Program and Artist Biography

The Amerigo Trio is one of the most recent major string trios to emerge in the world of chamber music. Named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, the trio is committed to the exploration of the riches of the string trio repertoire, both new and old.

New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow formed the Amerigo trio with violist Karen Dreyfus and cellist Inbal Segev after their successful collaboration at the Bowdoin International Chamber Music Festival, which was hailed as a "virtuoso performance . . . an extraordinary interchange of musical thought" by the Maine Sunday Telegram. The Strad has praised Amerigo Trio's “personality, purpose, and captivating energy.”

In the short time since the group's founding in the summer of 2009, it has been invited to play at some of the most prestigious concert series in the United States, including Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival in Virginia, the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, the Concord Chamber Music Society in Massachusetts, Tannery Pond Concerts in the Berkshires, the New York Chamber Music Festival at Symphony Space, and the Dumbarton Concerts and The Phillips Collection concert series.

Of the trio's 2011 performance at Tannery Pond Concerts, The Berkshire Arts Almanac stated that "Segev's playing is fluid and bold, Dreyfus is elegant and expressive, and Dicterow is fantastic." The Berkshire Eagle wrote, "In the tannery’s close acoustics, the Amerigo Trio . . . came across as a powerhouse, yet flexible in its approach. The Dohnanyi serenade, modeled on Brahms’s serenades for orchestra, enjoyed both passion and drollery. A high point was the generous lyricism of the fourth-movement variations. In Brahms’s wild Gypsy finale, the players had enough energy in reserve to make the faster-and-faster ending practically fly off the stage."

The Amerigo recently completed its debut recording of serenades by Beethoven and Dohnányi, which is to be released in 2011 on the Navona Records label.

Photograph by Chris Lee.