Francine Trester is Associate Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music. Trester received her BA, MA and DMA from Yale University and later was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study composition in Cambridge, England. She has been the recipient of an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award as well as awards from the Fromm Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her works have been premiered at venues worldwide including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, recorded on Albany and Crystal Records, and published by Clear Note Publications. Her chamber opera, “334 Bunnies,” was premiered by the Mockingbird Trio (and guests) Jan. 26, 2012 at the Longy School of Music. WEBSITE: www.francinetrester.com

“A Rainy Day” – PROGRAM NOTES
This solo piano piece was written to accompany the painting of the same name by Marie-Francois Firmin-Girard. The composition opens in the upper register of the piano. A series of descending harmonic seconds implies the first tiny droplets of a gathering rain. The music then descends further into the middle register of the piano. A more ambling, continuous melody ensues suggesting the steady progression of Firmin-Gerard’s family of travelers. A more jaunty, “scherzando” section follows. A skipping, dotted-rhythmic motif marks this passage, conveying the youthful wonderment of the young boy in Firmin-Gerard’s painting. One can imagine this boy perhaps jumping and splashing through the puddles. This section ends with a broad “glissando,” a gesture of abandon and joy in the falling rain. Following this, we hear once more the descending seconds of the opening, leading us back to the more staid aspect of a steady rain. The final section is marked by a descent into the lowest register of the piano. A “basso,” slow coda ensues and the eye is drawn to the elderly couple at the end of Firmin-Gerard’s line of travelers. Slowly they walk – they have all the time in the world, suspended as they are in Frimin-Gerard’s intimate portrait of family, wonderment, and rain.