The Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio performs Saturday in Macky Auditorium at CU.

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Trio?

That's violin, cello and piano, right?

That's the reaction of those who grew up half a century ago, when chamber music in this country was divided between the Beaux Arts Trio and the Juilliard String Quartet.

Times change: Instruments of the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio, here to perform for the University of Colorado Artist Series on Saturday, are violin, piano and clarinet.

And to bring even greater variety to the program, violinist Ani Kavafian plays viola in two of the four works slated for the event and swaps violins in another.

"It's an unusual ensemble," Kavafian says, "but it's not unique. The Verdehr Trio at Michigan State has commissioned 40 works for this group of instruments, and at Yale I've been coaching an ensemble that is looking for a name before it goes professional."

And although Kavafian, pianist Andre-Michel Schub and clarinetist David Shifrin have worked with each other for more than 35 years, they began performing as a trio only in recent seasons.

"All three of us are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center that David served as artistic director for 11 years," Kavafian says. "And it's largely our respect for each other that led us to form a trio."

Each of the three continues a busy life beyond the Trio.

Kavafian appears often in a duo with her violinist/violist sister Ida; Schub directs -- and performs in -- the chamber-music program at the Virginia Arts Festival, and Shifrin has his own Chamber Music Northwest program every summer in Oregon.

On top of that, each has a busy career as a soloist.

"We set aside two weeks each season for the trio -- one in the fall and one in the spring," Kavafian says. "We give the dates to our agent, and he finds us gigs.

"Last season we played a dozen concerts; this year it will be less, because we can't find other times to work together."

All three enjoy the flexibility the current rage for chamber music in this country gives them.

"We can do Beethoven's Septet and Mendelssohn's Octet," Kavafian says. "And we play works that mix strings with winds."

Kavafian plays viola in Mozart's "Kegelstadt" Trio, the opening work on the program.

"We play it more than any other piece," says Kavafian, pointing out that the name refers to a form of bowling popular in Mozart's day. "It's so elegant and classically beautiful.

"It not a work that jumps out and hits you; it rather draws you in -- something that Mozart is so good at doing.

"It's a wonderful way to start the evening."

Stravinsky's own arrangement of several movements from his 1919 "Soldier's Tale" follows.

Since the original was a theater piece, the Trio will take time to tell its story to the audience.

"The music is programmatic," Kavafian says, "and the audience will get more out of it if they know the Faustian tale of the soldier who sells his violin -- his soul -- to the Devil."

Following intermission Kavafian returns to the stage with her viola for Max Bruch's Eight Pieces, the next work on the Saturday program.

"It's not played that much," she says, "but it's very special, and the audience will love it.

"Like his Violin Concerto, it's a very Romantic work, and its intimacy is explained in part by the fact that Bruch wrote it for his violist son."

The final work on the program is Bela Bartok's "Contrasts," the work that was premiered by big-band clarinetist Benny Goodman in 1940.

"Goodman did so much for classical music," Kavafian says. "It's important that the audience know of his role in this work."