Ahn Trio Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac
Ahn Trio to perform at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall January 22, 2010
11 Questions, Ahn Trio Biography, Angella, Lucia, Maria, Discography, Reviews, Contact Information and Videos! Listening to their Latest album Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac on Don411.com, under "Music and Performance Gallery for Interviews".
(When it is not specified 'who' answered, that means it is the "trio" who answered).
1. What are some reactions you get to your music from classical music patrons?
- "I had no idea how much I liked "The Doors."
- "Why did you smile when that person clapped at the wrong place? You should have scowled at them and discouraged them."
- "Thank you for introducing me to "modern" music. You have made me a converter."
- "You are Koreans musicians from America playing Argentinean music in Germany, and we felt like we were on the streets of Buenos Aires."
2. What location in the world do you feel the most comfortable performing?
- "Anywhere beautiful where we have never been... like Timbuktu or Saigon for example."
3. What are your favorite pieces to perform?
- "Pieces that are written especially for us. However, we also love the Ravel Trio, but he didn't write that for us!"
4. What are your future plans with touring?
- " We plan to have as much fun as possible with our music projects and tours. Look forward to Ahn Trio doing many more
interesting collaborations and recordings. Our motto is that we will quit if things become boring for us, so we try not to get there."
5. When not performing, how do you relax?
ANGELLA: "I like to read, work in my garden, cook (chopping vegetables relaxes me), or play tennis."
LUCIA: "I think I have some gypsy blood in me, I spend all of my time traveling around the world when not performing. When in town, I go see as much live music/art/theater/film as possible. I also love to eat!"
MARIA: "Travel for pleasure, because that's different from when we travel to perform in concerts. I also like to attend other artists' concert of every kind of music, painting or drawing, exploring different cuisines, film and art, snorkeling, hiking, running, jewerly design...I never run out of things to do."
6. What advice would you give to a young person beginning a career in orchestra or chamber music that you would want to be told when you were their age?
- " Attend more live concerts! There is nothing like the experience of watching (not only hearing) live performances."
7. What prompted the Ahn Trio to perform music by fusing elements from different genre into your music?
- " We never went out of our ways to do that, it's the music we play. The Classical composers today write music that is embracing every culture, every genre, & they take these influences from everywhere. Just like in food or art, fusion is happening and is taking different forms. You see a chef whipping up Japanese-Peruvian dishes or an American painter using Indian motives as his muse or a rockband fusing opera or vise versa. This has been happening for two hundred years or so, perhaps it's just more evident today as the world became closer with the internet and planes. "
8. How did you react in 2003, when you were selected by People Magazine as three of the "50 Most Beautiful People"?
ANGELLA: "Complete disbelief."
LUCIA: "We were honored to be chosen as Classical musicians but we looked at each other and said, "really?". But it is really nice of People Magazine to include Classical musicians that are Korean-Americans. "
MARIA: "Yes, complete disbelief, but we knew we weren't chosen for our looks!!!, we were chosen for our job which is beautiful."
9. Do you have a favorite orchestra that you enjoy working with?
"Our most recent favorite orchestra that we have worked with is the World Youth Symphony Orchestra from Interlochen Summer Festival, they were great players with lots of excitement and energy. We also recently performed a Triple Concerto written for our trio by Mark O'Connor. We'd love to work with Gustavo Dudamel's Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in the future or other youth symphony orchestras!"
10. If you could work with anyone, who would it be and why?
LUCIA: "I would be thrilled if Keith Jarrett wrote us a trio. "
MARIA: "It would be great if David Bowie, David Byrne and Ennio Morricone would write an original piece for us.
I would also love to collaborate with singers, like Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Bjork, Benjamin Biolay, Maria Rita, Seu Jorge, Lady Gaga to name a few, keeping in mind our trio has new favorites every year!
11. Who are your favorite composers and why?
"Michael Nyman for his innovative simple powerful melodies that just stays with you forever, great melodies have that power.
Kenji Bunch for being Bernstein of our time and writing us amazing Trios and Triple Concerti.
