Ahn Trio Recommends
By: Lucia Ahn
Happy Spring everyone!
As musicians who strive to fuse our work with dancers, pop singers, DJ's, painters, installation artists, photographers, lighting designers, ecologists, and even kite makers, we are always intrigued and in awe of the many other artists whose work thrive to dissolve traditional barriers. We have been very fortunate to meet and work with many amazingly talented and wonderful artists whose work has inspired us in many different ways.
In February, we premiered a beautiful and hugely difficult new trio by Nikolai Kapustin at the Eastern IL University! I was very nervous about this premiere but it went smoothly. Now I am looking forward to living with this incredible piece. We are so honored that this genius composer wrote not one, but two trios for our trio! www.nikolaikapustin.net
Nikolai Kapustin is a Ukrainian Russian pianist and composer. Born in Gorlovka, Ukraine, Kapustin studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexander Goldenweiser. Before that, he was a pupil of Avrelian Rubakh. He acquired a sterling reputation as a jazz pianist, arranger and composer in the 1950s. Kapustinʼs expertise in virtouso pianism and improvisational jazz can be found in his compositions, where his fuses jazz idioms in formal classical structures.
Kapustin once remarked that he was never a jazz musician and never tried to be. He became a jazz musician out of necessity : ʻbecause of the composingʼ. All his improvisation is therefore written. He said “..... of course, they became much better; it improved them”.
You might be interested in this youtube video where Kapustin performs his own piece :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDWeGp4UE6M
In March, we spent a week in Des Moines, Iowa. We performed Kenji Bunch's Hardware Concerto with the Des Moines Symphony, this piece is written especially for us by Kenji, our dear friend and favorite composer. We also spent time coaching some very talented student groups while being filmed by the Iowa Public TV.
We really enjoy this aspect of our touring life because it's amazing to make a connection with young musicians, it's so important for us! While we conduct master classes when we are requested to do so, usually in conjunction with our performances, there are people who really go out of there way to make a difference in music education so I would like to recommend readers to check out what David Wish has started, an organization called Little Kids Rock: www.LittleKidsRock.org
A few months ago, sadly my old piano teacher, Herbert Stessin from Juilliard passed away. He was incredibly kind and gentle, a stark difference compared to the style of teaching in his generation, which was more tyrant and strict. He also never forced his ideas on you, rather he nurtured your own personality and artistic vision. I really admired his style of approach and some of his students went on a very successful career. One of them is Orli Shaham, a brilliant young pianist.
Orli Shaham does many interesting projects, I am intrigued by her radio program called Dial a musician on the Classical Public Radio Network (www.classicalradio.org). In the program, she would direct a listener question to an expert, drawing on personal and professional relationships — literally 'dialing' guests up for his or her insights. What a fantastic idea! You can find out more about her at (www.orlishaham.com)
There is plenty of music from us to fill up your Spring. Following our successful and incredibly fun collaboration with the fabulous Nai Ni Chen Dance Company, we will perform with them again at the Dance Salad Festival in Houston this month. Nai Ni Chen Dance Company is led by Choreography & Dancer Nai Ni Chen, whose dances fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art (www.nainichen.org). If you are in New York City in May, they will be performing “Dragons on the Wall”, a collaboration with Nobel Literature Prize nominated Poet Bei Dao and celebrated composer Joan La Barbara (www.joanlabarbara.com).
If you are on a vacation in South America, come hear us at the beautiful Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires in May! June takes us to California, where we look forward to a nice start to the summer.
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