March 21, 2022
Morgan Hall, Bailey Performance Center
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia
Helen Hwaya Kim & Kenn Wagner, violins; Yinzi Kong, viola; Charae Krueger, cello; Robert Henry, piano
Josef HAYDN: Piano Trio in D, HOB XV:24
Antonín DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81
Mark Gresham | 30 MAR 2022
On March 21, the Summit Piano Trio (violinist Helen Hwaya Kim, cellist Charae Krueger, and pianist Robert Henry) returned to the stage of the Bailey Performance Center at Kennesaw State University to perform a concert of music by Haydn and Dvořák.
The Trio has been together for 13 years, and each of its members is active in other parts of metro Atlanta’s music scene. All are also faculty at the Bailey School of Music at KSU. That offers a great opportunity as a home base for the three musicians to regularly work and perform together in the performance center’s Morgan Hall and invite fellow KSU musicians to join them in top-level performances at this increasingly significant northwestern OTP venue. (“Outside the Perimeter”)
The concert opened with the Piano Trio No. 38 in D major, HOB XV:24, by Josef Haydn.
Written in 1795, during Haydn’s second trip to London, it’s one of three (H. XV:24–26) dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter. A bright and earnest work, the resonant English pianos Haydn encountered while in London greatly influenced his style of piano writing in this work. This 14-minute work was a delightful way to start the program.
Next, Kim, Kreuger, and Henry were joined by two KSU colleagues, violinist Kenn Wagner and violist Yinzi Kong, for Piano Quintet, Op. 81, by Antonín Dvořák.
A founding member of Vega String Quartet in residence at Emory University, Kong joined the KSU faculty three years ago. Wagner, a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is also on the faculty at KSU as well as Morehouse College.
Wagner has performed with Summit Trio before. It was Kong’s first time as a Summit guest, although she performed with Kim and Krueger on occasion in other groups. Last year, there were plans to collaborate in a Summit Trio concert, but the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible.
Their past experiences playing together certainly contributed to the excellent musical chemistry in this performance.
Dvořák imbues the quintet with elements from Czech folk music but not actual folk tunes; the composer’s signature lyrical style is authentic to the folk idiom, but the melodies are original.
The quintet’s Finale was especially spirited, with the pace accelerating in an exciting rush to the end. ■
External links:
- Summit Piano Trio: parkerartists.com/Summit-Piano-Trio.html
- Bobbie Bailey School of Music at Kennesaw State University: arts.kennesaw.edu/music/

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.
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