YOUR AD HERE »

The Tasman String Trio returns to Vail for winter residency

Special to the Daily
ALL |

VAIL, Colorado “The Tasman String Trio is back for a week-long winter residency with the Bravo! Vail Vail Music Festival, marking their second winter residency with the festival.

The trio will perform free concerts in local schools and conduct after-school workshops for young musicians. In addition to their work with young audiences, the trio will perform a free community concert at St. George Episcopal Church in Leadville Sunday at 5:30 p.m. The complimentary concert will be followed by a potluck dinner.

Each year, Bravo’s winter residency reaches more than 500 children and adults. The fun and lively performances help remove barriers between musicians and audiences, and produces a general interest and engagement in chamber music, according to Bravo’s Education Director Liz Campbell.



“The trio really reaches out to the young children at these performances,” Campbell says. “It’s a treat to see the kid’s faces light up when the musicians perform.”

The winter residency is made possible though the Colorado Council on the Arts, Terie and Gary Roubos, Cookie and Jim Flaumm, The Christie Lodge and the University of Colorado.

Support Local Journalism



The Tasman String Quartet, now the Tasman String Trio, was formed in 2006 by Anna van der Zee, Christiaan van der Zee and Miranda Wilson, three young New Zealanders who had recently returned home following university studies in Germany, England and the United States. Their reputation for fresh, lively interpretations of the classics spread quickly throughout their homeland, where they were invited to perform in many cities.

The group is named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, the first European to sight New Zealand. According to the trio, the players also see themselves as “explorers” in the exciting field of chamber music.

The Tasman String Quartet was invited by the New Zealand String Quartet to take up a residency position at the New Zealand School of Music in early 2007, a position they held with some distinction until their departure for the United States in August 2007. Currently they are in residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where they study and perform under the guidance of the legendary Takacs Quartet.

The Tasman String Quartet retains strong connections with their homeland, having recently toured New Zealand in October 2008 for Chamber Music New Zealand, New Zealand’s national chamber music organization. In February 2009, they will travel to Auburn, Alabama to take up a month-long residency as guest faculty quartet-in-residence at Auburn University.

The Trio’s residency kicks off with Bravo on Sunday at the St. George Episcopal Church in Leadville and continues with performances in local schools throughout the week. For details call 970-827-4302 or visit http://www.vailmusicfestival.org.

Celebrating 22 years in the Vail Valley in 2009, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival is a hallmark cultural attraction in Colorado. Bringing in four ensembles: the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the Bravo! Festival has established Vail as one of today’s leading musical landmarks. For a complete festival lineup, visit http://www.vailmusicfestival.org or call 877-812-5700.


Support Local Journalism