Roanoke College has been awarded a ,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius initiative. This is the first time that the College has received an NEA grant, and the award will support a performance and recording project of the College’s ensemble-in-residence, the Kandinsky Trio.
The Kandinsky Trio will use the grant to perform and record chamber music by Gunther Schuller and John D’earth. The ensemble will tour in Virginia and West Virginia, performing Schuller’s piano quartet, “On Light Wings,” and two compositions by D’earth: “Silent Faustus” and “Natural Bridge.” The latter was composed for the Kandinsky Trio with jazz bass and jazz guitar. In addition, the ensemble plans to record these works on the OmniTone label for release in 2011 – 2012.
Now in its twenty-second season, the Kandinsky Trio has performed over a thousand concerts of high caliber chamber music in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Its recordings are aired regularly on Boston’s WGBH, Chicago’s WFMT and the Maine, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Public Radio Networks. Live performances have been broadcast on the “MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour,” numerous times on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and radio station WNYC’s “Around New York.” Described as “spirited and persuasive” by American Record Guide, the Kandinsky Trio draws in new audiences with both its passionate performances of masterworks and innovative ideas in re-defining chamber music. One of its newest projects, with storyteller/whistler Andy Offutt Irwin, features unique arrangements of jazz standards and folk music to create a totally original musical experience.
The NEA is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, and the current grant initiative was launched in 2007 to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. This year, the American Masterpieces program celebrates the extraordinary and rich evolution of chamber music in the United States. Grants were awarded for projects that highlight specific repertoire by American composers.
