The Horszowski Trio

Electric Earth Concerts’ ensemble-in-residence since 2012, the Horszowski Trio brings their powerful music making back to the Electric Earth stage this summer. The program will present three of the most important and compelling works in the repertoire: Beethoven’s Trio Op 11, Shostakovich’s Trio No. 2, Op. 7, and Schumann’s Trio #3 in g minor.

The Horszowski has been hailed by The New Yorker as “destined for great things;” indeed when the members of the Trio – Jesse Mills, Raman Ramakrishnan, and Rieko Aizawa – played together for the first time, they immediately felt the spark of a unique connection. Many years of close friendship had created a deep trust between the players, which in turn led to exhilarating expressive freedom.

Two-time Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills first performed with Raman Ramakrishnan, founding cellist of the prize-winning Daedalus Quartet, at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont over twenty years ago, when they were children. In New York City, they met pianist Rieko Aizawa, who, upon being discovered by the late violinist and conductor Alexander Schneider, had made her U.S. debuts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Their musical bonds were strengthened at various schools and festivals around the world, including the Juilliard School and the Marlboro Festival. Ms. Aizawa was the last pupil of the legendary pianist, Mieczysław Horszowski (1892-1993), at the Curtis Institute. The Trio takes inspiration from Horszowski’s musicianship, integrity, and humanity. Like Horszowski, the Trio presents repertoire spanning the traditional and the contemporary. In addition, they seek to perform works from the trove of composers with whom Horszowski had personal contact, such as Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Martinu, Villa-Lobos, and Granados.

The Trio’s burgeoning career has brought them return engagements at the Bard Festival and the Friends of Chamber Music of Troy; the Chamber Arts Series at Duke University and Raleigh, NC; the chamber music societies of Bethlehem, Mobile, Williamsburg and Norfolk; the Boise Chamber Music Series; Stockton Friends of Chamber Music; Music at Kohl Mansion; the Southern Oregon Chamber Music Concerts; and Cornell University and the University of Las Vegas.

Electric Earth Concerts commissioned a new work for the Trio, from composer Eric Moe, “Welcome To Phase Space.” The work was premiered in June 2014 and will be recorded later this year.

Their debut recording, an album of works by Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and D’Indy – all composers Mieczysław Horszowski knew – was released by Bridge Records in the fall of 2014. They have also recorded “For Daniel” for a series of chamber music recordings to be released to celebrate the 75th birthday of Joan Tower.

Based in New York City, the members of the Horszowski Trio teach at Columbia University and the Longy School of Music of Bard College.