String Trio (1994) by Carola Bauckholt
for violin, viola, and cello
US premiere

String Trio was commissioned by the Diözesanmuseum in Cologne, Germany. The avant-garde music theater group Thürmchen Ensemble performed the world premiere at the museum in 1994. The original performance was accompanied by curated slides of distilled nature images, but the piece is also intended as a stand-alone chamber work. The three string instruments create a chorus of (at first) gentle and imploring microtonal wails, to which the piece continually returns, while the wails themselves travel through several different states: devotional, clamoring, raw, spent, wary. Along the way, at first cautiously and then more boldly, noise effects and gestures color the journey. Tonight's performance is the U.S. premiere.