Gryphon Trio
Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin | Roman Borys, cello | Jamie Parker, piano
“This is a piano trio that plays with strength and unanimity...big, bold, almost orchestral performances. The Gryphon brings bravura spirit to the piano trio.”
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On the brink of celebrating three decades as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios, the ever-inventive Gryphon Trio continues to break barriers and set precedent with their dynamic programming and powerful collaborations (Nordic Voices, Masumi Per Rostad, Rob Kapilow).
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With an extensive performance and touring schedule, the Gryphon Trio expands their educational impact throughout the year with their recent appointment as Directors of Summer Programs for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
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The Gryphon Trio’s prolific catalog includes 22 releases on Analekta, Naxos, and other labels; 11 nominations and three Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year in 2004, 2011, and most recently in 2019; and over 85 newly commissioned works.
The endlessly inventive Gryphon Trio has impressed international audiences and the press for the past twenty-five years with its highly refined, dynamic performances, and has firmly established itself as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios. With a repertoire that ranges from the traditional to the contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphons are committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.
The ensemble-in-residence at Music Toronto for more than a decade, the Gryphon Trio tours each season extensively throughout North America and Europe. Recent performances include those for the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Northwestern University, the Eastman School of Music, Tippet Rise, and Williams College.
The Trio is also dedicated to pushing the boundaries of chamber music and has commissioned and premiered over eighty new works from established and emerging composers around the world, and has collaborated on special projects with clarinetist James Campbell, actor Colin Fox, choreographer David Earle, vocal ensemble Nordic Voices, and a host of jazz luminaries at Lula Lounge, Toronto’s leading venue for jazz and world music. Their most ambitious undertaking to date is a groundbreaking multimedia production of composer Christos Hatzis’s epic work Constantinople, scored for mezzo-soprano, Middle Eastern singer, violin, cello, piano, and electronic audiovisual media, which they have brought to audiences across North America and at the Royal Opera House in London.
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In their 2023-24 season, the Gryphon Trio offers their Americana program Moonshine Ballads and Various Charms with longtime collaborator Patricia O’Callaghan. Season highlights include performances for Chamber Music Cincinnati, UCLA’s Clark Library, Wooster Chamber Music Series, and a performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with clarinetist Anthony McGill for the Mobile Chamber Music Society.
Deeply committed to the education of the next generations of audiences and performers alike, the Gryphon takes time out of their busy touring schedule to conduct master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories across North America, and are Artists-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. As the Directors of Classical Music Summer Programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Gryphon curates residency programs for early career chamber ensembles and composers. Additional educational initiatives include the Young Composers Program at Toronto’s Claude Watson Arts High School and its flagship educational project Listen Up!, created by the Trio in collaboration with composer Andrew Staniland and music educator Rob Kapilow from What Makes it Great?. Listen Up! involves entire schools in the creation of a new work for choir and piano trio: students compose poetry and music over the course of a school year, culminating in a joint performance by the Gryphon Trio and the school choir. The much-publicized project began in Ontario and has traveled across Canada.
The Trio’s celebrated recordings on the Analekta label are an encyclopedia of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo, Shostakovich, and Piazzolla, and their groundbreaking 2004 release Canadian Premieres, featuring new works by leading Canadian composers, was acknowledged with a coveted Juno Award from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Their 2011 Beethoven recording also received a Juno Award and was followed by the release of Broken Hearts and Madmen, a collaboration with the cabaret singer Patricia O’Callaghan featuring songs by Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and Laurie Anderson alongside traditional melodies from Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.
July 2023 - Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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PROGRAM I
Valentin Silvestrov: Fugitive Visions of Mozart (2007)
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
*****
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 97 “Archduke”PROGRAM II
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
Dinuk Wijeratne: Love Triangle (2016)
*****
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66PROGRAM III (No Intermission)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in D major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
I. Allegro vivace e con brio
Bruce Russell: We Have Lived Before
Franz Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898PROGRAM IV
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1, No. 1
Rebecca Clarke: Piano Trio in E-flat minor
*****
Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, “Dumky”PROGRAM V THROUGH THE LENS OF TIME (NO INTERMISSION)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento in B-flat major, K. 254
I. Allegro
Valentin Silvestrov: Fugitive Visions of Mozart (2007)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in D major, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
I. Allegro vivace e con brio
Bruce Russell: We Have Lived Before
I. Dyad
Astor Piazzolla: Otoño
Dinuk Wijeratne: Love Triangle (2016) -
PROGRAM I – LOVE & DEATH
Astor Piazzolla: La Muerte del Ángel
Franz Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 100, D. 929
mvt. II Andante con moto
Kelly-Marie Murphy: Give Me Phoenix Wings to Fly
mvt. I Fire
Myroslav Skoryk: Melody
Dinuk Wijeratne: Love Triangle (2013)
*****
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, “Archduke”PROGRAM II – TAKE A BREATH
Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in F major, Op. 27, No. 2, Hob. XV:2
III. Finale
Reena Esmail: Saans (Breath)
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101
*****
Valentin Silvestrov: Postlude III for violoncello and piano
Maurice Ravel: Trio in A minor -
PROGRAM I – IN THE KEY OF C
Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in C major, Op. 86, No. 1, Hob. XV:27
Paul Wiancko: Piano Trio (2023)
*****
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66PROGRAM II – HOPE
Reena Esmail: Saans (Breath)
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
*****
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66
Projects
