The Ahn Trio is a
classical piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
trio composed of three sisters: Angella (violin), Lucia (piano), and Maria (cello) Ahn; Lucia and Maria are twins. Born in Seoul, Korea, they moved to New York City in 1981, and began their training at the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
. The sisters formed a trio while they were earning their master's degrees at Juilliard. The Ahn Trio is known for its performance of new classical music, genre-crossing programming, and collaborations with other artists.
Media recognition
The trio achieved widespread recognition in the United States in 1987, when ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine featured them in a cover story about Asian-American "Whiz Kids". Since then, the trio has appeared in magazines multiple times, acknowledging that they seek to "get in the mainstream magazines as classical artists" in order to promote classical music's image.
In 2003, they were selected by ''
People
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
'' magazine as three of the "50 Most Beautiful People" and have been featured in ''
Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
'', ''
GQ,'' and in ads for
Gap and
Anne Klein. They have been photographed by photographers
Arthur Elgort,
Ellen von Unwerth, and
Walter Chin. The trio is often noted for their attractive appearance and fashion choices.
Repertoire and collaborations
The Ahn Trio performs a diverse set of genres, ranging from new classical music to arrangements of popular songs. In addition to recognized works of the classical piano trio repertoire, such as that found on their first two albums (one of which, ''Dvořák, Suk, Shostakovich: Piano Trios'', earned them a German
Echo
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...
award) the sisters have performed arrangements of popular music (including songs by
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
and
the Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
) and have commissioned works by composers including
Michael Nyman,
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards ...
,
Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale (born 15 June 1966) is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.
Biography and career
Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended th ...
, and Ronn Yedidia.
The Ahn Trio's collaborations include an acoustic project with alternative rock band
Tata Bojs, with whom they performed live at the Czech Grammys and recorded an album, ''smetana'', and performances with the
David Parsons Dance Company. They appeared on
MTV's "Unplugged" with
Bryan Adams
Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...
, which inspired the title of their album ''Ahn-Plugged''. "Ahn-Plugged" has also been used by the trio as a term for their commissioning and performing new works.
''Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac'' features collaborations with vocalists
and Ema Brabcová and with DJs Tao of Sound,
DJ Spooky
Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...
,
Superdrive, and Ra.D. for four remix tracks on the album.
Performances and appearances
The Ahn Trio performs frequently throughout the United States, and also gives workshops and master classes at middle schools, high schools, and colleges, seeking to bring new audiences to classical music.
Their performances often include visually appealing staging and programs that are announced and discussed from the stage by the trio.
Maria Ahn recorded guest cello parts for the album ''
April Rain
''April Rain'' is the second full-length album by the Dutch symphonic metal band, Delain. It was released in the Benelux on 20 March 2009 and was released internationally on 30 March 2009 by Roadrunner Records. It was released in Australia on ...
'' by Dutch symphonic metal band
Delain
Delain is a Dutch symphonic metal band formed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, intending for the band to be solely a project. Singer Charlotte Wessels was invited to join in 2005. The name of the band comes fr ...
. The record came out in March 2009.
In December 2010, the Ahn Trio appeared in the
TED Conference as part of the TEDWomen series, performing ''Skylife'' by
David Balakrishnan David Balakrishnan (born 1954, Los Angeles, California) is the founder of the Turtle Island Quartet.
Life
After graduating from UCLA in 1976 with a B.A. in music composition and violin, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he quickly esta ...
and ''Oblivion'' by
Astor Piazzolla
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed '' nuevo tango'', incorporating elements fro ...
.
Their recording of "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" by Michael Nyman, from their album ''Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac,'' appeared in ''
So You Think You Can Dance
''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and ha ...
'' in the show's final episode of season 8 on August 10, 2011.
The Ahn Trio performed at the
White House State Dinner honoring South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak on October 13, 2011.
Discography
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
American classical musicians of Korean descent
Chesky Records artists
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Piano trios
South Korean emigrants to the United States
American twins
South Korean twins
Musical groups established in 1989
Sibling musical trios