Langroise Trio and Mark Neiwirth to Present Benefit Concert on March 11

The Langroise Trio and Mark Neiwirth will present a Scholarship Benefit Concert on Monday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Jensen Grand Concert Hall on the Idaho State University campus. All proceeds will benefit the ISU music department scholarship funds.

The Langroise Trio, established in 1991, consists of Brendan Shea, violin, Dave Johnson viola, and Philip Kettler, cello. They are all principal players in the Boise Philharmonic as well as artists in residence at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. They will be joined by pianist Mark Neiwirth, adjunct professor of piano at ISU, for a program of piano quartets by Mozart and Fauré, and the program will be rounded out with Intermezzo for String Trio by Kodály.

Violinist Brendan Shea is an award winning chamber musician and soloist. As a soloist he has performed with orchestras across the United States, Japan and Belgium. He is a former member of the Euclid and Wasmuth(now Verona) quartets, and currently plays in the Shea-Kim duo. He has been a full-time faculty member at Indiana University, South Bend and the University of Notre Dame, as well as a guest professor at Oberlin Conservatory. He currently teaches at the Encore Chamber Music Institute in Cleveland and Zephyr Chamber Music in Courmayeur, Italy during the summer, and is the concertmaster of the Boise Philharmonic.

Violist David Johnson received his training at Indiana University, where he performed a series of concerts in New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall with the Indiana University Doctoral String Quartet. David was appointed Principal Viola of the Iceland Symphony, where he was featured as soloist numerous times on the Iceland National Radio. 

In 1992, David joined the newly formed Langroise Trio and is the principal violist of the Boise Philharmonic. He has been a member of the Sun Valley Orchestra and taught at the Sun Valley Summer Music Workshops, and since 2007 has served as the Artistic Director of the Sun Valley Symphony Summer Workshops.

Cellist Philip Kettler is the newly appointed Principal Cellist of the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra. He began his position in Boise after three seasons with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, where he served as Second Cellist and the orchestra’s youngest member. He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he also earned his master’s degree. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University and also completed studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Philip is regularly invited to serve as an adjudicator and clinician for competitions and festivals throughout the Northwest and Mountain West.

Pianist Mark Neiwirth has secured an international reputation as a piano soloist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, adjudicator, and arranger. Concert tours have taken him to Europe, South Africa and India, as well as dozens of prestigious venues in the United States. He has performed more than thirty piano concerti, three of which were composed expressly for him by prominent composers. Since 1990 he has been the Executive Director of Musician West, Inc., which promotes professional musicianship in Idaho by providing concerts, lectures, master classes, seminars, festivals, competitions and composer commissions. He received the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2018 and has been an adjunct professor at Idaho State University since 2005. Mark Neiwirth is a Steinway Artist.

The March 11 concert will be a scholarship fundraiser through Musicians West, Inc. and is sponsored by a generous grant from the F.M., Anne G., and Beverly B. Bistline Foundation. Admission is $10 adults, $8 ISU faculty & staff, $6 pre-college students, available at the door prior to the concert. The general public is welcome to donate any amount to this project at the concert or through Venmo or PayPal.