Pat Metheny, because he is one of the geniuses of our time and his piece written for us sounds like as if Bach lived in Korea in the 21st Century and played the jazz guitar.
There are so many favorite composers we love; Nikolai Kapustin, Ronn Yedidia, Mark O'Connor, Paul Schoenfield, Maurice Jarre, just to name a few."
Ahn Trio Biography
Born in Seoul, Korea and educated at the Juilliard in New York City, the members of the Ahn Trio, (cellist Maria, pianist Lucia, and violinist Angella), are constantly redefining the art and architecture of chamber music. Breathing new life into the standard piano-trio literature with commissioned works from visionary composers such as Michael Nyman, Maurice Jarre, Pat Metheny, Paul Schoenfield, Mark O' Connor, Kenji Bunch, Nikolai Kapustin, and Paul Chihara, the Ahn Trio brings a new energy and excitement to the chamber music world. The trio's latest CD, "Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac" (released by Sony), is a showcase of this vibrant and original music, which made No. 8 on the Billboard Charts for 26 weeks in the Classical album category.
The trio has been touring successfully for over ten years and have six albums to date. Their first album, a recording of Ravel and Villa-Lobos trios brought rave reviews, with Audio Magazine praising "this is one of Ravel's best and never better played". The next EMI recording of trios by Dvorak, Suk, and Shostakovich, won Germany's prestigious ECHO Award. An MTV appearance on Bryan Adams' "Unplugged" led to the development of the "Ahn- Plugged" and "Groovebox" albums (EMI), which embodies the excitement and energy of the Ahn Trio. Seeking complete artistic freedom, the trio formed their own production company named L.A.M.P., (Lucia Angella Maria Productions), which self-produced "Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac". Their latest project was a joint album with the Czech Grammy-winning Tata Bojs called "Smetana" (Warner).
Maria, Lucia and Angella thrive on dissolving the barriers between art forms. They have fused their work with that of dancers, pop singers, DJ's, painters, installation artists, photographers, lighting designers, ecologists, and even kite makers. The Ahns enjoyed their successful collaboration with the David Parsons Dance Company, which toured extensively to critical acclaim. More recently, they performed in the Czech Republic with rock group the Tata Bojs to sold-out shows. This year, the Trio is very excited to add to their repertoire "March of the Gypsy Fiddler", a Triple Concerto written for them by Mark O'Connor. The Ahns frequently enjoy having guest artists join them on stage, recent favorites include the Kin, a two-brother rock band from Australia, as well as electronic music artist Juno a.k.a Superdrive from Berlin. It is precisely this vitality and commitment to innovation that has Ahn Trio continually drawing new audiences to classical music.
Possessing an enviable combination of talent and style, they have long been natural subjects for the international press. They made their magazine premiere very early on, in Time's cover story, 'Asian American Whiz Kids'. Since then, they have gone on to frequent fashion pages of the likes of Vogue and GQ, photographed by such luminary photographers as Arthur Elgort, Ellen von Unwerth, and Walter Chin, and been featured in ad campaigns for GAP, Anne Klein and Bodyshop, among others. In 2003, they were named three of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.
The Ahn Trio is in high demand, performing and leading master classes and workshops across the United States and around the world. Whether they are playing in Vienna's Musikverein, New York's Lincoln Center, Leipzig's Gewandhaus, Beijing's Concert Hall, Istanbul's Aya Irini in Topkapi Palace, or for 10,000 screaming fans at the World Music Festival in the Czech Republic, they share their innovative spirit and ever-evolving vision of music.
Here is what their favorite composers say about them:
PAT METHENY "Their willingness to play new music at such a high level is an inspiring and exciting quality that will continue to define the unique spot that they are carving for themselves in the music world."
MICHAEL NYMAN "My all-time favorite piano trio with a rare passion for new music."
MAURICE JARRE "Their choice and their taste make the repertoire of trio more interesting."
NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN "I became somewhat tired of 19th century music, preferable are either Sebastian Bach or Ahn Trio."
