Picasso Street Trio performs Beethoven's Serenade in D major opus 25, June 3

The Picasso Street Trio is a group of three women who met through UC Davis in 2008 and decided to play music together.  Serena Williams, from Linguistics, plays the violin; Begoña Ascaso, from Astrophysics, plays the viola; and Jacqueline Hodge, also from Astrophysics, plays the flute.  This unusual combination of instruments means that the group has had to do most of their own arranging in order to perform familiar pieces at birthday parties and weddings, but they discovered in 2009 that Beethoven wrote a trio for this exact instrumentation called the Serenade in D Major.  To date, this is the only piece from the era arranged for the violin, viola, and flute ever written.  For this reason, the Picasso Street Trio is excited to perform the Beethoven Serenade in its entirety before the members break up to pursue career and personal interests abroad and close to Davis.

Program: Serenade in D major opus 25 by Ludwig van Beethoven

 I.Entrata. Allegro.

II. Menuetto e trios

III. Allegro Molto

IV. Andante con Variazioni

V. Allegro scherzando e vivace

VI. Adagio

VII. Allegro vivace e disinvolto

The performers:

Serena Williams

Serena Williams played the viola in the California public school system from the fourth

grade until the seventh grade when orchestra funding was cut from the state's educational budget.  She played viola in the Sacramento Youth Symphony from 1990-1994 and in the Pacific Lutheran University Orchestra from 1994-1997.  She taught private piano, viola, and violin in Highland Falls, New York from 2000-2003.  Serena co-founded the faculty quartet at Brescia University in Owensboro, KY in 2003 and played violin and viola with the group until she left for Davis in 2008.  She switched from viola to violin for the Picasso Street Trio in order to balance out the instrumentation in the group.

Begoña Ascaso

Begoña Ascaso started playing violin at the Conservatory of Huesca in Spain, under the direction of Javier López when she was 7 years old. After three years, she started playing the viola, the instrument with which she obtained her performance degree in 1998.  She also sings and plays the piano and guitar.  She has played as soloist in the Orquesta de Cámara de Huesca (Huesca, Spain) and Orquesta de la Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, (Barcelona, Spain). Additionally, she has collaborated with Tango Orquesta and the Amati Orquesta in Granada, Spain and is the viola player and co-founder of the Alceste String Quartet (Huesca, Spain), Glisando String Quartet (Barcelona, Spain) and Granados String Quartet (Granada, Spain). She has collaborated in numerous chamber music groups, jazz combos, Celtic and pop groups as well, such as Ana Lógica or Epsilon Orquestra. She has attended several master classes such as from Athenaeum Enesco String Quartet Paris. At present, she is the violist in the Picasso Street Trio.

Jacqueline Hodge

Jacqueline Hodge tookup the flute at the age of 10 after first learning the piano.  She was first chair and section leader for the York High Wind Orchestra and Marching Band from 1997-2000, during which time she also played in the district band and founded and led the York High Flute Ensemble.  She was named Outstanding Soloist at the annual Wind Band Competition in both 1999 and 2000.  She played with the Cal Poly Wind Ensemble for 5 years under the direction of William Johnson, making her debut in Carnegie Hall in 2003.  Since moving to Davis in 2005 to pursue her PhD in Physics, she has played with the UC Davis Wind Ensemble, as well as the Solano Community Band.  She is currently the flutist for the Picasso Street Trio.