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Group Bio 

Maitreyi Muralidharan (violin), David Dietz (cello), and Tong Wang (piano) first began collaborating together at the Windwood Music Festival (WMF) in 2023. As the Windwood Trio, they performed at Kensington Place and Fondation Kin in Montreal during November 2023. In February 2024, the trio performed a fundraising concert for the charity In Concert for Cambodia and on the St. Peters Recital Series in Ottawa. They will return to Alberta for a series of concerts, galas, and community engagement events across Airdrie, Cochrane, and Banff in March 2024. 

Individual Bios

Critically recognized as “an accomplished violin soloist,” (CVNC) Maitreyi Muralidharan is an east coast based musician, interdisciplinary artist, and researcher. They hold degrees from the Peabody Institute of Music, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and McGill University. As a performer, they have held concertmaster and principal positions with ensembles in the east coast and perform with chamber groups around the world. They frequently premiere new music and tour with Duo Perdendosi—an Asian North American duo from Chinese and Indian immigrant families which aims to celebrate new music, music by underrepresented composers, and Asian American diaspora populations. As a consultant and an administrator, they have worked with non-profit organizations such as Symphony No.1 and Sinfonia de L’Ouest. As a musician who has dealt with severe injury, Maitreyi has had to find their own paths in the field of classical and contemporary music, and in that process, has grown a deep appreciation and love for connecting with the unconventional. They aim to share this idea of connection with all walks of life—the idea that being a musician is far more than what is understood or seen, and that one of the greatest joys is fostering a sense of community that can happen any time music is made. Maitreyi co-founded the Windwood Music Festival in an effort to highlight these ideas and provide a space for classical musicians to learn how to incorporate community connection into their performing. Maitreyi is currently pursuing a PhD in Performance Science at McGill University. As a recipient of the Canada Council Arts Abroad Touring grant, Maitreyi will perform a new program, “Dark Tales,” with Duo Perdendosi across eastern Europe in Spring 2024. Outside of their performing, education, and non-profit work, they enjoy assisting violinists with injuries to find creative and sustainable playing practices, and farming.

Cellist David Dietz has performed across North America and Europe and is experienced in a variety of settings as both a performer and a teacher. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, where he frequently performs as a chamber, solo and orchestral musician. Highlights from recent seasons include performances with MUSIQA Houston, Aperio Ensemble, Monarch Chamber Players, Ars Lyrica, DACAMERA Young Artists, the Klangspuren Festival in Innsbruck, Austria and the Windwood Music Festival in Alberta, Canada. David is a founding member of Trio Menil, the Grand Prize and the Odyssey Chamber Music Series Award winner of the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition. He frequently performs with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and will be joining the Houston Ballet Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season. Teaching is an important part of David’s artistic practice, as demonstrated through his work as Instructor of Cello at Lone Star College and through a robust private teaching studio. David received his Bachelor’s Degree and Performer Diploma at Indiana University and recently completed his master’s degree at Rice University.

Tong Wang is a Canadian artist leading innovative initiatives across areas of performance, research, and community engagement. Her projects explore the role of art in relation to identity, culture, and current social-political issues. Her multimedia performances incorporate writing, art, audio-visual materials and audience interaction. As a soloist and chamber musician, Tong has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, and ensembles across North America and Europe. As a multidisciplinary artist, she has written the libretto of a new opera, “Labyrinth of Tears”, funded by the Canada Council, FRQSC, and SSHRC. Her doctoral research studies the aesthetic of “cuteness” in popular and classical music. Tong recently toured a recital on multiculturalism, “我们Us” in Lunenburg, Montreal, Basel, and presented the interactive concerts “We’re Not Really Strangers” and “My Neighbours Totoro and Claude!” at the Verbier Festival. In 2022, Tong launched the Windwood Music Festival in Airdrie, Alberta to engage with rural farming communities through classical chamber music. In 2023, Tong toured with Duo Perdendosi across eastern US & Canada and premiered with Duo Incarnadine a new commission by Alice Ho, “Four Impressions of China”. As a recipient of the Canada Council Arts Abroad Touring grant, Tong will perform a new program, “Dark Tales”, with Duo Perdendosi across eastern Europe in Spring 2024. Tong is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Schulich School of Music, McGill University in Montreal. Using diverse mediums, Tong aims to share the power of art to reach across time, languages, borders, and cultures to connect people and kindle a shared understanding.

Program:

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9

I. Moderato—Allegro vivace (20 min) 

II. Quasi variazione. Andante (22 min) 

III. Allegro risoluto—Moderato (8 min) 

Reena Esmail - Piano Trio (2019)

I. Ephemeral

II. Breathing

III. Capricious

IV. Powerful, broad, intense

Joe Hisaishi/Wesley Chu - “Legend of Ashitaka” from Princess Mononoke