The University of Maine at Presque Isle will present Trio JIM for an afternoon of original and classic works on Saturday, June 28 at 4 p.m. in the Gauvin Family Center for Cultural Arts, located in Wieden Hall. All campus and community members are invited to attend this special, free admission event.
The award-winning members of Trio JIM—John Newell on piano, Ina Litera on viola, and Matt Goeke on cello—will perform works by Beethoven, Frank Bridge, F.A. Hoffmeister, and G.F. Handel. The afternoon performance will also include the Maine premiere of Trio by Gerald Cohen and the world premiere of Scenes from Here and There by John Newell.
Trio JIM was born in Lubec, Maine, where all three members are on faculty at SummerKeys, a summer program for adults. They have regularly been presented on the Mary Potterton Memorial Concert Series, finding and arranging works for the not frequently heard combination of viola, cello, and piano.
Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1949, John Newell’s earliest musical training was in piano. He attended Duke University (B.A. 1971) and the recently established California Institute of the Arts (M.F.A. 1973). His formal training was completed at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Holder of the first Edgard Varèse Fellowship, he received his Ph.D. in 1979. He has composed a broad range of works for orchestra, chorus, solo instruments, and chamber groups. Organizations that have commissioned works include Eight Strings & a Whistle, Bowery Ensemble and Atlantic Sinfonietta (New York), Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), the Enid Symphony Orchestra (Oklahoma), Resinosa Ensemble, Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra, and Songs From Here (Maine). His work has received support from the American Music Center, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Meet the Composer. He self-publishes his works through Abierto Music and he is a member of BMI. He was the founding director of Quoddy Voices, a choral ensemble based in Eastport, Maine, and is on the faculty of the SummerKeys adult music program in Lubec, Maine.
Violist Ina Litera is an active symphonic and chamber musician, performing with many
New York–based ensembles. Along with Suzanne Gilchrest and Matthew Goeke, she is a member of the award-winning trio, Eight Strings & a Whistle. As a soloist, she has performed Hindemith’s Trauermusik, Dittersdorf’s Sinfonia Concertante, Hummel’s Potpourri, and Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. In October, along with her trio mates, she premiered Jorge Amado’s triple concert at Merkin Concert Hall. She premiered Douglas Anderson’s solo viola work “…mood, enough…” and recorded it for the Ravello Records 2018 release ‘One at a Time’. She has performed and recorded with many notable musicians, including saxophonist David Sanborn, John Zorn, Chris Rael, Galt MacDermott, and with the band Church of Betty. Live radio performances include appearances on “Around New York” on WNYC, WBAI Radio, and “Live 11” on Maine Public Radio. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at The City University of New York, and Viola faculty at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City. She holds a B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music and a M.A. from the City College of New York.
Matt Goeke, cellist, performs as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra player in a broad range of musical styles. His experience with contemporary music includes the SEM Ensemble, Cross Town Ensemble, North/South Consonance, the Kitchen House Blend and Glass Farm Ensemble. He is a member of Eight Strings & a Whistle, an award-winning flute, viola, cello trio, di.vi.sion piano trio, and is an active free-lance musician throughout the New York metropolitan area. He has recorded with North/South Recordings and 4Tay, Inc., Opus One Records, Polygram, Elektra, Tzadik and Koch International Classics labels. This past December, he was a featured soloist with the New York Repertory Orchestra, where he performed the Weinberg Cello Concerto. He holds a B.M. (1986) and M.M. (1988) degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He coaches with the New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Program and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Borough of Manhattan Community College/ City of University of New York, in addition to having an active private studio. His teachers include Jerome Carrington, Marion Feldman, Robert Gardner, and Aldo Parisot.
The public is invited to attend this free concert. For more information about the Trio JIM performance at UMPI, please call 207-768-9426 or e-mail kayli.malenfant@maine.edu.