(THE PICKET) –On Thursday, March 10, Shepherd will welcome The Two Rivers Trio to the music department Salon Series.
The Two Rivers Trio consists of Richard Polonchak, an adjunct music professor and bassoon player, and his identical twin son violinists, Michael and Matthew, 28, who last performed at Shepherd University in 2000 in Reynolds Hall.
“When we were 12, we played at Shepherd in Reynolds Hall,” Matthew said, “It was our first real concert as a family and as Two Rivers Trio. It felt like a turning point from being a student to being a real musician.”
Although the Trio has performed a number of concerts and recitals throughout the mid-Atlantic area, they all agreed that their last performance at Shepherd was the most memorable.
“Reynolds Hall was packed. It was so packed that they had people sitting on the floor,” Polonchak said, “It was memorable to me because after the concert we had a little party at our house and one of them looked at me and said, ‘That was really fun. I like doing concerts.’ And we’ve been doing them together ever since.”
Polonchak said the name Two Rivers Trio came when the family moved to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia from Alexandria, Virginia.
“I grew up in Pittsburgh and everything in Pittsburgh is three rivers because that’s where the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River meet and form the Ohio,” Polonchak said, “When I wanted to come up with a name in the 90s, I saw that we only had two rivers here, so I stole it.”
The idea of the Trio arose when Matthew decided he wanted to play the violin at 4 years old, according to Polonchak.
“Matthew was insistent for a year about the violin so we decided at age five to get him a violin. I guess it’s a twin thing because Michael wanted a violin too,” Polonchak said.
Polonchak said the Trio came to be when he decided to accompany them on piano.
“I have a piano background so I would accompany them on things I didn’t have to practice. When they were like 8 years old, their teacher started them on the Bach Double Violin Concerto and I agreed to accompany them on the second movement because I could sight-read it,” Polonchak said.
“They wanted me to learn the other two movements but I didn’t want to take the time to practice the piano,” Polonchak said, “I decided to just play the left hand of the piano on the bassoon and it was really good.”
Polonchak first began playing the bassoon in the eighth grade and eventually won his first audition with the United States Marine Band.
“The bassoon ended up opening many doors for me because back in the 60s there weren’t many bassoonists.”
In addition to Two Rivers Trio, Michael and Matthew have a chamber music contracting company together called Two Rivers Chamber Music which, according to their website, specializes in weddings, holiday parties, corporate events, and full concert programs with Two Rivers Trio and Two Rivers String Quartet.
“The Two Rivers Trio is like a part of the family,” Matthew said, “I’ve been part of it since its inception, watched it grow and continue to evolve. It’s something I’m proud of and cherish. It’s taken us many places and I look forward to see where it takes us next.”
According to Polonchak, the trio is working on recording their first CD.
“We’re going to make a CD and we already have some of it recorded,” Polonchak said, “I would also like to do a little East Coast tour with them.”
Michael said that his future plans with the trio include more concerts.
“I would like to do more concertizing. I think it’s really cool that we are the only two violins and bassoon trio in the world that we know of in the world, so I would love to do more concerts with that.”
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in the W.H. Shipley Recital Hall and will feature the Polonchaks’ own transcription of the Bach “Double Violin Concerto,” a Mozart serenade, a Haydn London trio, Viennese waltzes, Joplin rags, and compositions by the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Taylor Swift.