The University of Chicago Presents

Orion String Quartet

2009-11-28T21:42:54Z

Daniel Phillips, violin
Todd Phillips, violin
Steven Tenenbom, viola
Timothy Eddy, cello

The Orion String Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles in the United States, receiving praise for its fresh perspective and individuality, offering diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers. It remains on the cutting edge of programming with their wide-ranging commissions from composers Chick Corea, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Marc Neikrug, Peter Lieberson, and Wynton Marsalis, and enjoy a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

With over fifty performances a year, the members of the Orion String Quartet have worked closely with such legendary figures as Pablo Casals, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, András Schiff, and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as the Budapest, Végh, Galimir and Guarneri String Quartets. The Orion serves as quartet-in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and New York's Mannes College of Music and is the resident quartet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Last season, the Orion performed the complete Beethoven quartets in London as part of the inaugural season of King's Place, the first performance hall to be built in London in almost thirty years. The quartet has also performed four times as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's season in New York, including the inaugural re-opening of Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

Heard frequently on NPR's Performance Today and WNYC Live, the Orion String Quartet has also appeared three times on ABC's Good Morning America, on A&E's Breakfast with the Arts and PBS' Live from Lincoln Center. In 2004 they participated in the first WNYC Radio collaboration with BBC World Service's popular syndicated program, Music Party.

Formed in 1987, the quartet chose its name from the Orion constellation as a metaphor for the unique personality each musician brings to the group in its collective pursuit of the highest musical ideals.

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Susanne Mentzer

2009-12-01T20:35:08Z

From an introduction to opera as a teenage usher at the Santa Fe Opera, Susanne Mentzer has become one of today's foremost mezzo-sopranos. Recognized for her generous vocal and interpretive gifts, she is widely admired for her versatility, from the recital and concert stage to the operatic arena, specializing in the music of Rossini, Strauss, Mozart, Berlioz and Mahler.

Born in Philadelphia, Mentzer began her studies in music therapy at the University of the Pacific and later transferred to The Juilliard School, where she received her bachelor and master's degrees. She went on to study with the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

Noted not only for her bel canto style but also as a specialist in trouser roles, Mentzer has been lauded for her portrayals of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. She has appeared with many of the great opera companies, orchestras, and festivals throughout North America and Europe, as well as the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and on tour with the Metropolitan Opera, Mostly Mozart, and the Bavarian State Opera.

In recent seasons, Mentzer sang the title role in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and appeared on the Metropolitan Opera's 125th Anniversary Gala. She also created the role of Mother in the world premiere of Tan Dun's The First Emperor with Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera, broadcast live to movie theaters around the world as part of the Met's series of high definition broadcasts.

Mentzer enjoys a significant concert and recital career, with a particular interest in chamber music and is known as an interpreter of the vocal works of Mahler and Berlioz, and as a proponent of women composers. In demand as a recitalist, she has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall NYC, and the Kennedy Center. Her numerous collaborations include guitarist Sharon Isbin, pianist Leon Fleisher, the Orion and American String Quartets, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, Aspen Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to her active performance career, Mentzer is a professor of voice at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston and has served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and the DePaul University School of Music. She frequently gives master classes throughout the country, adjudicates competitions, has worked with young singers associated with the George London Foundation, and is a board member of the William M. Sullivan Foundation awarding study grants to young singers. From 1991-2006 Mentzer organized the annual Jubilate benefit concert featuring stars of the opera and dance world to support Chicago's Bonaventure House, a residence for people living with AIDS.

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Dmitry Kouzov

2009-12-02T22:49:17Z

Cellist Dmitry Kouzov has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Russia with orchestras, in solo and duo recitals, and in chamber music performances. He has appeared with such orchestras as the National Symphony of Ukraine, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, as well as the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic (Czech Republic), and the North Caucasus, and Rostov Philharmonics (Russia), among others.

Kouzov's credits include performances at several prominent concert venues throughout Russia, including both the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Halls, the conservatory halls of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the Marïinsky Theatre. He made his New York orchestral debut with the Schumann Cello Concerto at Alice Tully Hall in 2005. Since then he has also performed at 92nd Street Y, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic. His numerous international festival apearances include Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Janáček May in the Czech Republic, Kiev Summer Music Nights in Ukraine, Ravinia and Caramoor Rising Stars. He is a 2006 recipient of the Rising Star Award of the New York Cello Society.

