Trio Accanto is a contemporary

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in European classical music, classical chamber music. The term can also ...

formed of

Marcus Weiss Marcus Weiss (born 1961 in Basel, Switzerland) is a saxophonist and teacher. His repertoire includes all epochs, from the beginnings in impressionistic France to the present. As a soloist, Weiss worked with many European orchestras and ensembles of ...

(saxophone), Nicolas Hodges (piano) and Christian Dierstein (percussion). It is based in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, Germany.

History

Trio Accanto was formed as the result of a discussion between

and Yukiko Sugawara in 1992. "It happened on the way home from the Witten Days for New Chamber Music in 1992. I talked a lot with Yukiko during the trip, and we came up with the idea for this combination of instruments. ..I was especially interested in having a fixed ensemble in order to play pieces a number of times, because at that time I was playing in larger ensembles where only a few pieces with saxophone occurred in the concerts and these programs were often just played once." The trio performed for the first time in 1994. Christian Dierstein was invited to be the percussionist after the first few concerts which had featured Edith Salmen-Weber in that role. The first concert with Christian Dierstein was at Donaueschingen in 1994. Nicolas Hodges took over the role of pianist in 2013, having known Dierstein and Weiss since 2000.CD booklet to Funambules (Wergo WER 73582), p. 25 He succeeded Yukiko Sugawara who had retired from the group after their performance of Aureliano Cattaneo's trio-concerto ''Blut'' with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden Freiburg under

François-Xavier Roth François-Xavier Paul Roth (born 6 November 1971) is a French conductor. Biography Roth is the son of the organist Daniel Roth—the two share the same first name. His brother Vincent is a violist. Before turning to conducting, he was a flauti ...

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the States of Germany, federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar ''Districts of Germany, Kreis''. It ...

in 2012. The first performance of the trio with Hodges took place on 1 November 2013 in Prague, at the Contempuls Festival, in a programme including works by

Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio '' Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima' ...

Jo Kondo Jo, jo, JO, or J.O. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Jo'' (film), a 1972 French comedy * ''Jo'' (TV series), a French TV series *"Jo", a song by Goldfrapp from ''Tales of Us'' *"Jo", a song by Mr. Oizo from '' Lambs Anger'' * Jo a ficti ...

, Brice Pauset and

Hans Thomalla Hans Thomalla (; born 1975) is a German-American composer, who has resided in the United States since 2002. Career Hans Thomalla was born in Bonn, and studied composition at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, Germany, from 19 ...

. Although the individual members are based in Basel, Stuttgart and Freiburg, the trio rehearses solely in Freiburg, which it considers its home. In addition to concerts, Trio Accanto has coached chamber music at Time of Music Festival,

Viitasaari Viitasaari is a Finnish town and municipality located in the Central Finland region. It is located between the neighbouring municipalities of Pihtipudas to the north and Äänekoski to the south. The town has a population of () and covers an are ...

, and IMPULS Academy,

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Repertoire

The scoring of saxophone, piano and percussion is common in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

but uncommon in

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

. Trio Accanto has steadily built a repertoire of about 100 works for this scoring (including a handful of concertos). Some composers who have written for Trio Accanto include

Mark Andre Mark Andre (born 10 May 1964) is a French composer living in Germany. He was known as "Marc André", his birth name, until 2007, when he formally revised the spelling. He lives in Berlin. Andre's compositions ''durch'' (2006), ''...auf... III'' (2 ...

Georges Aperghis Georges Aperghis (; born 23 December 1945) is a Greek composer working primarily in the field of experimental music theater but has also composed a large amount of non- programmatic chamber music. Career Aperghis worked with Pierre Schaeffer ...

, Aldo Clementi,

Michael Finnissy Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy". Although he rejects the label, he is often reg ...

, Stefano Gervasoni,

Vinko Globokar Vinko Globokar (born 7 July 1934) is a French-Slovenian avant-garde composer and trombonist. Globokar's music uses unconventional and extended techniques, places great emphasis on spontaneity and creativity, and often relies on improvisation. H ...

, Erhard Grosskopf,

Georg Friedrich Haas Georg Friedrich Haas (born 16 August 1953) is an Austrian composer. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, pieces by Haas received the most votes (49), and his composition ''in vain'' (2000) topped the li ...

, Evan Johnson, Thomas Kessler, Marina Khorkova,

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...

, Marco Momi, Brice Pauset,

Stefan Prins Stefan Prins (born 20 May 1979) is a Belgian composer and performer. Biography Studies Born in Kortrijk, Stefan Prins studied composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp from which he holds a master's degree (2009) and specialized i ...