Angella Ahn, Violin
Hi!
My sisters and I premiered this amazing piece that Nikolai Kapustin wrote for us last year. It's beautiful, challenging, complex, and fun, and we fall more and more in love with it every time we play it. If you don't know him already, you should listen to his music!!! We will eventually record his trio, after we perform it for another couple of years. But you can hear Kapustin playing his own work right now! Check it out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xht5tUg3K8
By the way, MANY thanks to my friend Immanuel Davis, who is a flute professor at the University of Minnesota (flute players out there - I could not recommend a better teacher!), for introducing the three of us to this brilliant Russian composer.
I often teach at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps, keep checking to see which one I'll be at this year! Read about Mark's camps at:
www.markoconnor.com/fiddle.camp/index.html
I know that the slots go really fast, so make sure you sign up early. Mark has some of the best fiddle players in the world at his camps teaching ALL different styles of fiddling. I wish I was exposed to this when I was younger! I hope to see lots of you there!
Bye for now,
Angella
*Source, AhnTrio.com
Lucia Ahn, Piano
Alright, it's true that becoming a sister group was not the biggest dream for me. We all grew up in the same house learning all these instruments, so we just started playing Mozart and Haydn trios when we were really young. Then, when we were teenagers, we performed the Beethoven triple concerto all the time. I remember having these huge, knock-down fights and one of us walking out right before some of our most important rehearsals. But, miraculously, we managed never to cancel any of our concerts!
Now that we have been touring for more than ten years, we are definitely more mature (especially me!), and really appreciate the opportunities we have together: making music, sharing our work with our audience, and pouring all our heart out on stage is an incredible experience, and we're truly grateful for it.
I am going to answer some of your popular questions here:
Favorite piece:
Mark O'Connor's 'Triple Concerto' - Pat Metheny's 'Yu Ryung', both written especially for us.
Favorite tour:
Touring the Czech Republic in Nobember 08 with Tatabojs, that was so much fun! The audiences there stood up and started screaming the moment we walked on stage, which was very different from our experience playing for classical music audiences in concert halls.
Touring China in December 08 was also totally amazing, especially when I had a chance to hold a baby panda in my arms, and walking on the Great Wall Of China.
Favorite pianists:
Glenn Gould, Marth Argerich, Radu Lupu, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett.
Favorite states:
We have performed in all 50 states, my favorites are Hawaii and Alaska.
Favorite piano:
Hamburg Steinway
Favorite concerts:
We played at the I Tunes Festival in London in 2008, we were the only classical music group invited to perform there! I got a break when Michael Nyman came on stage, he performed the music that he had written for us with my sisters, that was great!
I went to see Keith Jarrett play at Carnegie Hall April this year, the sounds he was creating with the piano was brilliant, I have never known another pianist who can do what he does, it was so inspiring.
Favorite sister:
Yeah, right!
Our mom's favorite album:
Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac, she is our favorite insomniac and testifies that it really works!
Dream job:
Teaching piano to Clive Owen.
When do you get nervous?
When we were premiering Mark O'Connor's "Triple Concerto" in May this year, knowing that he wrote every note and there he was in the audience listening! Sometimes being nervous is a pretty good thing, especially when I can translate all that nervous energy into better concentration and focus.
*Source, AhnTrio.com
Maria Ahn, Cello
AHN TRIO's TOP TEN MOST ASKED QUESTIONS answered from the past...
Q: How do you plan on making classical music more mainstream?
By remembering that it always has been mainstream. By remembering that Mozart was the Justin Timberlake of his time. Many classical music composers were so ahead of their time. For example, Debussy didn't understand Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" at its premiere performance. That once "Sarabande" was banned because it was considered too sensual and erotic. We like classical music for its constant yearning for something newer, something more innovative, something more modern while we also love the wide range of its influences that are evident in its past literature. We should celebrate all aspects of classical music and not be afraid to break out of a box, because that was never part of what classical music is about.
Q: How would you like listeners to classify your music?
