Guest Trio: Ravel and Brahms

Kun Dong, Lachezar Kostov, and Dror Biran are playing at Timashev Recital Hall on Monday, November 9, from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. It's a chamber music program that pairs two piano trios from very different corners of the early twentieth century: Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor, written in 1914, and Johannes Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8, in its 1889 revised version. The evening closes with a duo selection by Dong and Kostov.

The three of them come from the Cincinnati area. Kun Dong is a tenured member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra who has toured through Europe and Asia and won the Grand Prize of the 1986 Beijing International Youth Violin Competition and the Grand Prize of the 3rd Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, where she performed as soloist with the London Royal Chamber Orchestra under Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Lachezar Kostov is associate principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and holder of the Ona Hixson Dater Endowed Chair; he plays a rare 1738 Italian cello by Carlo Antonio Testore and made his official Carnegie Hall debut in 2009. Dror Biran is an Israeli-American pianist and professor of piano at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and has performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic.

Putting them together on one stage gives you a good look at the two trios they've programmed. Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor is a piece from the early 1900s, while Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1 is a late-nineteenth-century work in its 1889 revised form. The two sit side by side on the program, and the duo piece by Dong and Kostov brings the night to a close. The concert is free and open to the public, with no ticket required. It runs from 7:30 to 9:00 PM at Timashev Recital Hall, 1900 College Rd, Columbus OH 43210.