Merz Trio – March 28, 2024

Hailed as “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine), and called “artists in the deepest sense of the word” (CutCommon), the Merz Trio has established itself at the forefront of the US chamber music scene, with debuts in the 2022-23 season at Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Chamber Music Houston, Chamber Music Detroit, the Schubert Club, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Music Mountain, among others. Winners of the Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, and Chesapeake Competitions, the Trio has been lauded for its “stunning virtuosity… fresh and surprising interpretations” (Reading Eagle) and “perfection of intonation and ensemble” (Hudson Review).

The Merz Trio is passionately committed to reshaping the narrative of classical music through vibrantly dynamic programming and wide-ranging interdisciplinary collaboration. The group’s narrative programming style juxtaposes classical standards, new music, and their own arrangements of familiar and forgotten works, fluidly interwoven and guided with speaking from the Trio’s members. The ensemble’s interdisciplinary collaborations include ongoing projects with directors Emma Jaster and Jon Levin, dancer Caroline Copeland, and Sandglass Puppet Theater.

The Trio is equally known for its immersive integrations of music and text in performance, ranging from a recital-theater piece built around Shakespeare’s Macbeth (“Those Secret Eyes,” 2019), to a concert/album interweaving Ravel’s Trio with short pieces, poems, and diaries of the era (“Ink Spills” / “Ink,” 2021), to the Trio’s presentation of Tchaikovsky’s Trio alongside unexpected diary excerpts and a range of works from Jeffrey Mumford to Alma Mahler (“undiluted days,” 2022). In the Trio’s prolific arranging, the Trio is committed to uplifting history’s overlooked voices, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Lili and Nadia Boulanger, from Joséphine Baker to Irish folk melodies.

From Merz Trio’s violinist Brigid Coleridge: “The most thrilling thing about our work is the energetic communities that it has produced. The Merz Trio loves to be in community with others. We love talking and getting carried away – in the rehearsal room, on stage, after the concert. We understand what we do as a conversation between ourselves, the composer, our audience, and the changing world we step into each day. Our name, Merz, speaks to this: It’s the term coined by German artist and polymath Kurt Schwitters, who once floor-to-ceiling decorated his parents’ house in Hanover with found objects and insisted that art only occurred in shared spaces. So Merz refers to connection, to sharing, to possibility. And yes, we’re very glad Schwitters didn’t live with us.”

The Merz Trio has been encouraged in its explorations by numerous institutional homes around the world: New England Conservatory, Yellow Barn, Snape Maltings, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Naumburg Foundation, the Lake Champlain, Olympic, and Chesapeake Music Festivals, and the Fischoff Competition, as well as many other venues and hosts around the US, Australia, and the UK. The group is represented by Concert Artists Guild.