Trio Gaspard

Trio Gaspard won first prizes and special prizes at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, the 5th International Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna and the 17th International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach, France. In 2012 they were awarded the “Wiener Klassik” Preis der Stadt Baden in Austria.

As well as exploring and championing the traditional piano trio repertoire, Trio Gaspard works regularly with contemporary composers and is keen to discover seldom-played masterpieces. In 2017, they performed a commission from Irish composer Gareth Williams at the Belfast Music Society, broadcasted live by the BBC.

They have also played the rarely performed Présence - Ballet Blanc for piano trio and speaker by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, working alongside contemporary dancer Luka Fritsch. Their performance of the Zimmermann was recorded live at the Boulezsaal in Berlin was released on the trio’s “Live in Berlin” CD, in cooperation with German Radio. In 2021 Trio Gaspard signed with Chandos Records, their debut project with the label is to record all 46 Haydn trios over the next 5 years, the first album of which will be released in 2022.

Trio Gaspard, whose members hail from Germany, Greece and the UK, has worked regularly with the co-founding member of the Alban Berg Quartet, Hatto Beyerle. They also studied at the European Chamber Music Academy, where they worked with Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet), Ferenc Rados, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Jérôme Pernoo and Peter Cropper (Lindsay Quartet). The trio already has considerable teaching experience, having given masterclasses at Kyung-Hee University in Seoul, Korea, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and at the Shanghai Chamber Music Festival 2016 and 2018, where they also sat on the jury of China’s national chamber music competition. Trio Gaspard held a fellowship of chamber music at the Royal Northern College of music in Manchester from 2017-2019, where they taught, gave masterclasses and performed regularly.

All three members are successful soloists in their own right and continue to pursue their solo careers, giving recitals and performing concertos in prestigious venues including the Tonhalle Zürich, Megaron Music Hall Athens, Teatro Verdi di Firenze, Konzerthaus Vienna, Berlin Philharmonie, Rudolfinium Hall Prague and Royal Festival Hall London.

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Sebastian Adams is an Irish composer, improviser and artistic director who writes notated instrumental music and experimental/conceptual pieces.

His instrumental music is commissioned and performed regularly by top Irish artists and ensembles as well as abroad.

Besides this, Sebastian produces installations and computer programs, aiming to find new, fun, thought-provoking media to create music in.

In 2012, Sebastian founded and runs the new music ensemble Kirkos, which is Dublin’s main experimental music group and focuses on ambitious multi-sensory experiences and on giving emerging composers carte blanche with their wildest ideas.

As a viola player, Sebastian has premiered many solo and chamber works, and enjoys working closely with composers on their new music. He is also active as an improviser, including in live theatre, and as an early music performer on viola and gamba.

He studied in Dublin and Vienna, and is currently based in Paris, taking part in IRCAM’s Cursus program, an advanced computer music course for composers.

sebastianadams.net