A consummate chamber musician, Kouzov has collaborated with such artists as Krzysztof Penderecki, Joshua Bell, Yuri Bashmet, and Ilya Gringolts. In 2004 he joined the Phaedrus String Quartet, and he is a founding and active member of the award-winning Manhattan Piano Trio, with whom he has toured extensively throughout the United States. Currently he teaches in Juilliard School in New York and Oberlin Conservatory. He has been recorded for numerous television and radio stations in his native Russia and abroad.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya

2009-12-03T19:32:31Z

Currently in his ninth season as music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is one of this country's most sought-after conductors. Under his leadership, the orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2008. Recording projects of the Fort Worth Symphony include an all-Tchaikovsky CD and the first-ever bilingual recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf featuring narrations in Spanish and English with Michael York.

An active guest conductor, Harth-Bedoya has appeared with many of the prominent orchestras throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. His festival appearances include Adelaide, Aspen, Avanti (Helsinki), BBC Proms, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl (for which he received an Emmy), Interlochen, Oregon Bach, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Vail.

Equally at home in the theatre, Harth-Bedoya will conduct a new production of La Bohème at the English National Opera in London during the winter of 2009. He has also appeared with the opera companies of Minnesota, Santa Fe, and Cincinnati.

Harth-Bedoya is the creator and conductor of a new multi-media project called Caminos del Inka, dedicated to rediscovering forgotten musical gems and to commission new works from composers associated with the countries through which the Inca Trail winds: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and the northwestern tip of Argentina. Following its premiere by the Chicago Symphony in October 2008, the Chicago Tribune wrote "...I found the multimedia event a refreshing departure from the usual subscription concert fare and format."

As a result of his tenure as associate conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Harth-Bedoya returns every year to conduct a subscription week with the orchestra. Winner of the 2002 Seaver/NEA Conductors Award, he has also served as music director of the Auckland Philharmonia, Eugene Symphony, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lima.

Born in Peru, Miguel Harth-Bedoya makes his home in Fort Worth with his wife Maritza and their three children, Elena, Emilio, and Elisa.

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Angel Gil-Ordóñez

2009-12-04T19:17:36Z

Angel Gil-Ordóñez has attained an outstanding reputation among Spain's new generation of conductors as he carries on the tradition of his teacher and mentor, Sergiu Celibidache. The Washington Post has praised his conducting as "mesmerizing" and "as colorfully textured as a fauvist painting."

The former Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Spain, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez has conducted symphonic music, opera and ballet throughout Europe, the United States and Latin America. In the United States he has appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, Opera Colorado, the Pacific Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and led the opening concert of the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington last season. Abroad, he has been heard with the Munich Philharmonic, the Solistes de Berne, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and at the Bellas Artes National Theatre in Mexico City. In summer 2000 he toured the major music festivals of Spain with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra in the Spanish premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

A specialist in the Spanish repertoire, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez has recorded four CDs devoted to Spanish composers with the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Spain, the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra and the Camara XXI chamber orchestra.

Born in Madrid, he worked closely with Sergiu Celibidache for more than six years in Germany. He also studied with Pierre Boulez and Iannis Xenakis in France. Currently the Music Director of Post-Classical Ensemble in Washington DC, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez also holds the positions of Music Director of Wesleyan University's Orchestra and Choir, Director of Private Lessons, Chamber Music and Ensembles, and that of Music Director of the Wesleyan Ensemble of the Americas.

Europa Galante

2009-12-05T20:56:10Z

Founded in 1990 by violinist Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante has become the most internationally renowned and awarded Italian ensemble of Baroque music. With a worldwide concert schedule, Europa Galante has performed in many of the world's major concert halls and theatres, including La Scala, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Suntory Hall, Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall, Musikverein, Lincoln Center, and the Sydney Opera House.

Europa Galante's repertoire ranges from the operas of Handel and Vivaldi and the oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti through the great instrumental works of the eighteenth century. The ensemble has performed at the Alessandro Scarlatti Festival in Palermo, giving the world premieres of Clori, Dorino e Amore serenata and the staged operas Massimo Puppieno, Il Trionfo dell'Onore, La Principessa Fedele and Carlo Re d'Alemagna.

Europa Galante often collaborates with the Fondazione Santa Cecilia in Rome to rediscover and restore eighteenth-century Italian operas such as Antonio Caldara's La Passione di Gesù Cristo and Leonardo Leo's Sant'Elena al Calvario. The ensemble also has a varying structure and often performs chamber music such as the string sonatas of Italian composers of the seventeenth century.

The ensemble has been nominated twice for Grammy Awards--in 2004 for its disc of Vivaldi's Concerti con molti strumenti and in 2006 for its recording of Vivaldi's Bajazet. Recent recordings include Alessandro Scarlatti's oratorio La Santissima Trinità and Mozart Concertos.

