The Azaela String Trio is led by Deborah Boykan (violin), Jenny Stirling (viola), and Saraj Freiberg (cello). The trio will play works by Wiggins, Weston, Burleigh, Dvorak, Fisher, and White. Songs will include “Deep River,” “Goin’ Home,” “Levee Dance Op. 27, No. 2,” and “The Birthday Waltz 1883.”

Deborah Boykan is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College. A former member of the Basel Sinfonietta, Deborah has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Opera Boston, Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Cape Cod Symphony (Associate concertmaster), Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, Back Bay Chorale, Masterworks Chorale Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Odyssey Opera, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles throughout New England as well as performances/tours with Aerosmith, Sarah Brightman, Bjork, Natalie Cole, The Irish Tenors, K.D. Lang, Liza Minelli, The Moody Blues, Dudley Moore, James Taylor, and others. She won a Guggenheim Foundation Student fellowship to work in Venice, Italy and received multiple Massachusetts Arts Lottery/NEA grants for chamber music recitals.

Jenny Stirling trained at the Guildhall School of Music in London as a student of David Takeno. Diverting for a few years to explore her love of Culinary Arts, she resumed musical studies, acquiring degrees in violin performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, and viola at SUNY, Stony Brook. Jenny played for many years with Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music, performing as a violinist on their Bach cantata series. She was principal violist of the New England String Ensemble, tenured violist with the Boston Lyric Opera, member of the Boston Philharmonic and other contemporary and early music groups. Currently a member of the Handel + Haydn Society Orchestra, she also performs with Sarasa and other chamber ensembles on both period and modern instruments. Engagements have led Jenny to numerous live performances for Boston's WGBH recording studio, and to play on some of the world's finest stages in the US and abroad.

Sarah Freiberg is a tenured member of the Handel and Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music. Cellist for Blue Hill Bach and both the Kennebec and Connecticut Early Music Festivals, she has performed with Boston Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco), Portland Baroque (Oregon), Seattle Baroque and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. As corresponding editor for STRINGS magazine, she has contributed dozens of articles and reviews. Sarah edited the long forgotten Guerini cello sonatas for both PRB Productions and Broude Brothers, and recorded Guerini and Laurenti cello sonatas for Centaur. “Tutti Bassi”, her duo with Colleen Mcgary-Smith, has recently released “Have Cellos, Will Travel”, a CD of 18th century European musical gems, on Centaur. Sarah teaches baroque cello at Boston University and modern cello at the Powers Music School. She received her D.M.A. and M.M. degrees from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, and holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory, Brown University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Newton  Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

This concert is presented in partnership with the Department of Older Adult Services. It is also sponsored by the Jayne Colino Fund of the Senior Citizens Fund of Newton.

RSVP requested. Please call 617-796-1675, stop by the Front Desk at 20 Hartford Street, or send your name, telephone number, and email address to our receptionists at seniorprograms@newtonma.gov