The Trigon Ensemble
The Trigon Ensemble came into being in 1986 when Janet and Brett Rutherford moved to Hobart to join the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, where Barbara Gilby was concert master. Since then the ensemble has added a wide variety of works to its repertoire, both for string trio and combinations ranging from duos to sextets.
The ensemble has worked with many guest musicians including violinists Alison Lazaroff and Yi Wang, pianists Ian Munro, Geoffrey Lancaster and Howard Shelley and wind players Anne Gilby, oboe, Duncan Abercrombie, clarinet, Robert Schubert, clarinet and Peter Handsworth, clarinet.
The ensemble's performance record includes concerts for Musica Viva (Launceston), Friends of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Blackwood River Festival (W.A.), ANU School of Music, the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, National Music Camp and the ABC. Concerts have been presented in Hobart (numerous venues), Longford, Hagley, Franklin, Port Arthur, Mangalore, Windermere, Nowra (NSW), Merimbula (NSW), Canberra, Sydney, Perth, Bridge Town (WA) and Melbourne amongst others.
The Trigon ensemble has performed often for ABC FM radio in its Sunday Live series (Hobart Bond Store, ABC Odeon and Federation Concert Hall) and takes great pleasure in presenting fun educational performances for school students. However, vibrant concert performances of standard and good, lesser-known works from the classical chamber repertoire continue to be the ensemble's main focus. The ensemble presented a concert with Perth pianist Anna Sleptsova in Hobart in 2004 and in the same year performed with international delegates to the International Double Reed Convention at Monash University in Melbourne.
Barbara Gilby now teaches violin at the Australian National University School of Music in Canberra, while Janet and Brett Rutherford have remained with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble still meets regularly to rehearse and perform and after nearly 25 years of collaboration, it has a large repertoire on which to draw. In 2006 Janet and Brett travelled to Canberra for an Ensemble collaboration with pianists Susanne Powell and Geoffrey Lancaster performing the two Mozart piano quartets to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.
- Press comment:
- "The performances by the Trigon Ensemble, joined by Howard Shelley for the Mendelssohn, were vital and committed." The Mercury (John Stafford).
- "The Trigon ensemble were joined by... Anne Gilby (oboe) in a programme of serene well-balanced playing." The Mercury (I.K.Harris).
- "Liquid phrasing and mellifluous timbre of the clarinet matched the sensitivity and elegant artistry of the strings in a performance worthy of a commercial recording." The Mercury (I.K. Harris).
- "Clarinettist Duncan Abercromby joined the string players in an expressive performance the tone of the clarinet merging with, then emerging from, the warm string sound." The Canberra Times (W.L. Hoffman).