We don't want anyone to classify our music. We would rather they simply love our music for what it is. Trying to define modern classical music is like trying to define modern art.
Q: What led you all down a musical path?
Lucia saw a piano in the kindergarten and begged our mother for a year if she could get piano lessons to learn to play the piano. Once she started Angella and Maria also wanted to learn to play an instrument, but not the same.
Q. Did you dream of becoming a Trio?
While we were all at Juilliard, we never imagined becoming the "Ahn Trio." You never dream of working with your sisters your whole life! Then the late great New York manager Harold Shaw signed us, and Chesky Records made our first album. And now we have our fifth album, "Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac", with Sony. We always thought we may end up in three different continents doing three very different things musically, now we're only able to do that for vacations, sometimes! Because we tour all year together, we often joke that we're not keen on sharing anything with eachother except our music, our mother, stage and food.
Q: Were your parents musicians?
We don?t come from a family of musicians, but our parents were very much interested in the arts and took us to many concerts, exhibits and dance concerts. Our mother is a writer and our father is a businessman.
Q: Who were some of your influences growing up?
One always admires one's parents. Ours lived through a war and its aftermath, knocked the dust off, stood up tall, and became successful people. Our mother in particular forged new pathways and opportunities for women in Korea, which took a great deal of courage and self-esteem. Some others:
Maria: Jacqueline du Pre and Rostropovich's recordings and Myung Wha Chung, Yo Yo Ma, David Bowie, Modonna, Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Angella says that as a little girl, her personal musical hero was Kyung-Wha Chung and also David Oistrakh, Michael Rabin, Yehudi Menuhin, Stephane Grappelli.
Lucia: Rubinstein, Argerich, Glenn Gould, Radu Lupu and Keith Jarrett
Q: Explain your album, "Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac" on SONY:
"lullabies fit for 21st Century insomniacs."
Every century has its own distinctive style of classical music, and our album reflects classical music in the 21st Century which, of course, is influenced by all different types of music in this modern era. We live in New York City and can't help but be inspired by all the exciting new music and art around us. Incorporating these elements feels like an entirely organic progression to us. We don't purposely set out to be rebellious, musically.
Lullabies are traditionally very simple and beautiful melodies that are small yet powerful in their emotional content. A mother's love translated in a lullaby-her love for a child is incomparable. In every culture this element is the same. We started by choosing lullaby-worthy material and then did "modern classical" treatments of them which for us meant creating something edgy but at the same time minimalistic since lullabies should always be simple. "Primarily our ingredients were our acoustic instruments with some very, very subtle electronica elements and a few non-classical singers."
Lullaby for my Favorite Insomniac is "a reflective yet impulsive album", just a concept we wanted to explore, and it is very personal because it is the first album where we were involved in the whole production.
Q: Define each other in two words:
Pianist Lucia : true bohemian
Violinist Angella : charming spokesperson
Cellist Maria : quintessential artist
Q. Do you fight?
absolutely.
Q. Who wins?
We take turns. Each of us has time periods where one rules the other two and our dynamics constantly change in the group which makes it interesting.
Q. Favorite place where you have performed?
Hm, that's like asking us what would be our favorite dish in Korean food, it changes all the time. Too many to choose from,..Beijing, Istanbul, St. Louis, Prague, Carribbean Islands, Mexico, Sweden, Hawaii, Italy...we love them all. If the audience is great, it could be anywhere and we have a great experience.
Ahn Trio band member: Maria Ahn
Occupation: Cellist of the Ahn Trio most of the time...
Proudest accomplishment: hmmm...Not sure if I can possibly fit ALL here. Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac, starting LAMP (Lucia Angella Maria Productions), our own Record Co. from scratch, Our ?Ahn-plugged? Program concerts, Living doing what we want.
Perfect day: Music, Love, Really good food, Outdoors, Friends, etc. Or seeing Ballets Russes at theTheatre de Champs-Elysees when Le Sacre du Printemps was premiered in Paris in 1913 and meeting everyone there (OOPS, I wasn't there, but would have been a perfect day so I thought about it in Paris a month ago!)
