The Sapphire Trio: Margaret Nichols-Baldridge on violin, Maxine Ramey on clarinet and Jody Graves on piano. Their concert is 3 p.m., April 23 at Seeley-Swan High School.
SEELEY LAKE - Three doctors with musical instruments, spreading music and friendship at home and abroad! Yes, that aptly describes The Sapphire Trio with Maxine Ramey on clarinet, Margaret Nichols-Baldridge on violin and Jody Graves on piano.
They will be playing a public concert in Seeley Lake April 23, at 3 p.m. on the NEW STAGE at the Seeley-Swan High School.
The last concert of the 2 Valleys Stage (2VS) 2016-2017 season, the performance will be followed by a dinner reception, hosted by Citizens' Alliance Bank. All those who have supported 2VS with their donations and attendance are invited to come to the bank for the 5:30 p.m. reception.
The Sapphire Trio was formed in 1998 to explore both the standard and newly created literature for clarinet, violin and piano, bringing to the concert stage the master works that exist in the repertoire. The artists are university faculty members from the Pacific Northwest-USA, and are active as soloists, chamber musicians, master teachers and clinicians, appearing regularly in performances and festivals throughout the Northwest region, the United States and abroad. Their concerts feature a wide range of repertoire from Khachaturian to Gershwin and often include multi-media presentations.
The Sapphire Trio has been featured as the headline performance for several state, national and international conferences. An exciting part of their mission is to serve as cultural ambassadors in international concert events and exchanges. The Sapphire Trio is committed to continuing this legacy of fine art music, celebrating its universal language across the globe and upholding the art of chamber music as an exciting and dynamic performance genre. Their concerts include a wide range of new works, traditional works and transcriptions, along with stories and vignettes about the composers and the music.
In addition to formal concerts the trio presents lecture-recitals and master classes in K-12 schools and collegiate concert series. In 2006 the Sapphire Trio served as Cultural Ambassadors for the United States in the Persian Gulf, performing concerts and speaking about American music in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. They have maintained an international touring schedule since 1999.
They have also served as adjudicators for the Palestinian National Music Festival in 2010 and 2012, and have toured, performed and taught in Jerusalem and the West Bank region in 2010, 2011 and 2012. They have also been featured headline performers for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conference and the International Clarinet Festivals (ICA) in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Italy and Spain. In 2016 they were invited guest artists at Corpus University in Bogota, Colombia and featured performing artists for the International EAFIT conference in Medellin, Colombia.
The trio has had several works written for them, and commissioned works include a world premiere of 'Medical Records' by composer Charles Nichols which was premiered at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Ramey, Nichols-Baldridge and Graves are also active soloists, clinicians and master class teachers.
The press reviews have called their performances "exciting...imaginative and compelling" (The Peninsula/Qatar) and their sponsored tour in the Persian Gulf was named by the U.S. State Department as the 'Number One' international tour exchange event of the season. For more information, please visit: http://www.thesapphiretrio.com.
The Sapphire Trio has a busy schedule while in the Seeley Lake area. Thursday, April 20, they will present an informance at Swan Valley School from 10:30-11:15 a.m. and they will work with Seeley-Swan high school music students from 12:46-1:48 p.m. Friday they will give an informance for Seeley Lake Elementary Students (SLE) from 10-10:45 a.m. and work with SLE music students from 10:45- 11:15 a.m.
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