UGA faculty ensemble, The Yargo Trio, celebrates album release with free recital

The Yargo Trio—Connie Frigo, associate professor of saxophone; Angela Jones-Reus, professor of flute; and Liza Stepanova, assistant professor of piano—stage one of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s first recitals of the 2017-2018 season in Ramsey Concert Hall on Friday, Aug. 25, at 6 p.m.

The trio’s recital is a unique performance that heralds the release of their new album, “Voices, Reimagined,” and reflects the unconventional nature of their collaboration. 

While their newly released CD recording mainly focuses on the wind instruments as the equivalent of the human voice, the Aug. 25 concert will feature a completely new program, celebrating the vibrant music of France. It ranges from some of the best-known masterworks like Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faune” to shorter, lighter pieces, like Bizet’s “Children’s Games” to Poulenc’s cabaret-style “Paths of Love.” 

The majority of the works on the program will showcase arrangements created especially for this performance by D.M.A. saxophone performance student Charlie Young.

“Some of the arrangements are adaptations from trios for other instrument combinations of violin, cello, piano or flute, clarinet, piano,” said Frigo. “In the case of the breathtaking second movement of the Ravel Piano Concerto, Charlie took the woodwind solos from the original orchestra parts and arranged them for flute and saxophone, while piano plays the original concerto part.”

The combination of saxophone, flute and piano is not a common one, so transcriptions of works for other instruments are often employed by the trio: the flute as a violin or saxophone as a cello or another woodwind instrument, for example. Each member of the trio also always receives a solo feature in their concerts, which allows a greater palette of tone color and expression to complement the ensemble works. 

This performance is presented admission-free, and those unable to attend can watch the concert live on the Hodgson School’s website: music.uga.edu/streaming.

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia sponsors more than 350 performances each year. Go to music.uga.edu to view the school’s performance calendar, subscribe to the weekly email newsletter, and learn more about the School of Music.