Prima Trio Shares Music with Students

On Monday January 27, the Prima Trio, an award-winning chamber group, played a special concert for the K-8 students of St. Sebastian School in West LA. The group - Anastasia Dedik (Piano), Boris Allakhverdyan (Clarinet) and David Bogorad (Violin) - performed pieces by Darius Milhaud, Argentine composer Astor Piazzola, and American composer Peter Shickele.
The three accomplished musicians demonstrated musical prowess and diverse repertoire and also engaged the crowd in lively discussion.

Before playing the Piazzola, David explained that it was a tango piece by one of the most celebrated Argentine composers.  "Do you know where Argentina is?" he asked the students.  Many of them raised their hands.  After playing the piece, students said the tango music made them want to dance.  The trio then described Peter Shickele as an American composer who honors American musical theater traditions in the piece "Serenade for Three." After the third movement was played, one student wanted to know why David performs with high animation, moves and makes facial expressions.  The trio explained that it helps them to emote through the music if they are able to move and react to it.  David then very humorously played a happy, upbeat tune with a serious face, and the students delighted in the example.

One of the students in 8th Grade asked, "Can you play Star Wars?" After a moment of thought, David managed to perfectly play the first few measures of the Star Wars theme from memory, to everyone's delight.  Anastasia also played a bit of the Titanic theme.

The Prima Trio's outreach performance for St. Sebastian School was arranged through ETM-LA's partnership with The Da Camera Society.  Professional artist outreach is an important part of ETM-LA's efforts to create cultural enrichment opportunities for students at partner schools.  St. Sebastian Principal, Ed Hermeno commented, "These performances expose our students to music that they do not hear anywhere else. Having visiting performers play at our school enriches each individual student and the entire St. Sebastian community.  Also, since some of our students are learning violin and piano, our students can see (in the performers) what they have to aspire to."

The Prima Trio won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition's Grand Prize and Gold Medal in 2007.  Learn more about the Prima Trio and future performances at www.primatrio.com.