Palaver Strings Piano Trio – Beehive Chamber Series: Homeland

Palaver Strings Piano Trio will perform Homeland from their Beehive Chamber Series. Homeland explores folk-inspired music by a diverse group of composers paying homage to their homelands: Carlos Guastavino (Argentina), Violetta Parra (Chile), Leos Janacek (Czech Republic), and Bela Bartok (Hungary). These pieces explore the essence of each composer’s cultural-political landscape, using folk material from everyday life. Our journey concludes with Brahms’ monumental Trio in A minor, which he composed after visiting his friend clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld in Meiningen, Germany.

Las Presencias, No. 7 “Rosita Iglesias:” Carlos Gustavino
Pohádka for cello and piano: Leos Janacek
Selections from Duos for violin and cello: Bela Bartok
Selection of songs arranged for viola and cello: Violetta Parra
Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: Johannes Brahms

Musicians
Viola: Sergio Muñoz
Cello: Matthew Smith
Piano: Peipei Song

Palaver Strings
Palaver Strings is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland, ME. Founded in 2014, Palaver has made its mark as a forward-thinking ensemble whose mission is to strengthen and inspire community through music. Equally committed to education, Palaver launched the Palaver Music Center in 2019, which now serves hundreds of Portland-area students each year. The ensemble has enjoyed residencies at Rockport Music, Boston Center for the Arts, Bay Chamber Concerts, and Longy School of Music, where ensemble members teach workshops, master classes, and graduate courses on music and community engagement. In 2022, Palaver opened its first dedicated teaching space in downtown Portland, a new community hub for lessons, classes, rehearsals, and more.

Sergio Muñoz
Chilean violist Sergio Muñoz Leiva is an advocate for dialogue, collaboration, and
community-building, which he realizes in music through his love for chamber music and
education. Dr. Muñoz Leiva joined the Department of Music of College of the Holy Cross as Interim Director of Chamber Music in September 2022. He also currently serves as Music Theory Instructor at Project STEP in Boston. Previous teaching appointments include serving as Studio Teaching Assistant to Carol Rodland at The Juilliard School, as Instructor of Viola for Non-Majors at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester, and as Teaching Artist at City College Academy of the Arts in New York.

Peipei Song
Dr. Peipei Song is a collaborative pianist at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She has studied with well-known string quartets that held chamber music residencies at Arizona State University: Brentano String Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Shanghai String Quartet. Since 2017, Dr. Song has given annual piano chamber music lecture recitals at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, China. Before coming to the United States, she served on the piano faculty of Tianjin Conservatory of Music (China). In both 2005 and 2006, Dr. Song received the National Excellent Piano Teacher of China award from China Education Television. In addition to Groton Hill Music Center, she is a member of the piano faculty and piano chamber music coach at Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School (Rockport, Maine).