The Allegria Ensemble is a classical music trio of flute, violin, and cello founded in 2006 based in State College in central Pennsylvania. Flutist Cathy Herrera, cellist Claudia Koide, and violinist Debbie Trudeau bring inspiration to the group from their extensive solo, chamber music, and orchestral careers. Each musician enjoys researching composers and potential new works to be added to the ensemble’s repertoire, which ranges from early music through contemporary popular music, and includes collaborations with living composers. The result is an engaging variety of pieces including original compositions as well as custom arrangements written for and by Allegria Ensemble.
We have appeared in concert at Music at Penn’s Woods, the Penn State University Palmer Museum for the Moments of Change series, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, The Bellefonte Historical Society, Juniata College, the First Thursday Series at Schlow Library, and First Night State College.
We are available to provide wedding music or background music for receptions and private parties in the Centre County region and Central Pennsylvania.
Allegria has a very busy spring coming up! Here are some free concerts if you'd like to meet us in person:
We'll will
perform a program of many short works in a wide variety of styles
chosen to share our passion and pleasure about music in general and
chamber music in particular. Taking a creative opportunity
where we find one, the trio will perform some of our own arrangements
of music that the composers neglected to consider. The program includes music by Bach, Haydn, Debussy, Schickele, Abreu and others you’ve never heard before - and may never hear again!
May 19, 11 a.m. at Schlow Library, State College, PA
May 19, 1:30 p.m. at Tyrone-Snyder Public Library, Tyrone, PA
May 22, 7 p.m. at Foxdale Village, State College, PA
With these concert we are pleased to be participating in National chamber Music Month. In addition to the public performances, we'll also be performing at Westminster Woods in Huntingdon, PA and Bellefonte Schools to promote classical chamber music to new audiences.
Our grand finale will come this June during Music at Penn's Woods festival on June 13 at 7:30 when we perform a richly romantic trio by Danish composer Robert Emil Hansen.
Performer bios:
Cathy Collinge Herrera, Flutist, holds both a D.M. degree in Performance
and World Music Certificate from Florida State University. She holds a B.M. from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, and studied at the University of Northern Iowa. Dr. Collinge Herrera has performed solo,
chamber and symphonic repertoire throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia,
England, Central and South America. While a Fulbright scholar to Peru, she was
principal flutist with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional and founder of the Festivales
Internacionales de Flautistas. As an
artistic ambassador for the U.S. Embassy, she performed as concerto soloist,
recitalist and master class clinician in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and
Venezuela. Other Latin American
performing venues include Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil. Dr.
Collinge Herrera has served as faculty member of the Western Australian Academy
of Performing Arts Conservatorium at the Edith Cowen University, Perth and
Valparaiso University, Indiana. Now in
central PA, she is a Rostered Artist for the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts,
and an Affiliate Artist with the Arts Conservatory of Central PA. She also performs with the Nittany Valley and
Altoona Symphonies, Music at Penns Woods, Camerata Amistad, and improvisation groups From the Heart Duo and Tr-hands-formation.
Debbie Trudeau, Violinist, received an M.M. Performance from
New England Conservatory after studies with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang on
modern violin and with Daniel Stepner on baroque violin. She was Associate Concertmaster with the
Glimmerglass Opera from 1987-2007 and a member of the Syracuse Symphony from
1986-2005. Now making her home in State
College, PA she performs regularly as Concertmaster of the Altoona Symphony,
and with Music at Penn's Woods, the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, and the Nittany Valley Symphony. An enthusiastic teacher, she was the
Director of Sinfonia and Violin and Viola instructor at Juniata College
2006-2010. She currently teaches private students
age 8 to 88 in her home studio. A trained
Teaching Artist in New York and for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, she enjoys
the opportunity to explore the intersections of music and other subjects.
Claudia Koide, Cellist, received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance from Pomona College where she studied with Gabor and Peter Rejto. She continued her studies with Margaret Rowell of the San Francisco Conservatory. Koide has lived in State College since 1986 performing during that time with Music at Penn’s Woods, the Nittany Valley Symphony, the Altoona Symphony and as principal of the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra from 1994-2000. She maintains a private studio teaching students of all ages.