Europa Galante is resident orchestra of Fondazione Teatro Due in Parma.

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eighth blackbird

2009-12-07T19:02:02Z

Described by The New Yorker as "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled," the Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird is widely lauded for its performing style--often playing from memory with virtuosic and theatrical flair--and its efforts to make new music accessible to wide audiences. The sextet has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times and on NPR's All Things Considered; it has also been featured on Bloomberg TV's Muse and CBS' Sunday Morning. In 2008 the group's recording, strange imaginary animals, won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

In previous seasons eighth blackbird has appeared in South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Amsterdam, and throughout North America, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Cleveland Museum of Art, and La Jolla Chamber Music Society. They have also appeared at Tanglewood Music Center, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, and in 2006 made their debut at the Ojai Music Festival, where the group was named music director for the 2009 season.

Since its founding in 1996, eighth blackbird has been active in commissioning new works from eminent composers such as George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, Joseph Schwantner, Paul Moravec, and Stephen Hartke, among others. The group received the first BMI/Boudleaux-Bryant Fund commission and the 2007 American Music Center Trailblazer Award and has received grants from BMI, Meet the Composer, the Greenwall Foundation, and Chamber Music America, among others.

The members of eighth blackbird hold degrees in music performance from Oberlin Conservatory, among other institutions. The ensemble is in residence at the University of Richmond in Virginia and at the University of Chicago.

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Cliff Colnot

2009-12-09T23:28:27Z

In recent years Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range. He is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series, resident conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and principal conductor of the Contemporary Chamber Players. Colnot also conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), various orchestras at Indiana University, the Callisto Ensemble, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra.

One of the few musicians studying orchestral repertory with Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Daniel Barenboim, Colnot was the assistant conductor for Barenboim's West- Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as assistant conductor at Pierre Boulez's Lucerne Academy.

Colnot received acclaim for his performances of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire at Carnegie Hall and Pierre Boulez's Le marteau sans maître with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His orchestration of Duke Ellington's New World Coming for piano and orchestra had its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2000 with soloist Daniel Barenboim, and he recently arranged, conducted, and co-produced the compact disc Tribute to Ellington, which features Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist.

Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and received the 1995 Ernst von Dohnanyi Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University and has taught jazz arranging and advanced orchestration at DePaul University and the University of Chicago, respectively. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, and the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players.

Pedro Carboné

2009-12-11T20:44:50Z

Pedro Carboné has been hailed as "one of the best Spanish pianists of our time," and his interpretation of Albéniz' Iberia has been praised as "magnificent" (ABC, Madrid). He recorded Oscar Esplá's piano works to great acclaim in Fanfare and the American Record Guide and performed Espla's concerto Sonata del Sur with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt and the George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest, marking the first time this music was heard outside of Spain in fifty years.

Carboné recorded the complete Chopin Etudes at the age of nineteen for RCA, labeled "among the best versions ever made" by Harmonie-Opéra. The Washington Post called him "a major artist" after his Kennedy Center debut. He has since performed widely in the United States and has frequently been featured in live performance on National Public Radio. In New York City he has performed as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Perspectives Ensemble.

Brasil Guitar Duo

2009-12-12T20:13:24Z

Winner of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the Brasil Guitar Duo maintains a full touring schedule on two continents. With critically acclaimed recordings and innovative programming featuring a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works, the duo has quickly emerged as one of the pre-eminent guitar duos of its generation.

João Luiz and Douglas Lora met in São Paulo as teenage guitar students and have been performing together for more than ten years. The ensemble's primary studies were with Henrique Pinto along with Fabio Zanon, Paulo Martelli, Sergio Abreu and Alice Artz. Douglas Lora recently completed a master's degree at the University of Miami as a student of Dr. Rene Gonzalez. João Luiz is a member of the guitar quartet Quaternaglia.

Highlights of the Brasil Guitar Duo's 2008/2009 season included debut performances at the Lied Center of the University of Kansas, Purdue University Convocations, and the Daytona Beach International Festival, along with a recital at the CityFolk Festival in Dayton, Ohio, and concerto performances with the Dayton Philharmonic. In addition, Luiz and Lora performed recitals for the Classical Guitar Societies of St. Louis, Upstate New York, and Dallas/Ft. Worth, the latter of which featured a three-city tour, as well as a Guitar Festival hosted by the Santa Barbara Symphony.

