OURAY – Acclaimed by The New Yorker Magazine in April 2009, “Trio Solisti – the most exciting piano trio in America” is returning to Ouray County for their seventh consecutive year on Friday, June 26 at the 4H Event Center in Ridgway at 7 p.m.

Trio Solisti has made critically-acclaimed debut performances at Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Lincoln Center and in Cortona, Italy. Last May, the group was featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

In the past two years, Trio Solisti has performed as part of Telluride MusicFest, Grand Canyon Festival, the Moab Music Festival, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson, and at the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City. The Ouray County Performing Arts Guild is honored to have the opportunity to sponsor such a renowned trio in the region area once again.

This year’s program will be in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn’s birth. Trio Solisti will present one of the master’s most lauded works for trio. Trio No. 2 in C minor alternates between a thunderous expression of the composer’s personal difficulties and sections of light and fluttering sound.

Maria Bachmann, Alexis Pia Gerlach and Jon Klibonoff will perform both faces of this master’s work with equal parts of tenderness and zeal. Additionally, the trio will round out the evening with a three-movement selection called Café Music by Paul Schoenfield from their most recent CD by the same title.

Bachmann, a violinist, is hailed by The New York Times as “a violinist of soul and patrician refinement,” and has been heard as featured soloist worldwide and has had the rare distinction of being profiled by Time magazine, as well as by Mirabella and CD Review. She has also been honored by Musical America and New York’s Newsday as “Outstanding Artist of the Year.”

Cellist Pia Gerlach has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. She has collaborated with conductors including Mstislav Rostropovich, James DePreist and Peter Oundjian. She has a passionate style and flawless rapport with her audience.

Klibonoff has appeared as orchestra soloist, solo piano recitalist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and abroad. His numerous awards include the Silver Medal of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the Affiliate Artists Xerox Pianists Award, the Pro Musicis Foundation Award, First Prize at the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition, The Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a Solo Recitalists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The June 26 performance in Ridgway is made possible in part with the sponsorship of Citizen’s State Bank of Ouray. Tickets for this one-night event are $20 per person and is free for all students. Advance tickets are available at Buckskin Booksellers in Ouray, Cimarron Books and Coffee in Ridgway and Thomas Productions in Montrose. Tickets are also available online at the guild’s website, www.ocpag.org. Dress is casual and beverages will be available for purchase at the 4H Center.