“The blend of oboe, bassoon, and piano can sometimes sound somber and mournful but also tongue-in-cheek.  It is this dichotomy of character embodied in the sounds of these instruments that makes this a versatile combination, and you can hear it in the pieces The Sundance Trio (Geralyn Giovannetti, oboe; Christian Smith, bassoon; Jed Moss, piano) has chosen for this program.

In Madeleine Dring’s Trio, which opens the program, one is directed from a dramatic opening to a rather upbeat and joyful allegro to a modal and contemplative II aptly called ‘Dialogues’ and then to a very sprightly Allegro con brio.

Paul Angerer’s Chanson Gaillarde expands on the upbeat character of the winds, while Geoffrey Bush’s Trio explores the juxtaposition of the upbeat with the somber, and David Sargent’s Kaleidoscope does all of it in a through-composed piece.  The program ends with the very clever work, Trocadillos, by Margaret Griebling-Haigh.

Certain facets of The Sundance Trio’s performance please me very much.  Each musician brings understanding of the works and performs with a particular sensitivity suited to the other performers.  Sometimes I would prefer a more homogeneous sound in the oboe and bassoon (similar vibratos when playing together), but in solo lines that occur often, they show a confidence in expression that I would not change.  This is not music I leap from my seat to hear, but when I do, it is worth it.”

~David Schwartz, American Record Guide

"Musical group The Sundance Trio was hosted by the Brigham Young University School of Music in the BYU Museum of Art Auditorium Feb. 25. The trio includes two BYU faculty members Geralyn Giovannetti on oboe, Christian Smith on bassoon, with renowned pianist Jed Moss.

The group opened the concert with “Trio” by Ernst Mahle and “Liebestraum” by Franz Liszt. The recital also included works by Claude Debussy, Jenni Brandon, and Francis Poulenc. The trio’s interpretation of a composition by Jenni Brandon, a young composer in her thirties, was particularly exceptional. Brandon wrote “The Wildflower Trio” for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife. The second movement, “Wild Rose and Butterfly,” transported the listener to a mountain escape, where one could hear faintest melodic suggestions of birds, soft breezes and mountain streams. The trio’s sound consists of a great mix of scales and bouncing sharps and flats beautifully arranged and performed with a modern sound.

Moss stunned the audience with a beautiful piano solo by Bach titled “Fantasy in Fugue,” which brought Moss two curtain calls.

Geralyn Giovannetti, a native Canadian, has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. She is currently Professor of Oboe at Brigham Young University and a member of Orpheus Winds, the resident faculty wind quintet.

Christian Smith is Associate Professor of Bassoon at the BYU School of Music.  He also teaches instrumental conducting, directs the woodwind chamber music program, and performs with Orpheus Winds.

Jed Moss, a non-faculty pianist, has performed with great success in many countries. He is known for collaborations with musicians and orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic. Moss has soloed with orchestras in Idaho, Utah, Texas and Washington D.C.

The Sundance Trio has traveled and performed with great success and continues to thrill audiences with their talent. For more information about performances and albums contact Geralyn Giovannetti at Geralyn_Giovannetti@byu.edu."

~Heather A. Turley, UVU Review

Link to UVU Review

"This spring here in McCall, Idaho, we had the opportunity to enjoy a live recital by the Sundance Trio, and they thrilled the local audience with their musicality  and technical finesse.....I have had the rare chance to hear the group on three occasions. They are truly a magnificent ensemble. Each artist is a talented and skillful musician, and since they have performed together so often, their ensemble playing is as good as it gets!

This is a marvelous CD-full of interesting, new, and mostly uplifting music for an oboe-bassoon-piano ensemble. For those of you who still think that the Poulenc (and perhaps the Bernard Heiden) Trios are the only good works for this combination, this CD is sure to be an eye-(or perhaps ear-) opener to you.

Bravo, Sundance Trio!  Five Crows to you for this wonderful album!"

~The DOUBLE REED quarterly journal of the International Double Reed Society Ronald Klimko and Daniel Stolper, Editors

"The combination of oboe, bassoon and piano is not a common one, but The Sundance Trio is making a go of it. Their debut disc on Centaur pulls together no less than five works for such ensemble, and overall it is a bright, melodious and attractive program. The key work here is the opener, the Trio (1972) by Madeleine Dring who was a stage actress in addition to being a composer and is one of the best-kept secrets of twentieth-century English music. Dring's style is bright, cosmopolitan, slightly jazzy and gently neo-classical with a renaissance bent, and the piano part here was originally scored for harpsichord. Inspiration drawn from antique models is something of a subtext throughout this program; Paul Angerer's Chanson Gaillarde (1963) is a tuneful, colorful and sensitive piece that works Baroque concepts into an orderly neo-classic idiom and belies its chronological context of having been written in the unfettered 'sixties. Geoffrey Bush's Trio (1953) is likewise based in the Baroque but is more characteristically French in orientation with a few Spanish flourishes as well; it is the most melodically driven music in this collection.

The Sundance Trio — oboist Geralyn Giovannetti, bassoonist Christian Smith and pianist Jed Moss — are faculty members at Brigham Young University, and composer David Sargent, who's Kaleidoscope (2007) is heard here, was until his retirement in 2008 a composition professor at BYU. It stands out in the program by virtue of its slightly wonky, headily contrapuntal style, dressed up with sparing use of jazz chords; it's okay, but doesn't really fit with the other works. The closer, Trocadillos (2003) is by Cleveland-based composer Margaret Griebling-Haigh who, incidentally, also plays the oboe and has a good sense of its capabilities, but that does not lead her to load this piece up with a lot of writing for the oboe — instrumentally it is pretty well balanced. On the other hand, its development sections are a bit long in the tooth and the piece could stand some editing. Nevertheless, The Sundance Trio is building its repertoire from the ground up, as the chamber combination of oboe and bassoon — at least without the clarinet — hasn't been common since the Baroque trio sonata was all the rage, and that's been a long time. The recording, made at DeJong Concert Hall at BYU, is good; better than average for a university-made recording, though one could use a little more of the bassoon in the mix. Giovannetti's tone on the oboe is attractive and never becomes cloying."

~Uncle Dave Lewis, www.Allmusic.com

Link to AllMusic Review