Most unusual gift: A downpayment for a Cello I wanted to order and waited for 3 Years while it was made for me . Well, it was a Gift in a form of a Loan from a person who happen to attend our concert. I am forever grateful.
Recent impulse buy: Diary of Nijinsky written by himself (no, not an actual manuscript!)
Retail therapy: browsing CD Stores at airports in exotic countries and discovering unknown artists, cello stuff, girl stuff, making a shopping list for beach-hopping in La Digue. (which was just two items).
Can't live and play without: an occasional reminder of a quote fancied by Cocteau, "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly," which he borrowed from Chesterton.
Reminiscing 2008: Favorite live concerts heard: Pat Metheny at the Barbican with Gary Burton Quartet, Milton Nascimento, Chick Corea, Lou Reed, Cesaria Evora, Tata Bojs...
*Source, AhnTrio.com
Discography
Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac Groovebox
Ahn-Plugged Dvorak: Piano Trios: Dvorak, Shostakovich, Suks
Press & Reviews
Ahn Trio: The New Classical Revolutionaries…featured tight, solid playing, with strong communication among the players. NY Newsday, 2003
The Ahn Trio Rocks. The Honolulu Advertiser, 2005
This music touches the soul. Actually 'tears at one's soul' is more accurate; it's that powerful. It transports the audience to other realms, inner worlds...If this is where modern music is headed, I am all for it.
St. Augustine Record, 2004
The serious and adventurous music on this album once again reveals that the Ahns are far from a crossover contrivance. They 'cross over' the way Kronos does: by exploring the boundaries of chamber music, but always with an eye to the limits of good taste and with true accomplishment. The Ahns (are) at the top of their game and, yet again, in the vanguard of classical music.
EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble, reviewing the CD Groovebox
Here are three reasons not to give up on modern classical music - Lucia, Angella, and Maria Ahn - known as the Ahn Trio... Ahn Plugged is a perfect model for current chamber music, exploring new realms of sounds without alienating the listening audience for which it was intended.
Jason Schaefer-Valerius for VanGogh's Ear, reviewing the CD Ahn-Plugged
To hear them play Piazzolla, you'd think these sisters had grown up on the streets of Buenos Aires. The rhythms and accents were so full of meaning... Playing such as this would make stars of the Ahns if they were three ugly men.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This is one of Ravel's best, and never better played. Audio Magazine
50 Most Beautiful People
...included in one of their most read issues,"50 Most Beautiful People". The Ahn sisters are in the company of such luminaries in the arts and entertainment world as Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Julia Roberts as well as movie idols George Clooney and Ben Affleck. The selection is based not only on beauty but also on career achievement and, who is "hot." What makes the Ahn inclusion so unique is that they are classical musicians with impeccable credentials and a career and purpose that is having a stunning impact on the concert and chamber music world. People Magazine
The Orange County Register, 2007
Audience members attending the 5th annual Laguna Beach Music Festival over the weekend may be forgiven a little musical whiplash in the aftermath. The adventurous, omnivorous programming jumped from smoldering tangos to Russian jazz to swampy bayou stomps to rock-infused barnburners. One minute, echoes of Darius Milhaud; the next, Joe Venuti; the next, Jimmy Page.
All this with a string trio at the center? Yes, the common denominators were the aggressively talented and charismatic Ahn sisters (Lucia, piano; Angella, violin; Maria, cello): Korean-born, Juilliard-trained, and fearless and intrepid performers.
Though rooted in the traditional repertoire, the three (serving as the festival's featured artists) brought absolutely nothing traditional to Laguna Beach. Friday night, an evening of Latin-influenced works, performed in collaboration with the young Argentine composer/pianist Fernando Otero. Saturday night, an evening of classically structured white hot jazz in collaboration with pianist David Benoit and his trio. Over the two nights, the earliest work performed was Bernstein's Trio (1937), and beyond that, nothing earlier than 1970.
