Archive on the Radio: The Macalester Trio

For 32 years, from 1968 to 2000, The Macalester Trio consistently presented Piano Trio literature at the highest professional level to the Twin Cities area.

For a majority of its time together as the trio in residence at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., the members of the Macalester Trio were Joseph Roche, violin; Camilla Heller, cello; and Donald Betts, piano. Camilla Heller joins host Alison Young and Archive on the Radio series producer Steve Barnett live in the studio to talk about the music and to bring along some personal stories of her time with the trio.

The Macalester Trio specialized in music from the Romantic Era. Composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms were programmed regularly for its concerts. But just as often, the Macalester Trio would program music from the 20th century and even commission brand-new piano trios to premiere at its concerts.

Steve Barnett, the Archive on the Radio series producer, has chosen eleven different movements — out of the approximately 200 he reviewed from the MPR Archive — as representative of the best of the Macalester Trio. The composers include Mozart and Beethoven, as well as Dvořák, Smetana and Ravel, and commissions from American composers Alan Hovhaness and Gunther Schuller.

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