Travis Rivers: Aetos Trio debuts at Met concert

The Spokane Chamber Music Association usually presents a string quartet, but this week it’s offering eagles.

At least, the group playing Sunday at The Met is the Aetos Trio – named after the golden eagles of Greek mythology.

The Aetos Trio was formed this fall by violinist Misha Rosenker, cellist John Marshall and pianist Kendall Feeney, all of Eastern Washington University’s music department. Sunday’s concert marks the group’s debut.

“We were searching for a catchy name for the trio,” says Feeney, “and a friend who teaches a mythology course at Eastern thought we ought to call ourselves Eagles since other EWU teams have that name, but that we should dress it up a little by putting it in Greek.”

The trio will be joined by another EWU faculty member, clarinetist Todd DelGiudice.

The program includes Maurice Ravel’s trio for piano, violin and cello along with Darius Milhaud’s Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano and David Schiff’s Divertimento from “Gimpel the Fool” for clarinet, cello and piano.

Both Feeney and Marshall are well-known to Spokane audiences.

Feeney was the founder and artistic director of Zephyr, a series that presented adventurous programs of 20th-century chamber music before closing shop in 2003. She teaches piano and is director of EWU’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Marshall, principal cellist of the Spokane Symphony, is the former cellist of the Spokane String Quartet and director of the CELLObration Spokane Festival.

Both Rosenker and DelGiudice are in their second year as music faculty members at EWU. Rosenker, the son of former New York Philharmonic associate concertmaster Michael Rosenker, holds degrees from Indiana University and Yale.

DelGiudice, a graduate of the University of Miami and the University of Oregon, is noted for his performance of both classical and jazz music, having played with such jazz performers as Maria Schneider, John Fedchock and Donny McCaslin.

Sunday’s program features three 20th-century works for varying combinations of three musicians.

Schiff’s Divertimento is taken from sections of his 1979 opera “Gimpel the Fool,” based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer about a 19th-century Polish baker who is a “pure fool,” deceived by his townsmen, but who survives to become a renowned storyteller.

“What I find interesting about the Divertimento is Schiff’s way of combining klezmer sounds with 20th-century European styles for elements of improvisation,” Feeney says of the composer, who teaches at Reed College in Portland.

Milhaud’s Suite also originated in the theater. In 1936, Milhaud wrote incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s “Le Voyageur sans Baggage,” a play about an amnesiac who accidentally discovers he has led a corrupt life and decides to leave that baggage behind.

“The suite Milhaud drew from this score is just pure fun,” Feeney says. “There is nothing of the play’s serious context at all.”

While Milhaud was one of the most productive composers of his generation, Ravel wrote comparatively few works. “But practically everything he wrote has become established as a 20th-century classic,” Feeney says.

“I have to say unreservedly that the Ravel Trio is one of the most challenging works in all chamber music,” she adds. “Musicians even joke about it, saying, ‘Well, yes, I am having a bad day, but at least I’m not playing the Ravel Trio.’ ”