Aureole’s performances include concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC to celebrate the opening of the Barnes Collection, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in conjunction with the Cezanne retrospective, and Weill and Merkin Halls in New York City.
In addition, the trio has toured extensively and has recently been presented by the Saint Louis and Chicago Chamber Music Societies.
In the past few seasons Aureole has appeared on A&E Television Network’s “Holiday in New York”, with soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, on the Bravo Television Network, and on many “Performance Today” broadcasts including a “Performance Today” special Christmas Eve broadcast. Aureole’s debut disc, “Aureole” was short listed for a Grammy Award in the best Chamber Music Performance category.
Trio’s Palm Beach program fresh, challenging
By Marcío Bezerra, Special to The Daily News
January 29, 2020
The “Best of the Best” Flagler Museum Music Series continued Tuesday with a delightful concert by the Auréole Trio.
The ensemble consists of three superlative musicians — Laura Gilbert, flute; Mary Hammann, viola; and Stacey Shames, harp — who can make a rather confined repertoire sound varied and engaging. The ensemble first performed at Whitehall in 2005.
A quick search online will review that Claude Debussy was the first composer to write for the ethereal formation. His “Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp” was written toward the end of his life in 1915, and remains the gold standard of the repertoire.
The Auréole Trio understandably reserved it for the end of the program, giving the masterwork a vivid reading, which was especially noteworthy by its rhythmic precision and textural clarity. The finale presented some of the more virtuosic writing of the program and the trio negotiated its difficulties with aplomb.
Read the full review at palmbeachdailynews.com >>
Review: Embracing the Wind — American Record Guide
Embracing the Wind
Ben-Haim, Krouse, Navok, Paterson
Aureole Trio
AMR 1050—44 minutes
If Debussy created the flute-viola-harp trio in his 1916 sonata, groups such as Aureole have ensured its permanence in the classical landscape. The longtime collaboration of Mannes School of Music flute professor Laura Gilbert, Metropolitan Opera violist Mary Hammann, and former St. Louis Symphony and current Orpheus Chamber Orchestra harpist Stacey Shames, Aureole has commissioned over 100 works, released 11 albums, and appeared on three other recordings.
Here is original music for flute, viola, and harp by Israeli composers Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984) and Lior Navok (b. 1971) and American composers Ian Krouse (b. 1956) and Robert Paterson (b. 1970). The Ben-Haim Chamber Music (1978) is a wistful autumnal work, but the Navok Veiled Echoes (2000) is an early composition inspired by the Colorado wilderness (seen during his stay in Aspen). Paterson’s Embracing the Wind (1999) conjures the exciting feats of an Olympic athlete. The Krouse Thamar y Amnon (1991) pulls the listener through a distressing and tragic Biblical story told through the heavy sexual imagery of early 20th Century Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
As expected, the recital has a lot to offer: radiant clarity, vivid phrasing, nimble technique, and striking blend. Each composer fares well in his idiom; and the haunting Krouse may linger in the listener’s ear the longest. The stridency of the flute in the altissimo register is a curious wart; given Gilbert’s marvelous command of tone and color in every other tessitura, the most likely explanation is either digital compression or ill-advised microphone placement. Even so, fans of Aureole will find much to like.
