Carmel Valley Library to host piano trio in concert

August’s free family music program, sponsored by the Friends of the Carmel Valley Library, will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, in the library’s community room. Guest performers will be the Striano Piano Trio with pianist Joseph Valent, violinist Maya Ginsberg, and cellist Carol Tolbert.

The 45-minute program will include music by Debussy, Schubert, and Dvorak.

The Striano (a combination of “strings” and “piano”) Piano Trio began as the Striano Piano Quartet in the mid-1990s. With the loss of violist and founding member Burt Fisch in 2011, the remaining members decided to continue as a trio.

Since then, the trio has played at Palomar College, Poway Center for the Arts, San Luis Rey Mission, First Night Escondido, and many libraries, schools, and retirement communities.

Dr. Joseph Valent is a conductor, pianist, organist, and composer-arranger. Since he was 10, he has worked with churches, schools, universities, orchestras, and opera and theater companies. He is the organist and director of the Contemporary Ensemble at the Church of St. Timothy in Escondido.

Maya Ginsberg studied violin performance at the University of Oregon and holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Skidmore College and a master’s in music from SDSU. She has been an active member of the North Coast Symphony Orchestra for the past 14 years. Besides her work as the violin clinician at Mount Carmel High School, she is a lecturer at SDSU and teaches violin privately in the North County area.

Carol Tolbert is a former member of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia, the Madison Civic Orchestra in Wisconsin, and the Kirkwood Symphony in Missouri. She plays in the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra and several other chamber groups.