>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Like their name, Columbia Trio's music will flow into La Grande Friday.

The Columbia Trio — three musical faculty members from Eastern Oregon University and Whitman College in Walla Walla — will open the EOU Faculty Recital Series at 7:30 p.m. in McKenzie Theatre.

The cost is $5 for general admission and $3 for students or seniors. Tickets are available at the door. Proceeds go toward the EOU piano project.

The Columbia Trio was formed in the summer of 1998. The members include Matt Cooper (piano), an EOU associate professor of music and the director of the Jazz Ensemble; Lisa Robertson (violin), an Artist-in-Residence for violin at EOU who teaches violin, viola, and coaches chamber music; and Edward Dixon (conductor/cellist), a professor at Whitman and the conductor of the Whitman College Symphony.

The trio members, residents of three different cities, are united not only by their enjoyment in playing chamber music together, but also by the rivers, all flowing eventually into the Columbia River, near which they live. Since 1998, the Columbia Trio has performed in chamber music series around the Northwest in addition to regular performances at the schools they represent.

The pieces being played will include Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio in C Minor, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Trio, and Felix Mendelssohn's Trio in D Minor. The Mendelssohn and Beethoven trios are both written by composers who were pianists first, and the compositions are showcase pieces for the virtuosity of Cooper. Zwilich, an American composer, is the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music.