Eliot Trio

Washington University’s Eliot Trio, a piano trio made up of three prominent St. Louis musicians, will perform an evening of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles Ives and Felix Mendelssohn.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, in Steinberg Auditorium. Tickets are $15 — $10 for seniors and students — and are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543; through all MetroTix outlets; and at the door. Steinberg Auditorium is located in the Washington University Gallery of Art, Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. For more information, call (314) 935-4841.

The Eliot Trio consists of Seth Carlin, professor of music and director of the piano program in Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences; David Halen, concertmaster for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; and John Sant’Ambrogio, the orchestra’s principal cellist.

Carlin has performed with numerous orchestras around the world, most recently the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, as well as with conductors such as Nicholas McGegan, Leonard Slatkin and Roger Norrington. He has appeared in recital with Pinchas Zukerman, Anner Bylsma and Malcolm Bilson, and at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy; the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island; Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers” series; and New York’s Merkin Hall series “On Original Instruments.” In 1991-92, Carlin performed the complete Schubert fortepiano sonatas in New York City (the concerts were broadcast nationally on National Public Radio). In 1989, he was one of only two recitalists to receive a full grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carlin graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in music, later earning a master’s in piano from the Julliard School. He received his Licence de Concert from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and has studied piano with Rosina Lhevinne, Jules Gentil and Morton Estrin, as well as interpretation with Wilhelm Kempff.

Halen has been with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and was appointed its concertmaster in 1995. He frequently performs concertos with the orchestra, and his violin solo in the orchestra’s performances of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben received acclaim in London and Frankfurt. Prior to coming to St. Louis, Halen was a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as assistant concertmaster. He performs on a 1753 Johannes Baptiste Guadagnini violin made in Milan, Italy.

Halen earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Missouri State University at the age of 19. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and in 1979 was the youngest recipient ever of a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik in Germany.

Sant’Ambrogio has been the principal cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1968, prior to which he was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for nine years. Sant’Ambrogio also has served as a cellist with the Boston Trio and the Zimbler Sinfonietta; as principal cellist for the Boston Ballet Orchestra; and as a faculty member at Boston University. He has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra and was principal cellist at the Grand Teton Festival in Wyoming. In 1988, he founded the “Strings in the Mountains” festival in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Sant’Ambrogio studied music at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and at Ohio University. In 1952, he won the Piatigorsky Award at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Mass. He began his orchestral career with the Harrisburg Symphony, after which he accepted a position as principal cello and soloist with the Seventh Army Symphony, appearing throughout France and Germany.

The concert is sponsored by Washington University’s Department of Music.