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Young Concert Artists Anthony Trionfo, flutist, and Albert Cano Smit, pianist, will perform together in person at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Nov. 18.
The free performance will be at 7 p.m. To attend the performance, register online. Call 205-975-2787 or visit AlysStephens.org. A free Meet the Artist performance for area schoolchildren will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 19.
Trionfo was praised by the New York Times in May 2019 after his New York concerto debut. Cano Smit won first prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Performing together, these talented artists represent the bright future of classical music.
Praised as a “breezily virtuosic flutist” by the New York Times after his concerto debut with the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and Teddy Abrams in May 2019, Trionfo is “a musician of prodigious talent and scintillating personality” (Oberon’s Grove).
Trionfo began studying the flute at age 11 before appearing as a concerto soloist for the first time at age 14. He completed both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California, under the tutelage of James Walker, former principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Trionfo is a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and won the Alexander & Buono International Flute and National Young Arts Foundation competitions. He won first prize at the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 2018, he debuted in the YCA Series at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall and Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center along with pianist Cano Smit, premiering a new work by YCA Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch.
Committed to diversity, equity and inclusion work within the field of classical music, Trionfo has made a purpose of bringing music to all. He is a creator of the Umoja Flute Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing flutists of African descent with the tools needed to succeed and thrive at all levels of music-making.
Spanish/Dutch pianist Cano Smit is already becoming an audience favorite for his performances as soloist with orchestra and in recitals around the world. Montreal Gazette declared, “He established himself as an artist to watch.”
Cano Smit is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma with Robert McDonald at The Juilliard School. Previous teachers include Ory Shihor, Graham Caskie and Marta Karbownicka. He has benefited from extensive artistic advice by YCA alumni Richard Goode and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, with whom he gave four-hand performances at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles and Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills. Cano Smit is an alumnus of the Colburn School and the Verbier Festival Academy.
Safety is UAB’s priority. The pandemic is a fluid situation that UAB is monitoring, in consultation with infectious disease and public health experts; performances will be subject to change based on the latest COVID-19 safety guidelines. Event staff and attendees are required to wear masks indoors on campus regardless of vaccination status, as well as maintain proper distancing while on UAB’s campus, including at events.