Trio Cleonice (klee-ə-NEES), the dynamic young Boston-based piano trio, has established itself as one of the most creative, communicative, and exhilarating ensembles in the United States today, delighting audiences across the country and the world with its innovative programming and the sheer joy of its music-making. The Trio, which in May completed an exciting and productive tenure as Graduate Piano Trio-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music, enters the 2014-2015 season off the heels of a recent second prize win at the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China.
Trio Cleonice – violinist Ari Isaacman-Beck, cellist Gwen Krosnick, and pianist Emely Phelps – enjoys a demanding and multi-faceted career that spans a busy concert schedule, frequent artist residencies and outreach, a considerable emphasis on contemporary music, and a new venture into presenting a series of its own. Highlights of Trio Cleonice’s current and most recent seasons include the group’s European debut tour, spanning three countries and featuring a concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; annual recitals in Jordan Hall in Boston; the group's Kennedy Center debut; a recording collaboration with composer Rodney Lister; residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute (a new artist retreat center in Boscawen, New Hampshire); the Jordan Hall premiere of a new work that the Trio commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Richard Wernick; beginning a new concert series – Trio Cleonice and Friends – in Brookline, Massachusetts; an artist residency at Yellow Barn – entitled “The Russian Soul - The Russian Voice” – during which the Trio intensively studied piano trios of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich alongside masterworks of Russian literature; and a very happy return to Kneisel Hall for a concert in the Festival’s 2015 summer season.
Trio Cleonice was based in New York for the first several years of its existence, and was an Emerging Ensemble at The Juilliard School; in its early studies, the group worked with Joel Krosnick, Ronald Copes, Seymour Lipkin, Laurie Smukler, and Mark Steinberg. The Trio moved to Boston when it was offered the prestigious Graduate Piano Trio Residency at the New England Conservatory, beginning in the fall of 2011; Trio Cleonice was honored to be the only ensemble to hold this residency for a third year. As part of the Professional Piano Trio Training Program, Trio Cleonice performed annual recitals in Jordan Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Old South Meeting House, and other Boston venues; the Trio worked with NEC faculty members Vivian Hornik Weilerstein (who runs the Trio Program), Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, and Natasha Brofsky. While at the New England Conservatory, Trio Cleonice formed rewarding relationships with NEC’s Community Partnership Program and with Sage Educational Services, which organizations have, in the past four seasons, helped the group to perform frequent outreach concerts spanning the Greater Boston area.
After completing the Graduate Piano Trio Residency at NEC, Trio Cleonice is now happy to call Boston a long-term home. The group recently began a concert series, Trio Cleonice and Friends, as a heartfelt offering to the vibrant chamber music community and wonderful audiences in its adopted city. The series, which is based in Brookline and presents the Trio in monthly mixed-program concerts alongside their beloved colleagues and mentors, celebrates its second season in 2014-2015. Highlights of recent and upcoming TC&F projects include appearances by violinist Laurie Smukler, pianist Vivian Weilerstein, and cellists Natasha Brofsky and Joel Krosnick; repertoire ranging from Mozart and Bartok string quartets to premiere performances of new works by Richard Wernick and Russell O’Rourke; the first vocal music – lieder and Bach cantatas – on the series; and beloved large-scale works from the canon, such as Brahms’s Piano Quintet and the C major String Quintet of Schubert. The group’s goal for Trio Cleonice and Friends – which Cathy Fuller of Boston’s WCRB (classical radio) recently recommended to her listeners as a concert pick of the week – is that the series cater to a wide range of audience members, from frequent concert attendees to those who might not otherwise have access to chamber music in an intimate, approachable setting. The series takes place on Tuesday evenings at the United Parish of Brookline (in the bustling Coolidge Corner neighborhood), and Trio Cleonice hopes to welcome an ever-expanding community to listen to exuberant, high-octane music-making at the highest level in an open, informal, exploratory environment.
Ari, Gwen, and Emely are avid and adventurous foodies, so it is perhaps no wonder that the Trio takes its name from Cleonice Mediterranean Bistro of Ellsworth, Maine, which has been a regular destination for the group since they met in nearby Blue Hill, at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School (where Trio Cleonice began in 2008). Nearly seven years later, the Trio continues to enjoy a warm and inspiring friendship - with much exchange of great food and music - with the chefs, owners, and community of the Trio’s namesake restaurant. In the group’s spare time, Ari, Gwen, and Emely take great delight in cooking together, in entertaining at home in Boston, and in exploring the food scene wherever they travel and play together.
Website: triocleonice.com/