Additional recent engagements include recital at Carnegie Hall, the River to River Festival, New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes College, New York Classical Guitar Society, and a special concert of works by Cuban-born composer Tania León at Symphony Space. The duo has also performed for the Orange County (CA) Performing Arts Center, Tucson Guitar Society, Miami Guitar Festival, and the Asociación Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City. Orchestral appearances include a performance of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Concerto for Two Guitars with the Houston Symphony and Brazilian music with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. The duo appears frequently in conjunction with the highly regarded New Music/New Places initiative, performing a broad repertoire of classical guitar duos (Bach, Sor, Scarlatti) with the traditional music of its native land (samba, maxixe, choro and baião).

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Fabio Biondi

2009-12-15T19:40:42Z

Born in Palermo, Fabio Biondi began his international career at the age of twelve, performing his first solo concert with the RAI symphony orchestra. Driven early on by an inexhaustible cultural curiosity, Fabio Biondi was introduced to pioneers of the new approach to baroque music, an opportunity that was to expand his musical vision and change the direction of his career.

At the age of sixteen Biondi was invited by the Musikverein of Vienna to perform Bach's violin concertos. Since then, he has performed with various ensembles including Cappella Real, Musica Antiqua Wien, Seminario Musicale, La Chapelle Royale, and Les Musiciens du Louvre, specializing in the performance of baroque music using original technique and instruments.

In 1990 Biondi founded Europa Galante, which has become the most internationally renowned and awarded Italian ensemble of baroque music due to its worldwide concert schedule and recording success. Since 2005 Biondi has also taken on the role of artistic director for baroque music of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his career, Biondi has collaborated as soloist and conductor with such orchestras as Santa Cecilia in Rome,Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra, European Baroque Orchestra, Opera of Halle, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Norway, Orchestre Nationale of Montpellier, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Biondi plays a 1690 Gofredo Cappa Violon. He also plays a 1766 Carlo Ferdinando Gagliano Violin, owned by his teacher Salvatore Cicero and kindly lent to him by the Salvatore Cicero Foundation in Palermo.

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Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet

2009-12-19T19:31:59Z

The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet was founded in 1988, during the era of Herbert von Karajan, the first permanently established wind quintet in the famous orchestra's rich tradition of chamber music. As members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the quintet has enjoyed important collaborations with every major conductor of its time, including Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber, Sir John Barbirolli, Günter Wand, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, and Daniel Barenboim, to name only a few.

The quintet's repertoire covers not only the entire spectrum of the wind quintet literature but also works for enlarged ensemble, such as the Sextets of Janácek and Reinicke or the Septets of Hindemith and Koechlin. In addition, collaboration with pianists such as Lars Vogt, Stephen Hough, Jon Nakamatsu, and Lilya Zilberstein has intensified in recent years.

In addition to its concert appearances throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel, Australia, and the Far East, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet is also a popular guest at international festivals such as the Berliner Festwochen, Edinburgh Festival, London Proms, Quintette-Biennale Marseille, Rheingau Festival, and Salzburg Festival. Its television productions and radio broadcasts are seen and heard throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.

In recent years the members of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet have intensified their teaching and coaching roles with youth, giving chamber music workshops and instrumental instruction in many countries, with a particular commitment, for example, to the youth orchestra program of Venezuela.

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Belcea Quartet

2009-12-21T19:05:32Z

Corina Belcea-Fisher, violin
Laura Samuel, violin
Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola
Antoine Lederlin, cello

The Belcea Quartet has gained an enviable reputation as one of the leading quartets of the new generation. They continue to take the British and international chamber music circuit by storm, consistently receiving critical acclaim for their performances. Established at the Royal College of Music in 1994, the quartet was initially coached by the Chilingirian Quartet, Simon Rowland-Jones, and the Amadeus Quartet. From 1997 to 2000, they were represented by Young Concert Artists Trust in London, during which time they were coached by the Alban Berg Quartet, won first prize at both the Osaka and Bordeaux International String Quartet Competitions in 1999 and represented Great Britain in the European Concert Halls Organization "Rising Stars" series for the 1999/2000 season.

From 1999 to 2001 the Belcea Quartet was one of the selected artists for the BBC Radio 3 "New Generations" scheme and received the Chamber Music Award of the Royal Philharmonic Society in both 2001 and 2003. They are the Associate Ensemble at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where they also hold a teaching position.

The Belcea Quartet has an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics and won the Gramophone Award for best debut recording in 2001. Subsequent recordings include works by Schubert, Brahms, Fauré's La Bonne Chanson with Ian Bostridge, a double disc of Britten's string quartets, and most recently Mozart's "Dissonance" and "Hoffmeister" quartets. Their future recording releases include the complete Bartók quartets.

