Trio Sōra - About

The day we received the news of our BBT Fellowship will remain one of the best memories for the trio. We were simply waiting on a platform at Lausanne Station – a routine day of travel – when this happy news came through. We felt so honoured to be part of this big family and among such great artists! In these times when we are so deprived of music and arts, BBT is here to support us and help keep us hopeful and realise the best projects we could ever dream of. Words are not enough to describe how important the role of BBT is in our career today.

French ensemble Trio Sōra – its name is taken from both a Native American word for ‘bird that sings when taking flight’ and a Japanese word for ‘sky’ – counts BBT alumnus Mathieu Herzog, Quatuor Ébène’s original violist, among its mentors. The Trio has developed a career on both the concert platform and on disc, the latter resulting in surveys of the piano trios of Beethoven and then Brahms (with BBT’s help), while its enthusiasm for contemporary music informed two of its BBT projects.

The Trio was quick off the starting blocks with a new commission from composer Raphaël Merlin (also Quatuor Ébène’s original cellist) – an encore piece entitled Covid van B., written to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, and premiered in Paris between pandemic lockdowns. Soon after, the Trio embarked on a second commission, a Triple Concerto by Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy intriguingly entitled When I too long have looked upon your face, from a sonnet by Edna St Vincent Millay. Kelly-Marie travelled to Paris for the premiere and wrote a blog for BBT reflecting on her experience of composing this major work, which was also her first overseas commission.

In addition to coaching and rehearsal expenses, as well as a contribution to French and German PR, the remainder of the Trio’s Fellowship supported a double CD recording on the La Dolce Volta label of the complete Brahms piano trios, including Brahms’ own transcription of his Horn Trio.

Trio Sōra was supported with a BBT Fellowship between 2020 and 2024.

For a current biography please visit concert-talent.com

Read a blog by Kelly-Marie Murphy, From There to Here: The Long and Winding Road, here

Press Releases: Beethoven Anniversary Year Encore – Covid van B / Brahms Piano Trios

Photographs by Astrid di Crollalanza