Aristeia Trio

March 23, 2019 7:30 pm at Columbia Basin College, Performing Arts Theatre

Annie Jacobs-Perkins, cello
Vijay Venkatesh, piano
Micah Wright, clarinet

Aristeia Trio website

Program

About the Musicians

Aristeia Trio is a newly-formed trio based in Los Angeles. Annie Jacobs-Perkins (cello), Vijay Venkatesh (piano), and Micah Wright (clarinet) met as students at the USC Thornton School of Music. While Aristeia Trio has only existed since 2016, the trio has already given dozens of performances in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington state. As winners of the 2016 Frances Walton Competition, the trio performed a live, nationally-broadcast concert on KING FM 98.1.

Vijay Venkatesh, pianist, a native of Orange County, California, has been hailed in concert review for his “sublime phrasing, tremendous and powerful virtuosity, beautiful lyricism, and mature and sensitive interpretation” in performances “equaling that of Radu Lupu, Itzhak Perlman, and Andres Segovia.” At age 14, he made his orchestral debut with the South Coast Symphony. In addition, he has performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Seattle, Vienna, Roanoke, USC Thornton, Eastern Connecticut, YMF Debut, UCI, Pasadena, Rio Hondo, Transylvania, and the Brevard Music Center. He has collaborated with such celebrated conductors as Ludovic Morlot, David Lockington, David Stewart Wiley, Toshiyuki Shimada, Ken Lam, Robert Lehrbaumer, Kimo Furumoto, and more.

His 2016-17 season contains a performance with USC Thornton Symphony and recitals at the McCallum Theatre, Annenberg Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and a 30-concert tour of Washington with the trio, Aristeia Trio pianist Vijay has won Grand Prizes in the 2016 Classics Alive Artists competition, 2016 Frances Walton Chamber Music Competition, 2015 Seattle Symphony International Piano Competition and 2008 Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards. In 2008 he was named a Davidson Fellow, honored with an award ceremony and reception at the Library of Congress. A 2009 alumnus of NPR’s ‘From the Top’ with host Christopher O’ Riley, and a 2009 Winner of NFAA YoungARTS, he took 1st Prizes in the 2011 Zimmerli International Solo Piano Competition, 2004 San Jose International Piano Competition, 2007 World Piano Pedagogue Competition, and 2nd prize in the 2007 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. Vijay’s principal professors have included Dr. Sarkis Baltaian, Norman Krieger and Jeffrey Kahane. He is a recipient of the 2015 Parnassus Society Prize, 2014 Birte Moller Young Artist Award, and the 2013 Thornton Music Faculty Award from the University of Southern California graduating as a 2017 Discovery Scholar. He plans to pursue a Masters at Indiana University with professor Norman Krieger as a recipient of the Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship. He is currently managed by Classics Alive Artists.

Annie Jacobs-Perkins, known for her intense musicality and “hypnotic lyricism” (Alex Ross, the New Yorker), is a senior Trustee Scholar studying cello performance with Ralph Kirshbaum at USC’s Thornton School of Music and pursuing minors in German Studies and Literature. Annie is the winner of many awards and competitions in her hometown of Rochester, NY. Most recently in 2016, Annie was a member of the youngest ensemble, the Callisto Piano Trio, to win a top prize in senior division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2014 Annie had two appearances on NPR, once as a soloist on “From the Top” with host Christopher O’Riley and the other on “Air Play.” As a part of the Woodstock Duo with David Steinhardt (guitar and cello), Annie won all age divisions of the Virtuosi Chamber Music Competition, resulting in subsequent radio appearances. The same group recently won Thornton’s prestigious Gluck Fellowship. After sitting principal of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for four consecutive years, at age seventeen Annie was selected to be the associate principal for the New York String Orchestra’s 2014 concerts in Carnegie Hall.

In her last year of high school Annie was a volunteer strings teacher at an El Sistema-based, after-school strings program for inner-city students in Rochester. At the same she graduated from high school, Annie obtained a diploma from the Honors Certificate Program at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance under the tutelage of Kathleen Murphy Kemp and Doleen Hood as well as a Pre-Collegiate Diploma in Music Theory from the Eastman Community Music School. In 2015 she won the Thornton School’s Solo Bach Competition and the Burbank Philharmonic’s Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition. As a result of the latter, Annie performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Burbank Philharmonic last February.

Micah Wright, an exciting and versatile young clarinetist, is quickly gaining a following in Southern California and the United States. This year alone, Micah has given solo performances in Honolulu, Nashville, Flint, Santa Barbara, and Thousand Oaks with great success. Micah is the 2nd prize winner of the 2017 Backun International Clarinet Competition, one of five finalists in the 2017 William C. Byrd International Young Artists Competition, winner of the 2016 MTNA California Young Artists Woodwind Competition, and winner of the 2016 Frances Walton Competition. Micah has also received 2nd prize in the 2012 International Woodwind Festival’s Young Artist Competition, and was one of six finalists in the 2012 International Clarinet Association’s Young Artist Competition, and was a 2009 youngARTS winner. Micah won the concerto competition for the world-renowned Shepherd School Symphony in 2011 and has been a featured concerto soloist with the Masterworks Festival Orchestra, Drake University Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Metro Concert Band, and the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his solo playing, Micah is an active chamber musician, orchestral clarinetist, studio musician, and collaborative pianist. Micah is currently the Adjunct Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone at California Lutheran University, maintains a private studio, and gives clinics and masterclasses throughout the Southwest as clinician for D’Addario Woodwinds. Micah received his D.M.A from USC (2015), his M.M. from Rice University (2012), and his B.M. from Drake University (2009) at the age of 19.