Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 3/23/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   95

Editors: Photo accompanies release
MERLING TRIO TO PRESENT GUEST ENCORE! CONCERT AT SOUTHEASTERN
     HAMMOND -- The Merling Trio, a premier ensemble featuring musicians from Polish,
Japanese and Dutch backgrounds, will present a guest concert at Southeastern Louisiana
University April 6.
     The free concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Pottle Music Building Auditorium, is part of
the Southeastern music department's spring Encore! music series. 
     Violinist Renata Artman Knific, cellist Bruce Uchimara and pianist Susan Wiersma
Uchimara will perform three nocturnes by Ernest Bloch and piano trios by Haydn and Brahms.
Their guest appearance at Southeastern is co-sponsored by Southeastern's Arts and Lectures
Committee and College of Arts and Sciences.
     Founded in 1987, the Merling Trio made its New York debut at Carnegie Hall in April
1993 and was a finalist for the Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Award in 1994.
     Trio members are in residence at the School of Music at Western Michigan University in
Kalamazoo, Mich., and are also on the faculty of the prestigious ENCORE School for Strings
and the Lancut Festival in Poland. They have given numerous recitals throughout Canada and the
United States, performing with orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the Honolulu
Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and
the South Carolina Philharmonic. Recent performances include concerts at New York's Merkin
Hall and at Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
     The Grand Rapids Press said, "the trio...delivered a standard of playing that is on par with
some of the best known violin-cello-piano teams, captivating the audience through the
immediacy and extraordinary sensitivity of its playing."
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MERLING TRIO   Add One
     Knific, a native of Warsaw, Poland, studied at the Warsaw Conservatory, the Royal
School of Music in London and the Cleveland Institute. She has served as concertmaster of the
Kalamazoo Symphony and the Northwood Festival Orchestra. Bruce Uchimura earned degrees
from The Julliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also studied at the Aspen
Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music and held an orchestral fellowship at the
Spoleto Festival. Susan Wiersma Uchimura is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and
the University of South Carolina and studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Aspen
Music School. She performs regularly with major young artists around the world.
     Upcoming Encore! events include concerts by the Southeastern Concert Band, conducted
by Frank Dubuy, on April 8 and the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Yakov
Voldman, on April 13. The free concerts are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Pottle Music
Building Auditorium.
     For more information and a Encore! brochure, call the SLU Music Department, 549-
2184.
                            - SLU -
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     www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp99.htm