Old friends, new experience

The Auburn Chamber Music Society concerts by the Arron/Kawasaki/Park Trio will mark the second time the group has performed publicly together - but its members are old friends.

Cello player, Edward Arron, and violinist, Yosuke Kawasaki, both grew up in New York City and have known each other since high school. The two friends also attended The Juilliard School together.

“We’ve been playing together on a semi-regular basis in different combinations - duos, quartets, quintets - for the past 14 years,” Arron recently said by telephone from his home in New York City about his fellow musician and long-time friend, Kawasaki. “He’s one of the most natural musicians and one of the most enjoyable players to elaborate with.”

Arron met the trio’s pianist, Jeewon Park, seven years ago. The two were musically introduced by Park’s professor from the university she attended in Korea.

“Park was his favorite student,” Arron said.

After years of being united on a musical level, Arron and Park decided to tie the knot last year.

“In a way, we fell in love through music,” Arron said.

Arron also has musical and social relationships with people in the Auburn-Opelika area as well. In November 2006, he performed as a last-minute substitution in the Amadeus Trio, which was also a Auburn Chamber Music Society concert.

“I’ve always avoided playing in a regular group where you always play with the same people all the time,” Arron said. “I feel like I learn more that way, and I’m exposed to a lot of different kinds of music that way.”

Of course, that won’t stop Arron from joining Park and Kawasaki for a reunion. The trio first performed together several years ago during a concert in Boston.

“We don’t play as a trio very often, but our history together goes back so far there’s this great familiarity and deep experience with one another,” Arron said. “We’re basically continuing our dialogue as friends by playing together.”

The concert will open with Piano Trio in A-flat major, Hoboken, XV:14 composed by Franz Josef Haydn in the 1770s. Haydn was the first person to write a “legitimate” piano trio, Arron said.

“His music is both very elegant, and humorous and quirky,” he said.

The next piece will be Adagio in E-flat major, Deutsch 897, “Nottruno,” composed by Franz Schubert just before he died at age 31. The work was described by Arron as a “sublime” and “very ethereal suspended piece” that has a “stormy” middle section.

For contrast, the trio will then play two tango movements composed by Astor Piazzolla, who was born in Argentina and grew up in New York City. Piazzolla was known as the “king of the tango.”

“He had a miraculous way of interpreting that dance form into great music,” Arron said.

Thursday’s performance will end with Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F minor, Opus 65, described by Arron as a challenging piece with “colorful harmonies.”

“The three of us are really excited to sink our teeth into that piece,” he said. “I have been looking for an opportunity to play that for a long time. It’s a powerful piece. It just transports you to another world.”

The trio’s one-hour performance Friday at the museum will be a soiree-style concert featuring excerpts from pieces by Schubert, Bach, Handel-Halvorson, Prokofiev, Granados and Piazzolla.

The Arron/Kawasaki/Park Trio performances are “much anticipated,” by a number of people in the area, said Auburn Chamber Music Society Co-President Virginia Transue, who, along with her husband, William, became fast friends with Arron during his previous visit.

The trio is also looking forward to their upcoming performances in Auburn, Arron said.

“I have really fond memories of my last trip to Auburn because there was such a warm reception from the people and the community,” Arron said, adding, “It’s not like that everywhere I go - it’s special.”