Ahn Trio Recommends
By: Lucia Ahn
We love music, as you can tell, we live it and breathe it, and we count our lucky stars for being able to do what we love every single day. Besides heading into the recording studios and recording some CDs every few years or so, we spend most of our days on the road, playing for live audiences around the world. It is always an amazing experience for us to be able to connect with those seated in front of us, be it in a smaller auditorium or a big concert hall; may it be in a far away college town in the United States, or in a city across the ocean in Prague. We love playing live, because there are certain things that cannot be captured in a recording, the electricity in the air, the vibe and intensity of the moment, as well as what the audience themselves bring to performance, it shortens the distance between performers and listeners, both literally and figuratively. This is the reason why we always tell our students at our master classes, “go and experience as many live performances of as many genres of music as you can”, these experiences will touch you in ways you cannot replicate by listening to CDs alone, and open up your hearts and senses to the most intricately hidden beauty and nuances that music could bring.
Living in New York City, we are lucky to be presented with many choices of amazing performances, so when we are not traveling, we always try to squeeze in as many live acts as we can. Here are some of the artists whose concerts I recently had the pleasure of attending :
I recently heard Placido Domingo live for the very first time, he sang in the role of Simon Boccanegra at the MET, his voice is so beautiful and mesmerizing, hearing him sing live that night turned me into an opera addict! Placido Domingo needs no introduction, he is a legend in his own right. Pick up a CD of his, of course, if you get a chance, you should go hear him live, besides the amazing voice that will liberate your souls, youʼll be taken away by the acting, the costumes, the set and the atmosphere that cannot be duplicated on a CD or DVD. www.placidodomingo.com
I was also blown away by the guitar prodigy Julian Lage, he is only 21 years old! He is definitely the next Pat Metheny. Pat wrote us a hauntingly beautiful piece, “Yu Ryung”, we are really looking forward to a new piece by Julian as well! I heard him at the Blue Note, he smiled at every chord he was playing and at it's nuances, it was pure joy to watch him play. Julian is the subject of the 1997 Academy Award nominated documentary “Jules at Eight”, and spends his time performing at various festivals around the world, he also performs frequently with pianist Taylor Eigsti. Julian recently released his debut album “Sounding Point” on Emarcy Records to rave reviews, it was nominated for the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” at the 2010 Grammy Award. www.julianlage.com.
My third recommendation is Brad Mehldau: to hear him perform a solo piano concert at Highline Ballroom, one of my favorite venues in NYC was incredible! When he played the tremolos, I was transported to a different world, no one and nothing else exists, it was phenomenal. He reminds me so much of Keith Jarrett, one of the preeminent talents of our time, whose solo concert at the Carnegie Hall earlier last year left me in awe of his genius. Brad performs with his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he also performs with multitudes of renowned artists such as Pat Metheny and Chris Potter just to name a few, as well as classical vocalists Renee Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter. www.bradmehldau.com
Finally, to squeeze in a little news about ourselves. We have been hard at work, and we are thrilled to kickoff our BraziliAHN Project at the University of Florida on Feb 27. This is a culmination of 3 years of dreams and collaboration with amazing composers and artists, including the virtuoso pianist/composer Nelson Ayres, the legendary singer Edu Lobo, the talented Brazilian composers, Andre Mehmari and Tiago Costa, as well as the French Vietnamese jazz guitarist and composer Nguyen Le. We also brought back “Bossa Nova” and “Samba” written for us some years ago by Paul Schoenfield. All of whom we are absolutely delighted and honored to be working with. This project isnʼt about representing Brazilian music in its pure form, but rather interpreting some selections of alluring Brazilian popular music through the sounds of a piano trio. This is a very exciting project for us, and we hope that the exploration of this new sounds will relish and elate our audiences as well! In fact, we have 18 new Brazilian works that are transcribed and written for us. We would like to thank University of Florida and Notre Dame University for making this project possible.
Lucia Ahn Biography
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.
You can find out more about Lucia and the Ahn Trio at:
Ahn Trio Official | Ahn Trio Myspace | Ahn Trio Twitter