Lysander Trio, Trio

Biography

The Lysander Piano Trio, a winner of the 2012 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition, has been praised by the Strad for its “incredible ensemble, passionate playing, articulate and imaginative ideas and wide palette of colours.” These qualities have made the Trio a standout at other competitions, with top honors at the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the 2011 Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition (Grand Prize), and the 2011 J. C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition (First Prize). The Trio’s 2014 debut recording, After a Dream (CAG Records), featuring music by Ravel, Haydn, Schubert, Joaquin Turina, and Moshe Zorman, was acclaimed for its “polished and spirited interpretations” (New York Times).

In 2015-16 the ensemble performs across North America, featuring engagements at San Francisco’s Music at Kohl Mansion, Juneau Jazz and Classics (in partnership with the Midori Foundation), and at the Aaron Copland School of Music. The Trio also collaborates in a special all-Beethoven program with baritone Mischa Bouvier, with two Colorado performances at Lincoln Center of Fort Collins and Lakewood Cultural Center.  In addition, the Trio makes its concerto debut, performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra near Chicago.

The Lysander Piano Trio is active in commissioning new works and creates programs that mix the music of today with well-loved masterworks.  In 2015-16, the ensemble will give the world premiere of a new piano trio by Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya, who received a 2015 McKnight Fellowship. The Trio performed two world premieres in 2013-14: Jakub Ciupinski’s Black Mirror at Weill Recital Hall (commissioned by CAG); and Four Movements Inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” penned by four pre-teen composers of ComposerCraft from NYC’s Kaufman Music Center and performed at Merkin Concert Hall in January 2014.

Recent engagements in NYC include the Lysander Trio’s April 2014 Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall, for which The New York Times lauded the ensemble’s “…rich sound and nuanced musicianship…resulting in a finely hued collaboration among the three musicians.”  Other recent notable New York dates are Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and David Rubinstein Atrium, Schneider Concerts Chamber Music Series at the New School, Merkin Concert Hall, and SubCulture.

Highlights in recent seasons from around the US are the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Purdue University’s Convocations Series, and Joplin Pro Musica (MO). The Trio was formed at The Juilliard School in 2009, and selected that year to represent Juilliard in a special concert in Mexico City on the occasion of President Joseph Polisi’s visit to Mexico. They took their name from the character in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

The Lysander Piano Trio has performed in master classes for Alfred Brendel and for Ida and Ani Kavafian at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and it has studied with Ronald Copes of the Juilliard String Quartet, Joseph Kalichstein of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, and Seymour Lipkin.