Very little was predictable, all was executed with firm discipline and a wonderful sense of play. Jazz in the classical vernacular can go embarrassingly square; no swing, no freedom, no risk. The Ahns have found the skeleton key. They aren't just versatile, but they're equally comfortable in the worlds of Bach and Basie.
The trio commissioned a work from Benoit for the festival, "Music for Two Trios," receiving its world premiere Saturday, and one could hardly ask for a better example of the Ahn's artistry and mutability, or of Benoit's sophisticated ear. The work's final movement, "Conversation," begins with a fussy, snooty theme in the hands of the cello and violin, and is interrupted after a few bars by a pounding jazz figure (excellent work from drummer J. B. Tate and bassist David Hughes). The two musical worlds eye each other warily for a few moments and the fight is on.
Benoit has synthesized a wide range of influences here, and created a charming, complex, memorable work. World premieres are not quite as rare as second performances. This is a piece that deserves a life beyond this past weekend. Benoit and his trio gave the audience a straight-ahead jazz set in the first half: the standard "If I Were a Bell," "Kay's Song," and two selections from his album Full Circle, "Yusuke the Ghost," and "Café Rio."
Saturday's performance also included Nikolai Kapustin's "Divertissement for piano trio" written for the Ahns in 2005. Bolling's "Suite for jazz flute" may be the ancestral model here, but the divertissement is not nearly as self-consciously prim or precious. Much more bite here, a driving pulse at the start, constantly shifting meter, all in a comprehensive jazz vocabulary. Also on Saturday's menu, two works from David Balakrishnan, notably the chunky, New Orleans-style "Skylife."
"Music with a Latin Flair" was the rubric given to Friday's concert, dominated by Otero. Wearing a headband and plaid, charcoal gray pants, Otero began the evening with five of his solo piano works. "The Red Circle," gave the clearest picture of his artistry: notes repeated with piston-like precision, sudden detours into daydreamy pastels, then back to the frenetic crashing. His "Extension: Music for violin, cello and piano," was commissioned by the Ahns for the festival and performed for the first time on Friday. An impressive Bartókian blend of folk sources, thrashing gestures, and astringent harmonies, it received particularly skilled attention from the Ahns.
The concert drew to a close with two Astor Piazzolla tangos, "Oblivion" and "Primavera Porteña," ("Spring" from the composer's four seasons cycle). Otero joined the trio on melodeon, lending a brilliant touch of authenticity to Piazzolla's now-familiar languid and steamy language.
The Bernstein trio filled out the program with an insightful peek at the then 19-year-old prodigy's already developed gifts. Bernstein's dramatic flair, melodic gift, wry humor, and penchant for the blues are already present, in inchoate form, here.
Was there ever a debate about the appropriateness of jazz in the concert hall? If so, it's over now. What stays in the mind about the festival is not so much the international scope or variety of influences, but how seamlessly all of it - classical, jazz, folk, and rock - flowed together.
Strings Magazine
They play as good as they look... Two Piazzolla pieces were excellently played, full of both graceful elegance and raw sex appeal.
The Washington Post
Their technique was impressive, and they balanced unanimity and individuality in a spirit that is at the heart of chamber music.
The Post Star
The turn of the phrase, the ensemble work and the careful treatment of every nuance pointed to a performance not to be easily forgotten.
Los Angeles Times
A dominant musical gene has obviously left its imprint on the sisters Ahn, originally from South Korea... The string players produce a gorgeous tone, Lucia has a solid grasp of the piano, and together they coax a collective, dynamically flexible sound that gets us thinking about the bonding power of family.
The Toronto Star
It had all the youthful fire, passion and commitment one could possibly want.
BBC Music Magazine
This enormously stimulating performance will be one to return to again and again.
Martin Moller
The clarity and warmth of their melodic line and their control over the unfolding of the tonal canvas contradict all the visual cliches... Music, for the Ahn Trio is like a second language, and one in which they are highly articulate. They take the music in their grasp and they communicate, when the music mourns, is in despair, cries out or threatens to become mute. This enables their music making and raises them above the ranks of those who flatter our ears with merely beautiful sounds. The accolade they received at Klosterhofgut Machern was unanimous.
