On Thursday ASU will be welcoming Trío Montecino, a group that is seeking to bring "Latin spice" and diversity to classical music.
The trio is comprised of a clarinetist, David Shea, cellist, Pablo Mahave-Veglia and a pianist, Paulina Zamora. The trio first met at Indiana University where they attended Jacobs School of Music together. During their time at IU they came across an impactful professor and Chilean pianist named Alfonso Montecino. Montecino then became the inspiration for the trio's name.
David Shea, the clarinetist of the group, is now a professor at Texas Tech University. He began playing the clarinet at the age of 11 and has continued playing it for 40 years now. He was first introduced to the instrument through his public school’s band program.
Shea looked back at how the trio came to be and how it all got started when they were doctorate students. He recalled how the three of them were asked to play together during a recital at IU.
“We were asked to play at a concert at Indiana (University) and so we all performed in a trio," he said. "We formed the (official) trio a few years later."
Paulina Zamora is an associate professor of piano and coordinator of master degree in instrumental performance at the University of Chile. She was 7 years old when she began playing the piano and becoming involved with music. Classical music ran throughout her family, and she said she was surrounded by it her entire childhood.
“My mother is a soprano who sang at the opera in Santiago, and my father is a semi-professional musician,” she said. “I grew up listening to classical music and love it so much that (I) dedicated my life to study and perform both solo and chamber music.”
Pablo Mahave-Veglia is also a part of the trio and plays the cello for the group. He is currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mahave-Veglia is an associate professor of cello at Grand Valley State University. Zamora and Mahave-Veglia actually knew each other prior to the forming of Trio Montecino, having grown up together in Chile.
The group's performance on Thursday will feature both contemporary and classical works from a variety of artists. Trío Montecino will present works from composers such as Victor Agudelo, Karina Glasinovic, Gerardo and Johannes Brahms. Their program focuses mainly on classical and modern Southern and Latin American music in order to bring diversity and appreciation to different types of cultural works.
“We would like to invite the whole community of students, faculty and general public,” Zamora said. “It is an interesting program where you can listen to new compositions that are suggestive, fun, with a touch of Latin spicy rhythms and melodies, and ending with the wonderful Brahms Trio that is like touching heaven.”
Aside from the music they will be playing at their upcoming concert, the trio has also released two CDs together. Their first CD, “Trío Montecino,” was released in November of 2004. Their more recent CD, “Nuevo Sonido: Latin-American Tríos,” was released four years later, in 2008.
Robert Spring, a professor of clarinet at ASU, said he invited the trio because he wanted to bring a more cultural sound to ASU’s music program in order to provide students with a more diverse musical experience.
“David is an old friend of mine,” he said. “We wanted to do something together and this opportunity arose as a chance for us to bring him and his group … It is a part of our mission to show students the diverse experience at the University.”
The concert will be on Oct. 20 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Katzin Concert Hall. The performance will be free to both students and the general public.
Reach the reporter at mmbaiett@asu.edu or follow @marcellabaietto on Twitter.
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