REVIEW: Sevenars Music Festival, Champlain Trio

The Academy, Worthington, MA
http://www.sevenars.org

July 26, 2026

by Michael J. Moran

The title of this concert, “In Her Voice,” could refer to both the composers and the performers. The Champlain Trio was founded in 2020 by its current members – violinist Letitia Quante, cellist Emily Traubl, and pianist Hiromi Fukuda. All Juilliard graduates based in Vermont, they are also experienced educators and performers throughout New England (Traubl is principal cellist of the Springfield [MA] Symphony Orchestra).  

Their program consisted of piano trios by three women composers active in the early twentieth century. It began with American composer Amy Beach’s 1938 Trio in A minor, her last piece of chamber music, written at age 71. Its three short movements, lasting a total of 15 minutes, burst with musical ideas. The Champlains fashioned a robust opening “Allegro,” with an unexpectedly quiet close; a gentle “Lento espressivo,” with a lively “Presto” interlude based on an Inuit melody; and a joyful “Allegro con brio.”    

Next came the 1931 Trio in A minor by French composer Charlotte Sohy, whose music is currently being rediscovered. To this listener’s ears the Trio both reflects and transcends the influence of Gabriel Faure, who was known to perform some of Sohy’s music, with a style distinctly her own. The piece’s three movements and the Champlain’s vibrant performance suggest a conflict waged (in a tempestuous first “Allegro”), peacefully negotiated (in a fluidly sensitive “Andante”), and triumphantly won (in a virtuosic second “Allegro”).

The concert ended with the 1910 Trio in C major by Croatian composer Dora Pejacevic, whose music, like Sohy’s, is also undergoing a well-deserved revival of interest. As Fukuda noted in a spoken introduction, Pejacevic can sometimes sound a bit like Brahms or Dvorak, but an unmistakenly personal style of her own soon emerges. The Champlains gave the piece their all, from a dramatic “Allegro con moto” and playful “Scherzo,” with pizzicato flourishes by the strings, to a yearning “Lento” and exuberant “Finale.”

The lone male voice in the program was a ravishing encore of English composer Edward Elgar’s lovely “Salut d’Amour” (“Love’s Greeting”). Rich and carefully balanced playing by all three instrumentalists ideally showcased three masterful compositions which should be better known. 

Sevenars concerts continue every Sunday at 4:00pm through August 16 in the intimate acoustics of Sevenars Academy in South Worthington, MA.