, Rolf Riehm,

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent mus ...

Johannes Schöllhorn Johannes Schöllhorn (born 30 June 1962) is a contemporary German composer. Born in Murnau am Staffelsee, Schöllhorn grew up in Marktoberdorf. He studied musical composition with Klaus Huber, Emmanuel Nunes and Mathias Spahlinger and music th ...

, Martin Schüttler,

Salvatore Sciarrino Salvatore Sciarrino (born 4 April 1947) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Described as "the best-known and most performed Italian composer" of the present day, his works include ''Quaderno di strada'' (2003) and ''La porta d ...

, Mauricio Sotelo, Helena Tulve and Christian Wolff. For details of the repertoire Trio Accanto has largely created, see List of compositions for saxophone, piano and percussion. Composers currently writing for Trio Accanto include

Beat Furrer Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018 ...

, Misato Mochizuki,

Rebecca Saunders Rebecca Saunders (born 19 December 1967) is a London-born composer who lives and works freelance in Berlin. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, Saunders' compositions received the third highest total ...

and Mikel Urquiza. Several of these commissions are supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Trio Accanto plays exclusively works for the three instruments together. The group's members do not play solos or duos in trio concerts, nor does the trio play with additional guests artists. In the past there have been projects with voice, including works by

Bernhard Lang Bernhard Lang (born 24 February 1957 Linz, Austria) is an Austrian composer, improviser and programmer of musical patches and applications. His work can be described as contemporary classical, with roots, however, in various genres such as 20th- ...

and

Dieter Schnebel Dieter Schnebel (14 March 1930 – 20 May 2018) was a German composer, theologian and musicologist. He composed orchestral music, chamber music, vocal music and stage works. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of e ...

. These are however no longer in the active repertoire of the Trio. Similarly, in the past members have played solo works during the concerts. For example, on 6 August 2008, at the NDR Rolf-Liebermann-Studio in Hamburg (during the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival), Marcus Weiss gave the world premiere of

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

's EDENTIA for soprano saxophone and electronics (from KLANG). (In the same concert the trio gave the premiere of Lachenmann's ''Berliner Kirschblüten''.) Trio Accanto has been very active in education, promoting tours of several different children's programmes, including specially written works by

, Martin Smolka, Thomas Kessler and others. These works are still in the trio's repertoire, in as much as they fit into the current programming concept.

Recordings

Trio Accanto has over the years made many studio recordings of new works, for radio. Several of these were collected onto two CDs, on Assai (2003, featuring works by Mauricio Sotelo, Stefano Gervasoni,

and Brice Pauset) and on Zeitklang (2009, featuring works by Jörg Birkenkötter, Erhard Großkopf, Manuel Hidalgo,

and Bernfried Pröve). The trio has released many other individual performances on other CDs. Trio Accanto have in recent years begun recording the highlights of its repertoire for Wergo, in purpose-made studio recordings. The first of these, ''Funambules'', was released in December 2016 and featured music by

, Rolf Riehm,

and

, all pieces commissioned by the trio in the first year of Hodges' membership. The second, ''Songs and Poems'', was released in April 2018 and features music by Aldo Clementi, Andreas Dohmen,

and Walter Zimmermann, all of which (apart from Dohmen) are major works from the Trio's "old repertoire" which were not recorded by the Trio in earlier decades. The third CD, ''Other Stories'' was released in April 2020, and includes four previously unrecorded works by

– two versions of ''Sakura Variations'' for trio, plus the solo piano versions of ''Marche Fatale'' and ''Berliner Kirschblüten'' – along with trio works by Michael Finnissy (''Opera of the Nobility''), Yu Kuwabara, Martin Schüttler and Martin Smolka. A fourth CD has been recorded, solely consisting of works by Christian Wolff, including ''Trio IX – Accanto'' and recent Exercises. With Hodges, the Trio has also released recordings of works by Marina Khorkova and Evan Johnson.

Members

(saxophone) since 1994 * Stefan Wirth (piano) since 2025 * Christian Dierstein (percussion) since 1994

Former members

* Edith Salmen-Weber (percussion) 1994 * Yukiko Sugawara (piano) 1994–2012 * Nicolas Hodges (piano) 2013-2025

Bibliography

* Jim Igor Kallenberg: "Intergalactic mutant music: The music of Christian Wolff and the politics of 1968. Christian Wolff in conversation with Jim Igor Kallenberg", ''Wien Modern 31: Sicherheit. 28.10.-30.11.2018. Essays'' (Festivalkatalog Band 2), pp. 90–95, esp. p. 91 on Trio Accanto and Wolff's ''Trio IX – Accanto''.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control German musical trios