatest pianists in the history of jazz, Peterson achieved a rare level of popularity in the genre, releasing more than 70 live and studio recordings with various ensembles during the course of his 50-plus-year career.

Born in Montreal in 1925, Peterson began playing music as a child and honed his piano skills as a teenager while in high school. He was heavily influenced by the great Art Tatum, to whom he would later frequently be compared. In the 1950s, after signing with Verve Records, Peterson established himself as one of the finest living jazz pianists. He went on to play and record prolifically in solo, duet, trio, quartet and big band formats, collaborating with such legends as singers Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, trumpeters Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Stan Getz, guitarist Joe Pass and fellow pianists Count Basie and Herbie Hancock. He eventually turned to teaching piano in the Toronto area, where he lived until the time of his death.

Peterson received countless awards and honors during his career, including eight Grammy awards. In 1989, he was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame and, in 1997, he was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame. Peterson’s death came just over a month after the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame announced its intention to present him with the prestigious Founder’s Award for 2008.

For more information on Oscar Peterson, visit www.oscarpeterson.com. Plans for a public memorial service were in the works last week.