Free | No ticket required
Perlman Piano Trio
Michael Wu, piano
Benjamin Davies Hudson
Akhil Banerjee, violoncello
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Program
Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 66 (1845) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Allegro energico e con fuoco
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
Finale: Allegro appassionato
Intermission
Piano Trio in Eb Major, D. 929 (1827) Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Allegro
Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro moderato
Allegro moderato
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Dr. Kato Perlman continues to generously support the Perlman Piano Trio, providing annual awards for violinists, cellists and pianists, and occasionally additional musicians, in a prestigious student chamber ensemble, largely for undergraduate majors and one which draws a full house at annual concerts.
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Michael Wu is a second-year M.M. in Collaborative Piano at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after graduating with a B.S. in Neurobiology and Piano Performance in 2024. He studies piano with Prof. Martha Fischer. Michael has been the pianist of the Perlman Piano Trio since 2021, being one of only two undergraduate students selected for that role in the trio’s 17-year history.
Michael has been the recipient of numerous accolades and has performed in venues ranging from Madison’s Overture Hall to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. He captured first prize in the 2020 Bolz Young Artist Competition, where he performed Liszt’s Totentanz with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a live broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television.
At the age of 13, he captured first prize in the PianoArts Wisconsin Youth Piano Competition, culminating in six performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 1 as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. More recent awards include first prize in the Inaugural 2018 Steinway and Sons Competition and being selected as a winner of the 2021 UW-Madison Beethoven Competition. Michael has participated in a variety of summer music festivals, including the Interharmony International Musical Festival in Acqui Terme (2022), Cooper Piano Festival at Oberlin College (2016), and the International Institute for Young Musicians in Lawrence, KS (2017). He has worked in many masterclass settings with names such as Ann Schein, Peter Takács, William Grant Naboré, Kenneth Broberg, Daniel del Pino, Jennifer Hayge, Laura Ward, Sarah Daneshpour, and the Emerson String Quartet.
Outside of music, Michael enjoys traveling, reading, going to the gym, and pondering the meaning of life while stuck in traffic. Following his two-year master’s degree, he plans to attend medical school.
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Benjamin Davies Hudson is a senior at UW–Madison studying violin performance with David Perry. In addition to violin at UW, he studies viola with Sally Chisholm. He is the violinist of the Perlman Piano Trio, a fellowship ensemble at UW sponsored by Dr. Kato Perlman.
Benjamin has won numerous competitions throughout highschool and college and has performed as a soloist with the UW Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Benjamin has attended festivals such as the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute, the Meadowmount School of Music, and Yellowbarn’s Young Artists Program.
Benjamin has worked and studied with Arnold Steinhardt, Janet Sung, Paul Kantor, Seth Knopp, Uri Vardi, Marka Gustavsson, Mimi Hwang, Jordan Bakk, Alexi Kenney, Youngnam Kim, Janet Chisholm, Eugene Purdue, The Isidore String Quartet, and the Schumann String Quartet through masterclasses, festivals, and life.
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Akhil Banerjee is a freshman double majoring in Cello Performance and Computer Science (BS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently studies with Prof. Parry Karp. Prior to college, he received his formative cello instruction from Alexander Schutt.
This is his second year in the Perlman Piano Trio. In past summers, Akhil has participated in the Arianna Chamber Music Festival, the first year heavily focusing on quartet music whilst the second year shifted to a quintet engagement. He feels this helped establish a framework for musical collaboration. Other high school experiences include participation in honors orchestras, Solo & Ensemble, and All-State Orchestra, all of which encouraged him to continue playing. During studies at UW-Madison, he hopes to find further musical enrichment and summer festival opportunities.
Akhil’s hobbies include, but are certainly not limited to, table tennis, ice skating, and watching old television programs when the burden of academia is not too heavy.
