LEWISTON – On Saturday, April 18, pianist Duncan J. Cumming will join violinist Hilary Walther Cumming and cellist Sölen Dikener as the Capital Trio presents a program honoring the 200th anniversary of the death of Franz Josef Haydn.

The recital, the fifth in this season’s Piano Series at the Franco-American Heritage Center will feature works by Haydn; Haydn’s younger colleague and friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and Haydn’s most famous pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven.

Capital Trio is the resident trio at the University at Albany, where Cumming, who grew up in Wiscasset, is assistant professor of music.

While in high school, Cumming began his study with pianist Frank Glazer, work that continued as he went on to Bates College. He still collaborates with Glazer, performing double concerto, two piano and four-hand repertoire. Following his graduation with highest honors from Bates, Cumming studied at the European Mozart Academy in Prague, then returned to study with the late Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory, where he received his master of music degree in 1996. Later, he received his doctor of music degree from Boston University and, since 2002, has served as assistant director of the Tanglewood Institute’s young artists piano program.

Cumming is known for his informal and informative commentary during recitals.

Dikener and Cumming formed a musical bond of friendship when, at their first meeting, they discovered that their teachers, Paul Tortelier and Frank Glazer, had performed together 70 years earlier in Paris and in Boston.

Dikener began studying cello at age 8 in his native Turkey and soon entered the class of “highly gifted students” at the State Conservatory in Ankara, from which he received his undergraduate degree at age 18. He then studied in France with Paul and Maud Tortelier. He holds a doctoral degree from Michigan State University and is associate professor at Marshall University, where he also conducts the university symphony orchestra.

Dikener has given recitals and performed with chamber groups and orchestras in Europe and the United States. In the recording studio, he holds to his mission of advancing the cello works of contemporary Turkish composers.

Hilary Cumming, a member of the faculty at the University at Albany, received her undergraduate training at Northwestern University, where she studied with Gerardo Ribeiro. She completed her master’s degree in violin performance at Indiana University. Awarded a Fulbright grant, she then studied at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen.

Her interests have allowed her to develop a repertoire of classical, baroque and Irish traditional music. She has performed as soloist and in ensembles from South America to Eastern Europe.

Along with their busy life as performers and teachers, Hilary and Duncan Cumming are the parents of two daughters and a young son.

Concert tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors. Students 21 and under admitted free. Call the box office at 689-2000, or go to www.francoamericanheritage.org.

He will tell children’s stories from the keyboard

On Friday, April 17, Duncan Cumming, concert artist, educator, and children’s book author, will give a presentation at the Franco-American Heritage Center especially for third- and fourth-graders.

The program “A Musical Carousel – Stories with Narration, Art, and Music,” will begin at 12:30 p.m. It is based on Cumming’s children’s books, “From Bangkok to Bangor” and “From Haverhill to the Highlands.”

Cumming will present this 45-minute program from the keyboard and illustrate the stories with music and original art. Admission is free to all; parents are welcome. Teachers and parents should call the box office at 689-2000 to make arrangements.