di.vi.sion piano trio, featuring violinist Kurt Briggs, pianist Renée Cometa Briggs and cellist Matt Goeke, will play Haydn and the music of a trio of composers from the British Isles at The Chapel Restoration, Sunday, October 23, at 4.

Now what about that name? “It reflects our ability to divide the forces of our thirty-five-member group as needed, our interest in the musical structure of division itself, and the performance traditions of London and New York’s early pleasure gardens,” says founder and music director Kurt Briggs. The group is composed of experienced freelance players who have performed with many major orchestras, authentic practice ensembles, and new music ensembles in New York City and the tri-state area.  Their work has also been heard on television, radio and major record labels.

In addition to Haydn’s Piano Trio in A Major, the trio will perform Frank Bridge’s Phantasie Trio, Alan Bush’s Three Concert Studies and Welsh-born Hilary Tann’s, Nothing Forgotten.

Mr. Briggs has appeared with many chamber ensembles and orchestras, including Bethlehem Bach Choir, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Connecticut Grand Opera, Harrisburg, New Jersey and Vermont symphonies, New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and the New York City Opera National Company, to name a few. His Broadway credentials include Les Miserables, Titanic, Miss Saigon, My Fair Lady, and Sunset Boulevard. He has recorded widely, with popular and jazz artists, such as Harry Connick Jr., Celine Dion and Alicia Keys.

Ms. Briggs’ solo repertoire ranges from Mozart on fortepiano to the complete Debussy Etudes. Winner of the award for best interpretation of a French Composition by the French Piano Institute, which resulted in solo recitals in Paris at La Schola Cantorum and the French Embassy in this country, she has appeared in the American Composers Alliance Festival at Kosciuszko Foundation and at Flea Theater, both in New York City. Ms. Briggs created and administered the Bronx Conservatory of Music Outreach Concert Series, providing free concerts from 1999 to 2004. She holds a doctor of musical arts from SUNY Stony Brook; a master’s from Mannes College of Music and a bachelor of music degree from North Carolina School of the Arts, and is on the faculty of CUNY, Kingsborough Community College and College of Staten Island.

Matt Goeke performs with the EOS Orchestra, Musica Sacra, the Collegiate Chorale, North/South Consonance and Crosstown ensemble, among others. He also plays and records with the bands Church of Betty (Fruit on the Vine) and Voltaire (The Devil’s Bris, Almost Human). His flute, viola and cello trio, Eight Strings and a Whistle, has performed in New York’s Merkin Hall.