Claremont Trio

Sunday, March 14 , 2027 at 4 pm $35 in advance, +$5 day of, available at Gualala Arts, the Dolphin Gallery and GualalaArts.org The Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series is pleased to welcome back the Claremont Trio—violinist Emily Bruskin, cellist Julia Bruskin, and pianist Sophiko Simsive- for an afternoon of exceptional chamber music on Sunday, March 14, 2027 at 4 pm. Tickets are $35 in advance, +$5 day of, available at Gualala Arts, the Dolphin Gallery and GualalaArts.org Celebrated by Strad Magazine as “one of America’s finest young chamber groups,” the Claremont Trio has earned a reputation for electrifying virtuosity, interpretive depth, and a rare communicative warmth on stage. They were the first ensemble to win the prestigious Kalichstein‑Laredo‑Robinson International Trio Award and remain the only piano trio ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. The Trio continues to be at the forefront of contemporary chamber music. In May 2025, they joined renowned tenor Paul Appleby for the world premiere of Shadow Songs by Jessica Meyer at New York City’s Music Mondays. Their 2025–26 season includes return engagements at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Blue Hill Concert Association, Chamber Music Society of Little Rock, and Chamber Music Lehigh Valley. Their 2024–25 season featured a mini‑residency with Chamber Music Detroit and a national tour with composer‑clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, performing his powerful quartet and premiering his trio Gravitas. In spring 2026, BMOP/sound released the Trio’s recording of Eric Sawyer’s Fantasy Concerto: Concord Conversations with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under conductor Gil Rose. Their 2022 album Queen of Hearts showcased six newly commissioned works by leading composers including Gabriela Lena Frank, Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, and Kati Agócs. The Claremont Trio’s recent seasons have brought them to major venues and series across the country, including Portland Friends of Chamber Music, the Polinger Artists of Excellence Series, Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, and Broward College. They have appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Dame Myra Hess Series, and Stanford Lively Arts. They have performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with orchestras such as the Nashville Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Utah Symphony, and are frequent guests at festivals including Ravinia, Saratoga, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Rockport, Bard, and Norfolk. Their recordings have earned wide praise: Gramophone highlighted their “poetry and… thrilling virtuosity,” and Audiophile Audition called their Beethoven and Ravel interpretations “some of the most impassioned, moving, and notable readings… bar none.” The Trio has commissioned numerous new works from composers including Donald Crockett, Robert Paterson, Paul Chihara, Sharon Farber, Howard Frazin, Daniel Kellogg, and Hillary Zipper. They have led master classes at Columbia University, Eastman School of Music, Duke University, New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Peabody Preparatory, and the Boston Conservatory. Formed at the Juilliard School in 1999, twin sisters Emily and Julia Bruskin grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and perform on historic French instruments—Emily on a 1795 Lupot violin and Julia on an 1849 J.B. Vuillaume cello. Pianist Sophiko Simsive hails from Tbilisi, Georgia. All three now reside in New York City near their namesake, Claremont Avenue. 501(c)(3) Tax ID# 94-6121872 The Gualala Arts Center gratefully acknowledges the Native Peoples whose ancestral homelands we now share, and specifically the Pomo of Kashia and Manchester-Point Arena tribes, the first inhabitants of what is now coastal Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. We recognize the legacies of displacement and settlement that bring us together here and honor our shared commitment to being respectful and responsible protectors of land, water, people, arts, and culture.