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Black Oak Ensemble

Silenced Voices

Cedille Records

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1 Dick Kattenburg: Trio a cordes / Allegro giocoso
2 Trio a cordes
3 Sandor Kuti: Serenade for String Trio / Scherzando
4 Adagio ma non troppo
5 Hans Krasa: Passacaglia & Fuga for String Trio / Passacaglia
6 Fuga
7 Tanec for string trio
8 Gideon Klein: Trio for violin, viola, and cello / Allegro
9 Lento
10 Molto vivace
11 Paul Hermann: Strijktrio
12 Geza Frid: Trio cordes, Op. 1 / Allegretto
13 Andante cantabile
14 Allegro giocoso
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Black Oak Ensemble, a violin, viola, and cello trio comprising three of Chicago's most enterprising chamber musicians, makes its recording debut with Silenced Voices, an album of intriguing works by six promising, early 20th century Jewish composers originally from Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands. 

One survived World War II as a member of the Dutch resistance, the others perished in concentration camps and elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe.  Silenced Voices, available July 12, 2019, includes Dick Kattenburg's Trio à cordes; Sándor Kuti's Serenade for String Trio; Hans Krása's Passacaglia & Fuga and Tánec for string trio; Gideon Klein's Trio for violin, viola and cello; Paul Hermann's Strijktrio; and the world-premiere recording of wartime survivor Géza Frid's Trio à cordes, Op. 1 (Cedille Records CDR 900000 189). 

  • Black Oak Ensemble set for Gold Canyon Concert Series / Copper Country News
    Posted At: February 28, 2023 12:00 AM
    Praised for its “insightful, committed and masterful performances” (Classics Today 10/10) and “fierce eloquence” (London Times), the Black Oak Ensemble is one of the most innovative and exciting chamber ensembles on the international stage.Black Oak’s debut album, "Silenced Voices" (Cedille Records),  is dedicated to Jewish composers, most of whom lost their lives during the Holocaust. It has been feat...
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  • VC LIVE | Black Oak Ensemble makes New York City debut / The Violin Channel
    Posted At: December 14, 2022 12:00 AM
    Fanfare Magazine said, “the players fully inhabit the spirit of whatever work they are playing at the moment, performing each one with as ardent a flame as if they had written it themselves.”?Praised for its “insightful, committed and masterful performances” (Classics Today 10/10) and “fierce eloquence” (London Times), the Black Oak Ensemble is one of the most innovative and exciting chamber ensembles on th...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble revives 20th-Century French String Trios / The Violin Channel: OUT NOW
    Posted At: July 14, 2022 12:00 AM
    Released on Cedille Records, the Chicago-based string trio performs works by Tomasi, Casadesus, Cras, Goué, and Samazeuilh, among othersThe Violin Channel writes…..The Black Oak Ensemble comprises GRAMMY-nominated violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe of the acclaimed Lincoln Trio, and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, a founding member of the GRAMMY-nominated Spektral Quartet.Their new two-disc...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble discusses 'Silenced Voices' with All Classical Portland
    Posted At: January 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 (specifically, January 27) marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the WWII concentration camp that is symbolic of the persecution and murder of millions of Jews and other groups by the Nazi regime.  In addition to the handful of people who survived the camps, a small body of art, including music, has emerged over time.  Music written by prisoners of the Nazis who persev...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble's debut album pays tribute to 6 Jewish composers / New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: January 22, 2020 12:00 AM

    "I'm married to the violinist, Desirée Ruhstrat, and we have a black oak growing in our front yard here in Chicago. We just like this idea of this image of a tree." That's how cellist David Cunliffe and his wife, violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, came up with the idea for the Black Oak Ensemble. This string trio, which is the core of this ensemble, is rounded out with violist Aurél...
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  • BOE's 'Silenced Voices' is serious music that bristles and singes and sings, whose creators know strings / ClassicsToday
    Posted At: December 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    None of these works in any sense identifies with the carefree café scene, nor strikes the fave licks of the waltzing salon partiers of the 1920s and '30s. This is serious music that bristles and singes and sings, whose creators know strings and how to make three voices into the proverbial sum greater than its parts. And before I forget, the three members of Black Oak Ensemble-Desirée Ruhstr...
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  • Chicago Tribune 'Best classical albums of 2019'
    Posted At: December 5, 2019 12:00 AM

    The most valuable classical recordings of the year span a vast range, from genre-stretching contemporary music to re-evaluations of standard repertory: Nicola Benedetti: Marsalis Violin Concerto (Decca). Three years ago, violin virtuoso Benedetti played the U.S. premiere of Wynton Marsalis' Violin Concerto in D with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park. This rec...
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  • Enticing and powerful, 'Silenced Voices' is distressingly true to its word / LIMELIGHT
    Posted At: November 29, 2019 12:00 AM

    I've never heard of the United States' Black Oak Ensemble, or any of the works on this album. And that's what makes it all the more enticing – and powerful. Kattenburg's Trio à Cordes opens the album with a lively gust of colour; Kuti's Serenade for String Trio continues this spirit of bite-sized chunks of lesser-performed, 20th-century composition. And after it, Krása's Passacaglia &...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble's David Cunliffe and Aurelien Fort Pederzoli discuss 'Silenced Voices' with classical radio
    Posted At: November 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Black Oak Ensemble, a violin, viola, and cello trio comprising three of Chicago's most enterprising chamber musicians, makes its recording debut with Silenced Voices, an album of intriguing works by six promising, early 20th century Jewish composers originally from Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands.  One survived World War II as a member of the Dutch resistance, the others...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble - Silenced Voices makes PublicRadio90's 'Genre Fluid Fridays on Classiclectic'
    Posted At: November 8, 2019 12:00 AM

    Genre Fluid Fridays on Classiclectic: Music exploration and discovery through the lens of classically-minded composers and musicians.  Explore beyond the horizon of classical music, Fridays on Public Radio 90, beginning just after 9:30am ET.  This time we are packed with goodies of all instruments and voices!  We'll aenjoy music performed by the Black Oak Ensemble, part of a cantat...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble - 'Silenced Voices' is an ambitious and impressive debut / Classical Music Sentinel
    Posted At: October 18, 2019 12:00 AM

    This is the debut recording of the Black Oak Ensemble, a violin, viola and cello trio based in Chicago. And an ambitious and impressive debut effort it is, not only for its commited musicianship and top-notch audio quality, but also for its foray into unknown or obscure territory. Most if not all of the composers included on this recording have faded into the history books or been consigned to oblivion a...
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  • Black Oak Ensemble 'Silenced Voices' makes for particularly rewarding listening / The Rehearsal Studio
    Posted At: October 9, 2019 12:00 AM

    The Black Oak Ensemble is a string trio based in Chicago whose members have decidedly different backgrounds. Cellist David Cunliffe was born in Britain; and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli was French-born. Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat's ancestry is divided between the United States and Switzerland. The trio formed in 2015 and has a concert schedule that covers much of Europe and, to a more li...
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