Melvin Kaplan Inc. Chamber Music, Soloists, and Atrractions

AMELIA PIANO TRIO

"You just don't hear better chamber music playing than this."
--The San Diego Reader

Anthea Kreston, violin Jason Duckles, cello Reiko Aizawa, piano

The Amelia Piano Trio is among the most exciting young chamber ensembles to appear in the last decade. Making their mark by commissioning new works, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbinson’s new piano trio, as well as by performing vivid interpretations of traditional chamber fare, the Amelia Piano Trio have quickly become one of the world’s most sought-after ensembles. Called “remarkable” by Strings and “exemplary” by The Strad, in its short history the Amelia has been Grand Prize-winner at the Yellow Springs National Competition and recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

In 2003 the Trio was asked by National Public Radio to be the Young Ensemble in Residence. This exciting week of live concerts and interviews put the Amelia firmly in the foreground of classical music in America, reaching an estimated 1.5 million listeners. Performing fifteen works that spanned the centuries, the Amelia forged a lasting relationship with NPR. In October 2006 the Trio will be featured on Chicago’s WFMT in live broadcast performances of the complete Beethoven Trios.

The Amelia members have quickly made their mark as performers and commissioners of new music. Notably, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison has written his first piano trio for the Amelia. Other commissions for the Amelia include Augusta Read Thomas’ A Circle Around the Sun and Adam Silverman’s Sturm. The Trio’s next commissioning project is a new Triple Concerto being composed by Daren Hagen. The Amelia plans to premiere and perform this new piece with youth and university orchestras around the country.

The Trio has performed extensively in North America and abroad, including France, Italy, Panama, and the Caribbean. They have released CDs on the Cedille Records label, as well as on the world music label Traditional Crossroads. In addition, members of the Trio have toured North America and Central Asia with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.

The Amelia Piano Trio is actively involved in arts education and dedicates a substantial amount of time to educational projects, master classes, and coaching children and adults. The Trio members are professors at the Hartt School of Music and Connecticut College. In addition to developing award-winning outreach programs, the Trio is in residence at the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, where they teach gifted high school and college-aged students the art of chamber music.