On Aug. 1, Trio Lawrence released its debut album Fujin’s Dream on the Post Haus label. The trio comprises University of Kansas faculty members Boris Vayner (viola), Daniel Velasco (flute), and Erin Wood (harp). The album is available now on digital platforms. To request a physical CD, email Wood at kansasharpist@ku.edu.
“The album Fujin’s Dream is a journey through the night, from celebrations to storms, lullabies, and reveries of the night sky,” Wood says. “It begins with a joyous party, Bacanal by Eduardo Angulo, showcasing the rhythmic vitality of traditional Mexican dances. Airat Ichmouratov’s composition Fujin’s Dream, inspired by the Japanese god of wind, features a range of extended techniques and large melodic gestures to depict the stormy night.”
Wood says the remainder of the album depicts peaceful aspects of night. Mikhail Glinka’s Three Songs, for example, includes the lullaby “Cradle Song.” Composer David Bruce says his four-movement suite of tender nocturnes, Eye of the Night, was inspired by “the image of the night sky as a giant eye looking down on us unblinkingly and the complex feelings one experiences when staring into space.” The album also includes the earliest known work for this trio of instruments, Terzettino by Théodore Dubois, which was composed in 1905 (ten years before Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp).
Hailing from around the globe, the members of Trio Lawrence met in Lawrence, Kansas (where they are now on faculty at the University of Kansas). They have been performing together since 2018. The group’s upcoming projects include new music commissions and a performance tour in Ecuador. Vayner, originally from Novosibirsk, Russia, has been a viola player with the Grammy-nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet since 2005. Velasco is principal flutist with the Miami-based NuDeco Ensemble and released his debut solo album, Flauta Andina, in 2022 under the Naxos label. Wood has taught at the University of Kansas since 2011, having previously taught at University of Nevada Reno and Indiana University Southeast. She received her degrees from Indiana University, studying with Susann McDonald. Wood has been awarded prizes from the National Society of Arts and Letters and Prix Renié and has taught and performed around the United States and internationally.
