THE WEBSTER TRIO

Friday, September 19, 2008
Faculty Recital
The Webster Trio
Leone Buyse, flute
Michael Webster, clarinet
Robert Moeling, piano
Program: Walter Gieseking - Sonatine for Flute and Piano (1935); Karel Husa - Three Studies for Solo Clarinet (2007; Texas premiere); Robert Sirota - Birds of Paradise for flute, clarinet, and piano (Texas premiere; commissioned by Leone Buyse and Michael Webster); Niels Gade - Fantasy Pieces, Op. 43 for clarinet, and piano (1864); and Johannes Brahms - Hungarian Dance Suite No. 2 (2008; arranged by for flute, clarinet, and piano by Michael Webster).
8:00 p.m., Duncan Recital Hall

The Webster Trio was founded in 1988 by Michael Webster and Leone Buyse in order to expand and promote the repertoire for flute, clarinet, and piano through commissions, transcriptions, and research. The trio's pianist is Robert Moeling; other previous collaborative pianists have been the legendary Beveridge Webster, Michael's late father and a long-time member of the Juilliard School faculty, pianist-composer Martin Amlin of Boston University, and University of Michigan faculty member Katherine Collier. In Japan Buyse and Webster perform with pianist Chizuko Sawa as the Webster Trio Japan, touring throughout Japan and giving recitals at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Bunka Kaikan.

The Webster Trio is also deeply committed to music education. During concerts their interactive commentary greatly enhances the enjoyment and understanding of audiences, whether English-speaking or Japanese. While touring, they seek opportunities for outreach through visits to elementary, middle, and high schools as well as universities. One of their most memorable school concerts to date was for a student body of 12 in a rural area of southern Japan. Following the trio's performance, during which Buyse and Webster had addressed the schoolchildren and faculty in Japanese, the school's principal gave a speech explaining that he had just learned how to be a more effective teacher and also how to enjoy classical music for the first time in his life. One of the students later wrote "When you played, I felt a fountain in my heart."