Cumming ’93 brings Capital Trio for program including Matthews work
The Capital Trio consists of Hilary Cumming, Duncan Cumming ’93 and Şölen Dikener.
Pianist Duncan Cumming ’93 returns to his alma mater for a performance with his Capital Trio at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.
The event is open to the public at no cost, but tickets are required due to limited seating. For tickets and for more information, please contact 786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
The Capital Trio consists of 1993 Bates graduate Duncan Cumming, pianist; violinist Hilary Cumming; and cellist Sölen Dikener. Their Bates program includes a work by Bill Matthews, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music at Bates.
The trio began as the Cecilia Piano Trio in 1997. Founding and current members Duncan Cumming, pianist, and Sölen Dikener, cellist, were surprised to discover at their first rehearsal that their teachers, Frank Glazer and Paul Tortelier, had performed together in Paris and Boston almost 70 years earlier and the young performers immediately became friends.
Violinist Hilary Cumming joined the group in 1999. A review from the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Gazette described the trio as “convincing both as strong individual musical personalities and as a cohesive unit.” 2011 saw the release of their first compact disc recording on Albany Records, A Book of Hours: Music of William Matthews. Of this recording Fanfare Magazine wrote, “The Capital Trio plays throughout with clarity, precision and manifest musicality…”
The Trio enjoyed its first International tour in May 2011, performing in England, France and Switzerland.
Duncan Cumming, now in his seventh year on the faculty of the University at Albany, has performed concertos, recitals and chamber music concerts across the United States and in Europe. A recent review describes his playing as “technically flawless… thoughtful, deliberate and balanced, without a wasted gesture or any histrionics, rather like Rachmaninoff.”
Born in Maine, Cumming graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors from Bates in 1993, where he studied with artist in residence Frank Glazer. He has premiered and recorded new works for solo piano, violin and piano, and piano trio.
Hilary Walther Cumming teaches at the University at Albany. Previously she served as concertmaster of the Cape Cod Sinfonietta and the Andover Chamber Orchestra, and has performed as soloist with these ensembles as well as others including the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A versatile artist, she is comfortable in many styles including classical, baroque and Irish traditional music.
Dikener performs and teaches in the U.S. and in Turkey, where he is the director of the international summer music academy and chamber music festival Akademi Datca. In the recording studio, Dikener has premiered cello works by Turkish composers for the AK Muzik and Yesa labels.