Schweriner Volkszeitung
The performers impressed the audience with their abilities-they coupled refinement as chamber musicians with playful wit and charming charisma.
Stuttgarter Nachrichten
When has Maurice Ravel's trio of 1914 been heard played with such sparkle and with such breathtakingly sumptuous tone as this?
The Seattle Times
With their multicultural assortment of composers and a huge talent, these women have a modernist, fusion sensibility that is perfect for our age. Their take on chamber music is intimate, yet grand, innovative, yet classic. They seem to be having fun with their commissions, which get more and more adventurous as they add to the chamber repertoire. To the listener, it's a revolution.
Seoul Sisters
All manner of interesting music is available at Joe's Pub, one of Manhattan's ultrachic performance spaces, if you can get past the martini shakers and bar chatter. It was the perfect venue on November 17 of the Ahn Piano Trio, gifted "classical" players who have decided to throw off the square pretensions of the concert world for something a little more provocative. From the opening crash into the schmaltzy-but-effective rendering of David Bowie's breakthrough ‘70s rock classic "(the Rise and Fall of) Ziggy Stardust," is was obvious that this was to be no uptight, longhair event.
Taking truck with the establishment, these three Korean sisters-Lucia, Angella, and Maria Ahn, on piano, violin and cello, respectively--have decided to carve their own path. They're no strangers to the standard repertoire, having recorded Dvorak and Suk on previous discs, but this concert--to promote their newest CD Groovebox (Angel Classics)--was somewhere between a new music event and a midcult rock show. Not that wearing sequined, low-cut apparel and affecting a casual "classical-is-cool" attitude is anything new; flashy pants and revealing outfits are sartorial standards for most downtown new-music events nowadays. But the question always arises: is there substance behind the flash? In the case of the Ahns, most definitely; they play as good as they look.
It certainly is novel to hear Bowie tunes, or the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" at such an event. The idea itself is kitschy, and there is no way to do it effectively save throwing caution to the wind--which the Ahns did fearlessly. But it was in their more meaty material that these three sisters demonstrated their talent. Two Piazzolla transcriptions, trendy as the idea may be, were excellently played, full of both graceful elegance and raw sex appeal. Michael Nyman's "Yellow Beach," composed for the group, was the evening's high point. The piece is serious without being high-flown, mediating between quiet, meditative beauty and punchy drive with little in the way of transition, and the group managed its twists and turns with thoughtful accuracy.
The most substantive offering was a section of "Swing Shift" by Kenji Bunch. Though the work is not long on depth, they played it with dedicated ferocity--he is clearly a beloved friend and colleague of the ensemble, and his work perfectly suits their take-it-to-the-streets agenda. The three movements (from a six-movement work) depicted a smoky jazz-club crawl, Manhattan in the summer sunset, and techno-grooves—the last being the most effective, with glaring, bold gestures. Some snap-pizzicatos were so violent as to send off clouds of rosin from their instruments, and this, at the very least, made for good and entertaining theater.
If these three sisters (called "Seoul sisters" in their all-too-hip press materials) can keep up their intensity and grow together as musicians, the trio—now releasing its fourth record—may help to teach a younger generation to appreciate concert music. If they have any fault, it is that their playing sometimes is too precise, too measured (dare one say, too "classical") for the fare they are offering. But what it lacks in rock animus the Ahn Trio makes up for in enthusiasm.
Strings Magazine, 2003
Contact Information
Joanne Rile Artists Management, Inc.
93 Old York Road
Jenkintown Commons, Suite 222
Jenkintown, PA 19046-3925
(215) 885-6400 - (215) 885-9929 (FAX)
www.rilearts.com
Visit Ahn Trio on myspace.com/ahntrio.
Follow Ahn Trio on twitter.com/TheAhnTrio.
Janise Loell - Public Relations Coordinator
pr4ahntrio@gmail.com
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