Cochise College Cultural Events presents a gala concert celebration with a performance by the Merling Trio at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22 at Kino Hall.

Based in Michigan, the piano-violin-cello trio is much-recorded and much in-demand. The program will include sizzling tango nuevo music by Astor Piazzola, the soul-searching Brahms trio in B Major op. 8, and the Viennese charm of Mozart’s trio in B-flat from 1786.

The trio will perform using Kino Hall’s beautiful Kawai concert grand piano, purchased through the Cochise Music Teachers Association Adopt-a-Key fundraiser. Music lovers of the St. Andrew’s parish and the Sierra Vista community “adopted” each of the 88 keys in memory or in honor of loved ones or friends. So far, all but eight keys have been adopted. Additional donations have purchased the piano dolly, the bench, and a hand-crafted copper sculpture designed as a piano keyboard in a circular three-dimensional plaque. The plaque, crafted by metal artist Joseph Ward of Catalina, Ariz., will be presented that evening, and each donor will be recognized. Each piano key will have the name of its donor and/or honoree imprinted on it.  The sculpture will be displayed in Kino Hall as a permanent reminder of the generosity of the community in making this fine piano possible.

A truly international group, the Merling Trio brings together musicians from Polish, Japanese, and Dutch backgrounds. The trio was named a finalist for the Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Award in 1994. It has given numerous recitals and performed with orchestras, symphonies, and chamber groups throughout Canada and the United States. Several contemporary composers have written works for the Merling Trio, and in 1993, they commissioned and premiered C. Curtis-Smith’s Second Piano Trio. In February 1998, the trio returned to Carnegie Hall for a sold-out performance of a new work by New York composer Terry Winter-Owens, commissioned by the trio with a Commissioning Grand from the American Composers Forum. In 2003, the trio premiered Frank Proto’s Quartet for Piano and Strings at St. John’s Smith Square in London. In residence at the School of Music at Western Michigan University, members of the trio are also faculty members at the prestigious ENCORE School for Strings, and at the Lancut Festival in Poland.

A reception with refreshments will follow the concert. Admission is $5 at the door. Youth 16 and younger will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Kino Hall is located at 800 Taylor Drive, next to the new St. Andrews church, and is handicap-accessible. For information, call (520) 515-8759, email culturalevents@cochise.edu, or visit www.cochise.edu.