Since collaborating with Yvonne Kenny, Mark Padmore, and London Winds for The Turn of the Screw at the Cheltenham Festival in 2004, the Belcea Quartet has performed alongside some of today's most renowned vocalists, including Lisa Milne, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Angelika Kirchschlager. Their international engagements take them to such concert halls as the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Brussels' Palais des Beaux Arts, New York's Carnegie Hall and the Châtelet in Paris, as well as festivals in Istanbul, Lausanne, Salzburg, and Mecklenburg. In the UK they regularly appear at the Bath, Petworth, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Perth, and Edinburgh festivals and at Wigmore Hall where they were the resident quartet from 2001-06.

The Belcea Quartet is supported by Rosalind and Brian Gilmore and the Royal College of Music's New Generation Scheme.

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The Bad Plus

2009-12-26T19:11:43Z

The Bad Plus is a collective made up of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King. All three are from the Midwest and they have known each other since their teens. Nonetheless, with the exception of one unimpressive meeting in 1990, it is only after spending their formative twenties apart--King as a session player in Los Angeles, Iverson as the musical director for the prestigious Mark Morris Dance Group, Anderson as a prominent up-and-coming player on the New York jazz scene--that they reunited in late 2000 to play a weekend club date in Minneapolis. The chemistry was immediate and obvious. They planned a second gig and a one-day recording session for the indie jazz label Fresh Sound and The Bad Plus was born.

On this same first gig, the nascent group played their first rock cover, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Thus began The Bad Plus trademark of complementing original repertoire with their takes on mainstream pop "standards," including ABBA, Black Sabbath, the Bee Gees, Queen, Blondie, Aphex Twin, Neil Young, and Björk.

While the covers helped to spread their reputation, they comprise less than 20 percent of the band's live repertoire. Anderson, Iverson, and King are all composers in their own right, each boasting a distinctive style. Iverson's music is the more intellectual and complex, Anderson's the more melodic and romantic, and King's the more rhythmic and surreal.

With a sound more akin to a rock and roll assault than to the politeness of a jazz piano trio, with influences ranging from Stravinsky to Ornette Coleman, and a repertoire blending diverse original material and provocative covers of Nirvana and Aphex Twin, The Bad Plus earned a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking groups in music. The group has received wide airplay on NPR and college radio and has developed a strong presence on the international concert circuit, playing more than 170 shows each year.

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ATOS Piano Trio

2009-12-31T20:41:28Z

The ATOS Piano Trio has rapidly developed a strong reputation as one of the finest young chamber ensembles performing today. Formed in 2003 by violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan Heinemeyer, and pianist Thomas Hoppe, the ATOS Trio has since played recitals to high acclaim by both critics and audiences alike.

Winners of the 2007 Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, the most important distinction for piano trios in the United States, the ATOS Trio plays concerts throughout Europe, Australia, and North and South America. It has appeared at such festivals as the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Festival Mitte Europa, and the Bemus Festival Belgrad. The trio has performed Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica de Chile, and the Bonn Academic Orchestra.

In 2007 the Trio won First Prize, Grand Prize, the Musica Viva Tour Prize, and the Audience Prize at the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Never before in the history of this competition (held only every four years) has a single ensemble garnered this many honors. The Trio was also named First Prize Winner at the 2007 International Competition Schubert and the Music of Modern Times in Graz, Austria. Grand Prize Winners at the Deutsche Musik Wettbewerb in 2004, one of the most important chamber music competitions of Germany, the ATOS Trio was invited to be part of the Konzerte junger Kuenstler, under whose management they remained performed 50 recitals.

The trio's debut CD with works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Leon Kirchner was released in 2005, and a documentary about the ensemble was produced by German TV station SWR. The second CD with the complete trios by Heinrich von Herzogenberg was published in early 2008 and sold out the first edition during the first month of its release.

Shortly after its first rehearsals, the ATOS Trio became a prizewinner at the 2003 Brahms International Competition in Austria and was awarded the audience favorite prize. Subsequently, they performed in the opening concert of the Internationales Kammermusik Festival at the University of Arts Berlin, the Young Artist Recital Series in Kiel, and recitals in New York City and Philadelphia.

From its inception, the ATOS Trio received instruction from Professor Ilan Gronich (University of Arts, Berlin), the Alban Berg Quartet (Hochschule Cologne) and performed in masterclass for Menahem Pressler (Beaux Arts Trio). For the upcoming seasons the ATOS Trio is invited to perform at venues such as London's Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, New York's Carnegie Hall, and the Schwetzinger Festspiele. Several tours of the USA are planned for the upcoming season, and a tour of Australia and New Zealand under the auspices of Musica Viva Australia is scheduled for 2010.

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