University of Puget Sound Jacobsen Series: Puget Sound Piano Trio

• Maria Sampen, violin
• Alistair MacRae, cello
• Ronaldo Rolim, piano

About Puget Sound Piano Trio

The Puget Sound Piano Trio is the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Puget Sound School of Music. Their celebrated performances on the Jacobsen Concert Series and in other Pacific Northwest venues reach the campus community and a large regional and national audience.

The three musicians come from distinguished musical backgrounds, bringing a rich variety of professional experiences to their work as an ensemble.

About University of Puget Sound Jacobsen Series

Named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, the Jacobsen Professional Artist Series was established in 1984 and features School of Music faculty and their guests. Ticket sales support the Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund, which awards annual music scholarships to an outstanding member of Sigma Alpha Iota, international music fraternity.

About University of Puget Sound School of Music

http://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/undergraduate/music/

About Maria Sampen, violin

Maria Sampen is the University of Puget Sound School of Music's professor of violin and chair of the string department. With extensive experience as a soloist and chamber performer, Sampen teaches a talented studio of Puget Sound students. Her students are frequent winners of various competitions at the local and regional levels.

About Alistair MacRae, cello

Cellist Alistair MacRae has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal throughout North America and in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. His playing has been praised for its "rich sound and lyrical phrasing" (Palm Beach Daily News) and his performances have been featured in radio broadcasts across the United States on WQXR, WWFM, WDAV, WCQS, KING FM, and Vermont Public Radio.

MacRae is the Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel Artist in Residence, cello and chamber music at the University of Puget Sound.

About Ronaldo Rolim, piano

With "a special ability to present touching interpretations" (El Norte), Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim is a prominent figure among an emerging generation of outstanding musicians. Acclaimed for his "consummate elegance" (New York Concert Review) and "mastery of phrasing, agogic accents, and dynamics" (Oberbaselbieter Zeitung), he has performed extensively over four continents, in such venues such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich's Tonhalle, London's Wigmore Hall, the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts. He is a Winner of the 2017 Astral National Auditions and has captured top prizes at numerous prestigious international competitions, including the Géza Anda, James Mottram, Bösendorfer, San Marino, Lyon, and Teresa Carreño competitions. In 2019, Mr. Rolim released his latest album on Odradek Records, Szymanowski – The Wartime Triptychs, devoted to the programmatic works the Polish composer wrote during World War I. Diapason magazine considers Mr. Rolim "an ideal guide to [Szymanowski’s] magic world”, whereas Classica magazine hails his “clear but thunderous pianism." The album's topic was extensively discussed in Mr. Rolim's doctoral thesis, completed in 2016 at Yale University.