ChamberStudio are delighted to welcome back the Linos Piano Trio, a ChamberStudio alumnus group, to coach Trio Casella and the Astatine Trio, two of the finest of the next generation of piano trios, in works by Beethoven, Taillefaire and Brahms.
Brahms Piano Trio in C major, Op.87, No. 2, 1st & 2nd mvt
Beethoven Trio No. 6 in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2, 1st mvt
Tailleferre Piano Trio
Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League
Open to Observers
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Prach Boondiskulchok - piano
Konrad Elias-Trostmann - violin
Vladimir Waltham - cello
Winner of the German Record Critics Prize for the chamber music category in 2021 and with several 5-star reviews for their latest album release in 2023, the multi-award-winning Linos Piano Trio is earning wide-spread acclaim for its unique and innovative style. Further accolades include the First Prize and Audience Prize of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition 2015, the 2014 winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize. Since 2017 the ensemble has served as a Carne Ensemble-in-Residence at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. This year the Linos Piano Trio directed the fourth season of the Linos Festival in Cologne: an annual chamber music festival where the trio is joined by other musicians, expanding programmes and concepts beyond the trio repertoire, and creating gripping concert experiences.
The Linos Piano Trio’s colourful and distinctive musical voice draws on the rich cultural and artistic backgrounds of the three musicians. Their seven languages, five nationalities, and breadth of specialisms ranging from historical performance to new music, contribute to their multifaceted and personal performances. Alongside the ensemble’s commitment to the genre’s masterpieces, Linos expands the repertoire by championing hidden gems and creating new trio transcriptions.
Praised for its “slow-burning, gripping performance” by The Strad, and “virtuosity, presence of mind, and wit” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Linos Piano Trio’s reputation has taken it to prestigious stages and festivals internationally, including London’s Southbank Centre, Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Melbourne Recital Centre, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Holzhausenschlösschen Frankfurt, Nikolaisaal Potsdam and Théâtre Saint-Louis France.
In 2023, the Linos Piano Trio released its most recent album In Search of Lots Dance, in partnership with SWR was the first recording of Ravel’s Piano Trio on historical instruments, winning five-star reviews across the press. The Trio was the first to release the complete Piano Trios by C.P.E. Bach in 2020 with its debut recording and, continuing its innovative output of piano trio records, in 2021 released its second album Stolen Music, of original transcriptions for piano trio, in partnership with Bayerischer Rundfunk and CAvi-music/Deutsche Grammophon.
Formed in London in 2007, the Linos Piano Trio studied at the Guildhall School and then at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Professors Oliver Wille and Markus Becker. The ensemble also received generous scholarships from London’s ChamberStudio and Paris’s ProQuartet programmes to conduct its further studies with Sir András Schiff, Peter Cropper, Ferenc Rados, Rainer Schmidt and Eberhard Feltz, all of whom were highly influential in forming Linos’ musical approach.
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Trio Casella is formed of Luke Lally Maguire (piano), Violetta Suvini (violin) and Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (cello). The group won the Ivan Sutton Chamber Music competition (2023) and the St James’s Chamber Music Prize (2023) in London and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. They perform regularly throughout London and have performed at venues and festivals including St John’s Smith Square, Milton Court Concert Hall, and Princess Alexandra Hall.
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Formed at the Royal College of Music in 2021, the Astatine Trio was unanimously awarded First Prize at the 2022 Senior Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition as the youngest entrants, with an average age of 18.
They went on to win the First Prize and Luigi Boccherini Prize at the International Virtuoso & Belcanto Chamber Competition (Lucca, Italy) in July 2022 and were joint first prize winners at the Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition in November 2022. Most recently, the trio were the youngest finalists of the 2023 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and were awarded the SEAM prize for contemporary music. They are Britten Pears Young Artists for the 2023/24 season, as one of five ensembles selected for the Chamber Music in Residence program.
In July 2022 the trio were chosen for a public masterclass with Alfred Brendel by the Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival, after which they were invited by the legendary artist to undertake further work with him privately in London. They were also selected as one of four groups participating in ChamberStudio’s inaugural Hans Keller Forum for 2022/23, consisting of three intensive residencies at the University of Cambridge across the academic year. They are grateful for the mentorship of Alfred Brendel, Richard Ireland, John Myerscough, Prach Boondiskulchok, Luc-Marie Aguera, Riccardo Cecchetti, Michał Kaznowski and Alasdair Beatson and have also worked with Alina Ibragimova, Thomas Hoppe, Yovan Markovitch, Adrian Brendel, Peter Nagy, Krysia Osostowicz, Christoph Richter, Bruno Giuranna, Robin Ireland, the Gould Trio and the Busch Trio among others.
The trio regularly perform in the UK and abroad – past and upcoming engagements include performances at Wigmore Hall, St James’s Piccadilly, St George’s Bristol, the Austrian Cultural Forum and St Mary’s Perivale as well as music societies across the UK. They are grateful for the support of Maggie Grimsdell (Music at Longhill Road), Philip Carne, ChamberStudio, the Piano Trio Society and the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust.
