Penn State Abington opens Women’s History Month on a musical note with a free community concert featuring the Merion Trio on March 1.

The musicians will perform chamber works by female composers who inspired connection through music despite tremendous odds.

The evening includes not only music but the stories of the featured creatives:

• Louise Farrenc, a French virtuoso pianist who eventually became a Paris Conservatory professor
• Rebecca Helferich Clarke, a British-born violist who was stranded in the U.S. by World War II and composed and performed to great acclaim here
• Germaine Tailleferre, a French composer and member of Les Six, a group of contemporaries who excelled at neoclassic music
• Nadia and Lili Boulanger, the former being a conductor and teacher (she instructed Aaron Copeland) and the latter being the first female winner of the irst female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize

Merion Trio hopes to bolster the legacy of these standouts in the music world, while concurrently building connections and creating community through musical collaboration. 

The Merion Trio comprises:

• Violinist Margaret Humphrey
• Cellist Rebecca Humphrey
• Pianist Gilya Hodos, a member of Abington’s Integrative Arts faculty

The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Sutherland Auditorium with free parking.

This concert is supported by the Music Enhancement Endowment, made possible by gifts in memory of Mary Bogot and the Penn State Abington Division of Arts and Humanities.

RSVPs for this Merion Trio performance are requested online at a site established by Penn State Abington.

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A taste of the music of Louise Farrenc from the Ulster Orchestra, Belfast, Ireland;
Farrenc and three other female composers are on the Penn State Abington concert program for Mar. 1.