Feb. 7, 2006 -- With Polish, Japanese and Dutch backgrounds, The Merling Trio will bring a truly international sound to their performance Tuesday, Feb. 28, on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

The Merling Trio, founded in 1988, has quickly established itself as a premier ensemble. They will perform at 7 p.m. in Riceland Hall of Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive. As part of the 2005-06 Lecture~Concert Series, the performance is free and open to the public.

The chamber music trio has been hailed as brilliantly distinguished group endowed with remarkable gifts of communication, precision and an impeccable blend of sound. The Merling Trio is composed of Renata Artman Knific, violin; Bruce Uchimura, cello; and Susan Wiersma Uchimura, piano.

The trio made its New York debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1993, and was named a finalist for the Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Award in 1994.
The Merling Trio has given numerous recitals throughout Canada and the United States. Members of the trio have performed 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, under the baton of such notable conductors as Daniel Borenboim, Simon Rattle, and Cristoph Eschenbach.

Recent trio performances include concerts for the Chamber Music Society of Charleston, W.V., the Texas Friends of Chamber Music Series, the Jewel Box Series at Northeastern Illinois University, and the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art.
Several contemporary composers have written works for The Merling Trio, and in 1993, the group was commissioned and premiered C. Curtis-Smith's "Second Piano Trio."

In February 1998, the trio returned to Carnegie Hall for a sold-out performance of a new work by New York composer Terry Winter-Owens, commissioned for The Merling Trio with a commissioning grant from the American Composers Forum. In 2003, the trio premiered Frank Proto's "Quartet for Piano and Strings" at St. John's Smith Square in London, England.

Performances by The Merling Trio have been broadcast widely on television and radio. Their first CD titled "The Merling Trio Performs Works of C. Curtis-Smith," was released in 1995 by Albany Records, in collaboration with conductor Dennis Russell Davies. The trio's next CD, "Piano Trio Classics," including works by Haydn, Mozart,
Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt, was released by Pamplin Records in 2001.

In residence at the School of Music at Western Michigan University, members of the trio are also faculty members at the prestigious Encore School for Strings and at the Lancut Festival in Poland.

Festival appearances include the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Pensacola Summer Music Festival, the Skaneateles Festival, the Saugatuck Chamber Music Festival, and the Fontana Festival of Art and Music. Recent educational activities include performances and master classes for the California Music Teachers Association, the Music Teachers National Association, the Hawaii International Arts and Humanities Conference, and the American String Teachers Association National Conference.

The Lecture~Concert Series presents diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community, and region.

For more details, please contact Dr. Gil Fowler, associate dean for The Honors College, at 870-972-2308 or via email at gfowler@astate.edu or visit http://honors.astate.edu/.