— Hanudel
American Record Guide
Review: The Beautiful Beatles
by Jason Victor Serinus | hometheaterhifi.com
Performance: 
Sound: 
Just back from Cuba, where I participated in the 40th Anniversary Venceremos Brigade, I can’t get the Beatles out of my mind. There’s no easy way to explain Cuba’s fascination with the Fabulous Four, but 40 years after Spanish renditions of Beatles songs were blasted between sugarcane cutting excursions on the first Venceremos Brigade, the country remains under the Beatles’ spell. You may fall under it (again) as well, when you hear these lovely, arrangements of Beatles tunes for the flute, viola, and harp of the Aureole Trio. The intros to the 15 songs are quite inventive, the music approached with uncommon gentleness. Read More…
Celtic Grace: Airs, Dances and Ballads from Ireland
by Stephen Eddins | allmusic.com
The Auréole Trio consists of flutist Laura Gilbert, violist Mary Hammann, and harpist Stacey Shames, an instrumental combination ideal for Irish folk music. For a classical ensemble to keep its performances from sounding stilted and drained of spontaneity, it’s crucial to stay close to the music’s folk roots, and the self-effacing arrangements Auréole uses are completely successful at that, avoiding any fanciness and letting the music speak for itself. Read more…
Heidi Grant Murphy – DREAMSCAPE
Lullabies from around the world
Aureole Trio
by J.S.L. | Opera News
It’s becoming the thing among singers with children to package lullaby albums (mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager, pop artist Shawn Colvin), and lullabies certainly represent the locus where being a singer and being a parent intersect. From the kid-friendly design and the program notes, it is clear that this collection is intended as a commercial product rather than a recital disc, so I decided to test drive it on my three year-old. He was out like a light by the fourth cut, but I found that the repertory and arrangements commanded my attention. Read More…
Sweet, charming trio really dark, tragic
by Harold Duckett | Oak Ridge Times
One would think that an ensemble combining the sweet sounds, of the flute and harp, by a slightly somber viola , would be the focus of light, charming music.
But as the beautifully played concert in Oak Ridge on Saturday night by the well-known Auréole trio illustrated, music written for the combination of the three voices often explores dark, sometimes tragic and always intriguing subject. Read more…
Press
“Aureole trio’s intoxicating blend of flute, viola and harp…gives a deep satisfaction that increases with repetition. The trio’s members play with effortless technique and a fine sensitivity to the music and to one another. Their performance is, as chamber music should be, like a conversation among friends.”
—Washington Post
“Their performances in this attractive collection are just about flawless, providing the kind of interaction and mutual support which is the essence of chamber music”
—Fanfare
“The Aureole trio took every musical opportunity for their technically flawless, expressive playing and brought to this audience a musical experience that won’t be forgotten for a long time”
—Woodstock Times
“The Aureole took the audience into another world as they skillfully captured the ethereal atmosphere of the sonata”
—Asheville Citizen-Times
“Aureole’s reading was nothing short of extraordinary. Indeed throughout the evening….(they) proved to be first- rate musicians who work in total consonance as an ensemble. Their stage presence was superb…They emanated grace and elegance, but also a robust vitality when needed…”
—Palm Beach Daily News
“Aureole offers an elegant and animated performance of Debussy’s piece. It flows as naturally as naturally as a mountain stream met by a few wild thorns and bumble-bees along the way…Aureole demonstrates what these instruments can do dramatically as well as harmonically.”
—American Record Guide
“…as the beautifully played concert…by the well-known Aureole Trio illustrated, music written for the combination of the three voices often explores dark, sometimes tragic, and always intriguing subjects…For anyone who thinks music cannot be graphic, the brilliant interactions of flutist Laura Gilbert, violist Mary Hammann and harpist Stacey Shames easily dispel such a belief.”
—Oak Ridge Times
“Debussy’s Sonata…is taken in a way that emphasizes its clear-eyed sadness. Indeed these three artists give the work a moving tenderness, and this is a fine performance”
—Gramophone
“The three fine musicians of the Aureole ensemble, playing flute, viola and harp, are regular visitors to the Metropolitan Museum’s Christmas tree, and on Tuesday evening they were there to present a program of Christmas music…Among (the pieces) was happily included a movement from the great work written for their combination, the Debussy Sonata. They played it beautifully, too.”
—The New York Times
“The players proved bold beyond belief.”
—Charleston Daily Mail
On Suenos de Amor :
“This 2004 release…planted itself immediately on my happy-to-have and listen often lists. The first track…signals that we are in for a ride as colorful and beguiling as a boat trip down the Amazon…This is honest, authentic music made by skilled, committed musicians who are at the top of their game.”
—St. Petersburg Times