Innisfree Piano Trio Perform Works of Henry Martin

NEW PALTZ — The Innisfree Piano Trio, comprised of musicians from the faculty at SUNY New Paltz, will perform the music of Henry Martin in a concert on Tuesday, September 24, at 8 p.m. in the college’s Julien J. Studley Theater. Martin’s music combines rhythmic jazz – blues, rags, fox trots, and boogie-woogie – with classical forms reminiscent of his heroes, Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven. The Boston Globe described his style as a mixture of contemporary harmony and jazz: “There are moody blues, toccata-like preludes, perpetual motion, finger-twisting fugues and eruptive episodes of chords and octaves,” the Globe wrote. “It is impossible not to be impressed.”

SUNY New Paltz’s Innisfree Trio will perform four of the composer’s works: This Living Hand, for violin and piano; Sweet Converse, for cello and piano; Piano Trio in C-Sharp Minor, and Sonata No. 1 in F Minor for Solo Cello, which was written for Innisfree cellist Susan Seligman. The trio also includes Carole Cowan on violin and Sylvia Buccelli on piano.

Martin, who won the National Composers Competition in 1991 and the Barlow International Composition Competition in 1998 with his breakthrough work, Preludes and Fuges, teaches at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. He is also an author and music theorist. Innisfree’s performances of Martin’s Sonata and Piano Trio in 2001 were world premieres and both will be recorded for release on compact disc in 2003.

Tickets for the Innisfree concert are available at the door: $6, general admission; $5 for college faculty and staff; and $3 for students. For more information, call the SUNY New Paltz Music Department at 845-257-2700.

An image of composer Henry Martin is available at: http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/henry4-09-02.html