The Triple Helix Piano Trio will bring its unique style of award-winning chamber music to the stage of Mitchell Hall at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 9, as part of the 2001-2002 Performing Arts Series.

Recognized for concerts presented in the traditional format as well as innovative and engaging lecture-recitals, the Triple Helix Piano Trio includes violinist Bayla Keyes, pianist Lois Shapiro and cellist Rhonda Rider.

The March 9 performance will feature “Piano Trio in A Minor,” by Ravel, “Piano Trio in D Major (The Ghost), by Beethoven and “Trio Trigetra,” composed for the Triple Helix Piano Trio by Arlene Zallman.

A free Triple Helix Piano Trio workshop will be held 2:30 p.m., Friday, March 8, at Bayard Sharp Hall. For information about the workshop, call 831-8741.

On Saturday, March 9, a free master class, sponsored by a grant from the Amateur Chamber Music Players Foundation, will be held from 10 a.m.-noon, Saturday, March 9, at Bayard Sharp Hall. Observers are welcome, and amateur piano trio members who would like to be considered for participation in the class should call 831-8245.

The group’s name emerged when the trio saw a parallel in the partnership of violin, cello and piano within the traditional piano trio, and the notion of the double helix as the dynamic intertwining and interdependence of the spiraling energies that generate life.

As artists-in-residence serving on the faculties of several Boston-area universities, including Wellesley College, the members of the group have drawn upon their academic and musical backgrounds to demonstrate how the synthesizing of various disciplines, such as American studies, art history, literature, philosophy and even astronomy, may influence the work of other artists, including as poets, painters and composers.

Shapiro, a winner of the New York Concert Artists Guild Award, has performed as a soloist and collaborative artist across the country and around the world, playing concerts that range from pieces played with 18th-century period instruments to new music written for her.

Keys, a founding member of the Muir String Quartet, with whom she won the Evian and Naumburg Awards while playing more than 1,000 concerts internationally, also co-chairs the string department of Boston University and is the artistic director of Interlochen’s adult chamber music program.

Rider, a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian String Quartet, has premiered and recorded the works of contemporary composers, such as Elliott Carter, Lee Hyla, Donald Martino and Steve Macley.

The Triple Helix Trio has a repertoire that includes the works of contemporary composers—Ross Bauer, Richard Cornell and Arlene Zallman, among others—as well as traditional favorites by Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel and Haydn.

Tickets are $15 for the general public; $10 for UD faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; and $6 for students and children and may be purchased by calling the Hartshorn Hall box office at 831-2204 or by visiting the box office at the corner of Academy Street and Park Place. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

A special buffet dinner will be available before the performance at the Blue and Gold Club. The buffet begins at 5:30 p.m., with a menu that includes Helix’s Favorite Honey Glazed Pork Loin, Piano Lover’s Lasagna and Triple Layer Cake. Cost is $12.50 for adults and $6.50 for children ages 5 to 11, gratuity included. For reservations and information, call 831-2582.

The Performing Arts Series is made possible, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware, as well as support from Barba & Reynolds Insurance Agency, Embassy Suites-Newark/Wilmington South and Arby’s. Sponsors also include UD’s Office of Women’s Affairs and the Visiting Women Scholars Program.

The Triple Helix Piano Trio, violinist Bayla Keyes, pianist Lois Shapiro and cellist Rhonda Rider, will perform at UD on March 9.

Feb. 8, 2002