Feb. 5, 2024

Contact Mary Ellen Haupert at 608-796-3770 or mehaupert@viterbo.edu

VITERBO UNIVERSITY OUT OF OUR MINDS CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES TO FEATURE PIANO QUARTETS BY MAHLER AND BRAHMS FEB. 11

LA CROSSE, Wis. – The third concert of the Out of Our Minds Chamber Series will feature pianist Mary Ellen Haupert and the Druzhba Trio—violinist Michelle Lee Elliott, violist Busya Lugovier, and cellist Derek Clark—at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11 in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Nola Starling Recital Hall.

The program will feature Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor (1876) and Brahm’s Piano Quartet No. 2, Op. 26.

The Druzhba Trio (which means friendship in Russian) was formed by violist Busya Lugovier. It was out of friendship and admiration that she asked violinist Michelle Lee Elliott and cellist Derek Clark to be part of the ensemble. When not playing in the trio, these three exceptional La Crosse musicians can be seen and heard on all stages in the area.

Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A minor was composed in 1876 when he was just 16. It is his first known work and composed while still a student at the Vienna Conservatory. While there is a dark, brooding quality to it, anyone hearing it for the first time would be hard pressed to identify it as a work by Gustav Mahler. The more mature Johannes Brahms premiered his Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 26 a few years earlier in November 1862 with Brahms himself as pianist, the performance taking place in Vienna with members of Joseph Hellmesberger’s Quartet. The two works are expressive and passionate; both composed by exceptional composers of the Romantic period.

The concert is free and open to the public. There will be a free will offering to cover artist fees and marketing expenses.

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