HAYDN – ZIMMERMANN - SCHUBERT
The musicians of Trio Gaspard explore the remarkable malleability of the piano trio in their program, combining familiar repertoire with a one-of-a-kind “outlier” from the 20th century.
Through his contributions to the genre during the final quarter of the 18th century, Joseph Haydn shifted expectations for what the piano trio could encompass— contributions that helped define the principles and rhetoric of Classical style itself.
Only a generation later, Franz Schubert left a substantial mark on the genre through works that have earned a place among the most beloved masterpieces of the chamber music literature. They also anticipate the epic scale of some of the examples to follow later in the Romantic century.
Meanwhile, the rarely heard Présence by Bernd Alois Zimmermann represents an interdisciplinary approach to the piano trio concept, layering it
with words and dance to transform the inherently abstract genre of chamber music into an “imaginary ballet.” This performance pays homage to the German composer during this centenary of his birth (2018).
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 in 2016 and 2018, where they also sat on the jury of China’s national chamber music competition. Trio Gaspard held a chamber music fellowship 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.
JONIAN ILIAS KADESHA has Greek-Albanian roots and lives in Berlin. The young musician not only
speaks Greek, Albanian, German and English but also has a keen interest in philosophy and rhetoric.
His playing is characterized by stylistic accuracy and exactness in his articulation, in the interpretation
of early to contemporary works. With boundless sound imagination Kadesha is always in search of
something new.
He is a prizewinner at Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, Windsor International and the Leopold Mozart
Violin Competition.
The young violinist recently made his debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Tivoli Copenhagen,
with the RTE Orchestra at the National Concert Hall Dublin, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
the New Russian State Orchestra under Yuri Bashmet and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the
Kronberg Festival. Kadesha made his debut with the Athens State Orchestra in autumn 2019 performing
Skalkottas‘ Violin Concerto, whose Small Suites he has recorded for CAvi-music together with works
by Enescu and Ravel.
Kadesha appears in major concert halls and well-known festivals throughout Europe, such as the
London Wigmore Hall, Handelsbeurs Concertzaal Gent, Louvre Paris, Philharmonie Berlin, Salle
Moliere Lyon, Salle Garnier Montecarlo, and the Golden Hall Augsburg as well as the Schubertiade,
the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Boswiler Sommer, Mantua
Chamber Music Festival or the Resonances Festival in Belgium, among others.
He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the
Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras Lübeck and Coburg as well as
the Albanian and Greek radio orchestras.
Chamber music connects him with renowned musicians such as Martha Argerich, Steven Isserlis,
Nicolas Altstaedt, Thomas Demenga and Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ilya Gringolts and Pekka Kuusisto. He
was also heard in Kronberg‘s Chamber Music Connects the World and the Verbier Academy Festival.
Jonian Ilias Kadesha is co-founder of the award-winning Trio Gaspard, which is a regular guest at
music centers in Europe and the USA.
Kadesha studied with Antje Weithaas at the Kronberg Academy. His previous teachers included
Salvatore Accardo, Grigori Zhislin and Ulf Wallin. He studied chamber music with Hatto Beyerle in
Hannover and at the European Chamber Music Academy. Masterclasses with Ferenc Rados, Steven
Isserlis, Ivry Gitlis, Leonidas Kavakos and Eberhard Feltz complete his studies. Since 2018, Kadesha
has been supported by the Young Classical Artists Trust in the United Kingdom.
Kadesha plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1749), on private loan.
Born in the UK, Nicholas Rimmer studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover with Professor Christopher Oakden, and musicology at Cambridge University. He rounded off his training in chamber music with lessons from Wolfram Rieger and the Alban Berg Quartet.
Rimmer was a winner of the ARD German Music Competition on two occasions: in 2006 in a chamber music duo, and in 2010 as a member of the Leibniz Trio. He won the Parkhouse Award in tandem with Nils Mönkemeyer in 2009.
Rimmer has been invited to perform at the festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Aldeburgh, Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg, Lucerne, and Lockenhaus. He has made appearances in renowned music venues such as Wigmore Hall, the Gasteig in Munich, the Tonhalle in Zürich, and the Philharmonie in Berlin. He has performed as soloist with the NDR Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie.
His releases include three successful albums with violist Nils Mönkemeyer and two solo CDs; further- more, his complete recording of the violin works of Wolfgang Rihm with violinist Tianwa Yang for Naxos was awarded the Diapason d’Or, the Pizzicato Supersonic Award and the label ‘Outstanding’ in the International Record Review.
Rimmer is a permanent member of ensembles such as the Trio Gaspard, as well as the Belli-Fischer- Rimmer Trio – a unique, experimental combination of trombone, Percussion and piano. Further chamber music partners include Maximilian Hornung, Nils Mönkemeyer, Lena Neudauer, Gabriel Schwabe and Tianwa Yang. Rimmer is also much in demand as a vocal accompanist: he is a co-founder of the innovative ‘Klangwerk Lied’ series of song recitals which take place in Freiburg. He collaborates on a regular basis with some of the most remarkable members of the new generation of young vocalists, including Ronan Collett, Simon Bode, Sylvia Schwartz, Anna Lucia Richter, and Katharina Persicke.
Born in London into a musical family, cellist VASHTI HUNTER is currently based in Berlin and enjoys
a versatile career as soloist and chamber musician, being invited regularly to play in some of the
world’s leading music festivals and concert halls. She is the first British cellist ever to be awarded a
prize at the International Cello Competition ‘Prague Spring’ in its 65 year history.
Vashti has performed in prestigious halls throughout Europe, including the Wigmore Hall in London,
Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna, Rudolfinum Prague, Salle Moliere in Lyon, the Philharmonie and the
Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. She has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the the Göttingen
Symphony Orchestra, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Pilsen Philharmonic and CHAARTS
and has worked with conductors such as Gabor Tákács-Nagy and Antonello Manacorda.
Much in demand as both soloist and chamber musician, Vashti has been invited to important festivals such
as PODIUM, Lockenhaus, Ernen, Davos, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music UK, Boswiler Sommer and the Shanghai Chamber Music Festival.
She has collaborated with eminent artists including Steven Isserlis, Martha Argerich, Ivry Gitlis, Pekka
Kuusisto, Ilya Gringolts, Erich Hörbarth, Nicolas Altstaed and Vilde Frang. In 2010 Vashti co-founded
Trio Gaspard together with Greek-Albanian violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha and German-British pianist
Nicholas Rimmer. The piano trio has won first prizes in the ‘Haydn’ and ‘Joachim’ international
competitions and perform regularly in some of the world’s most important halls.
An experienced orchestral player, she has been invited as guest principal cellist of the Olso Philharmonic
Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Camerata Bern, Amsterdam
Sinfonietta and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She is principal cellist of the Kammerakadamie
Potsdam and is invited regularly to play with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In 2015 Vashti completed a ‘Konzertexamen’ degree with Leonid Gorokhov in Hannover where she
was supported by generous awards from the Leverhulme Trust and Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
She studied chamber music with Hatto Beyerle, attended the European Chamber Music Academy
and studied for many years with Steven Isserlis at IMS Prussia Cove.
Between 2017 and 2019 she taught chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester and cello at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.