Trio

Fresh, eclectic, and athletic, Lora Al-Ahmad’s Trio for clarinet, violin, and piano eludes summary. A virtuoso pianist, Al-Ahmad’s music flows effortlessly from the musical rhetoric of the great chamber works of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while also featuring additive rhythms, novel textures, and a remarkably diverse (yet accessible) harmonic palette. Listeners may sense an affinity in sound with the music of Lowell Liebermann, Al-Ahmad’s teacher, even as the composer’s original personality emerges from the conversation between her many stylistic interests in this stunning and artistically demanding work.