The Goeyvaerts String Trio was founded in 1997 with the aim of performing exclusively 20th and 21st century repertoire. The trio takes its name from the Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts, who played an important role in developments within European new music. The ensemble not only plays existing works but is also active in commissioning new string trios. The Goeyvaerts String Trio consists of Fedra Coppens (violin), Vincent Hepp (viola), and Pieter Stas (cello).

Their CD featuring string trios by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alfred Schnittke was released by the renowned international label Challenge Records. This CD received the highest ratings in various magazines and, among other things, a Gold Label from Klassiek Centraal, a nomination for best CD production for the Klara’s, and a recommendation in Gramophone. In 2012, a new CD entitled String Trios from the East was released, featuring trios by Sofia Gubaidulina, Alexander Knaifel, Oleg Paiberdin, and Giya Kancheli. Luister wrote: ‘What the three musicians achieve here in terms of concentration and precision borders on the impossible. The trio then launched Stabat Mater in 2014,

consisting of Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater in just intonation and Simeron by Ivan Moody. With the help of more than 500 international investors, the Goeyvaerts String Trio raised £15,000. Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen wrote about the trio: ‘It is well known that they are excellent; that they also achieved this is a testament to their enthusiastic entrepreneurship.’ This CD was showered with superlatives in the press, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Luister 10, etc. More recently, this recording was awarded an Edison and the trio was named musician/ensemble of the year by Klara (classical radio station), and the City of Sint-Niklaas also honored the trio with the 2014 Culture Prize.

In February 2016, Whispers of Titans was released, featuring string trios by Nikolaj Korndorf and Henryk Górecki. Their CD with Klang by Wolfgang von Schweinitz was recorded for the Louth Contemporary Music Society in 2020. Charles Wuorinen’s second string trio (2018) is dedicated to the Goeyvaerts String Trio, and its world premiere took place at the Guggenheim in New York. During Stations of the Sun 2019 in Dundalk (Ireland), they performed two world premieres by Linda Catlin Smith and Pascale Criton. In October 2019, they premiered Robin Verheyen’s Blues, Reds and other Songs at AMUZ. Blues, Reds and other Songs was recorded on vinyl together with Marc Copland and Robin Verheyen and released in 2025.

In 2025, a second album was released with music by Robin Verheyen in collaboration with Robyn Schulkowsky based on the works of painter Jakob Smits.

As ensemble-in-residence at the KMSKA, they developed programs around the museum’s renovation and collection, including a project with saxophonist Andrew Claes (STUFF) in which real-time data was used for scores for strings and robots. With the support of their home city of Sint-Niklaas, they curate the annual Passages festival, which brings together local and international talent from different genres.

Alexander Knaifel was born in 1943 in Tashkent but grew up in St Petersburg. He studied with Rostropovich and his relationship with him remained close until the great cellist’s death. Rostropovich features on Amicta Sole, the second ECM release of Knaifel’s music.
Knaifel was born into a Jewish family, but is also attracted by the Orthodox church and Buddhism; he has spoken of seeking to convey something of the heart of faith by "speaking in a low voice, hoping to hear a voice within oneself”. His music, described by the Frankfurter Rundschau as "one of the most important revelations of recent years", belongs to that circle of near-contemporaries and associates from the former Soviet lands which includes Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov and Sofia Gubaidulina. But, although critics have found echoes of Arvo Pärt, John Tavener and Henryck Górecki in Knaifel’s quest for beauty, he has an idiom that is entirely his own, with its own expressive power.
ECM’s documentation of Knaifel’s work began with Svete Tikhiy (recorded 1997 and 2000), featuring the Keller Quartett with pianist Oleg Malov, and the voice of Tatiana Melentieva, the composer’s wife, processed by Andrei Siegle. Then, following Amicta Sole, the 2006 recording Blazhenstva presented two strikingly different compositions, inspirationally linked through the figure of Mstislav Rostropovich and played by his last cello student at the Moscow Conservatory, Ivan Monighetti.