The Mirecourt Trio (1972-1993) was formed at the California State University, Fullerton. Right from the beginning we were devoted to new and unusual repertoire as well as the classics. Each of us brought different skills to the ensemble. John Jensen is a masterful pianist with a broad experience in all fields and particularly in jazz and improvisation. His mentors were the legendary John Crown (protégé of Moriz Rosenthal) and Gwendolyn Koldofsky, accompanist to Lotte Lehmann and many other greats. Kenneth Goldsmith was a consummate musician with a broad experience in orchestra and chamber music, and a pioneer in the performance practice movement established at Stanford University. His mentors were two celebrated violinists: Mischa Mischakoff, probably the most important concertmaster of the 20th century, and William Kroll, “Mr. Chamber Music” as Jascha Heifetz called him, leader of the Coolidge and Kroll Quartets and the Elshuco Trio. Kroll imparts the lineage from Marteau and Kneisel, while Mischakoff the unparalleled experience as concertmaster of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Bolshoi Ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York, NBC, Detroit and Baltimore Symphonies.

We were fortunate to win a residency at Grinnell College which lasted for 15 years. Because we were also faculty members it gave us the opportunity to apply a large portion of our concert fees into the trio’s corporation. This along with grants and gifts, gave us the ability to offer commissions on a regular basis. We decided to begin with the older generation that had not yet written a trio. We started with Samuel Barber who said he had so many commissions he knew he would not live to complete most of them (cancer). Copland was at the end of his ability to write (we were not in love with his early Vitebsk), but he sent a very kind note. Bernstein was not interested, the only one. William Schuman was not able to commit, but encouraged us to contact Persichetti (which we did and recorded his excellent Parable). Virgil Thomson wanted to initiate with one of his “Portraits” with me sitting across from him. We tried over two days but the creative juices were not there. Dave Brubeck was willing; my conversation with him was memorable. He said, “you guys are amazing” but when we talked turkey about a commission he leveled with me saying that it would take 3 weeks to write. He toured 10 months out of the year with a staff of 14 (as I recall). They all had salaries. He would have to pay them for those weeks. He refused commissions otherwise because he only wrote for the church, gratis, and only when he had the time off. The price was way beyond our budget. We were successful with Otto Luening and Paul Creston however, and of course many younger composers. Interestingly, we explored a triple concerto with Lalo Schifrin. His plan was to compose a Marx Brothers concerto, each movement featuring one of the brothers (Schifrin lived in Groucho’s old home.), but the price proved to be beyond our abilities.

I only wish trios with our mission were active from the 1920s to the 1970s. If you think about it, the great piano trios of the 18th and 19thC were all written by pianist-composers, ending with Ravel in 1914. Stravinsky, Bartok, Kodaly, Prokofiev, Britten, Tippett, Walton, Janacek, Khachaturian, Glazunov, Honegger, Berg, Webern, Schonberg, and most surprisingly, Hindemith, who seemed to have written for every combination, never wrote trios. Where were the conspirators? 

Many composers tried their hand at trios in their youth but abandoned the idiom otherwise. This fascinating group included: Elgar, Bax, William Schuman, Sibelius, Bernstein, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Nielsen, and Vaughn-Williams.