ARTISTS


GRYPHON TRIO
PIANO TRIO

GALLERY | BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | CONCERTO | DISCOGRAPHY | LINKS


GALLERY




Photography   Shin Sugino, Toronto (Studio images); Kazuk Ishikura (Performing); John Beebe, Toronto

Click each image to download


BIOGRAPHY

Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin
Roman Borys, cello
Jamie Parker, piano

Having impressed international audiences and the press with their highly refined, dynamic performances, the 2011 JUNO winning Gryphon Trio has firmly established itself as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios.

Performing from Canada to Russia, United States to Egypt, Belgium to Scandinavia and major European centres in between, ‘Canada’s national treasure’ is always in demand and continues to dazzle audiences with memorable performances. In the 2011.12 season, the Gryphon Trio will make international appearances in Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands and Kuwait. They will also appear in recital throughout the US. In Canada, they will continue to perform regularly throughout Ontario and will embark on a tour of the Atlantic Provinces.

Pushing the boundaries of chamber music, the trio has commissioned and premiered over fifty new works from established and emerging composers around the world and has collaborated on special projects with clarinetist James Campbell, actor Colin Fox, choreographer David Earle, and a host of jazz luminaries. Their most ambitious undertaking to date is a groundbreaking multimedia production of composer Christos Hatzis’s epic work Constantinople, scored for mezzo–soprano, Middle Eastern singer, violin, cello, piano, and electronic audiovisual media, which they have brought to audiences across North America and at the Royal Opera House in London.

The ensemble–in–residence at Music Toronto for the past eight years, the 2010.11 season saw the launch of the group’s flagship educational project Listen Up!. Created by the trio in collaboration with composer Andrew Staniland and music educator Rob Kapilow from What Makes it Great?, Listen Up! involves an entire school in the creation of a new work for choir and piano trio. Under the guidance of Staniland and Kapilow, students compose poetry and music over the course of the school year, culminating in a joint performance by the Gryphon Trio and the school choir. The project began at the Naismith Memorial Elementary School in Almonte, Ontario, and will travel to schools across North America as the Gryphon Trio approaches its 20th season in 2013.

The trio’s eleven celebrated recordings on the Analekta label are an encyclopedia of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo, Shostakovich, and Piazzolla. This past season, the Gryphon Trio won the 2011 Juno Award in the "Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble" category for their most recent Beethoven CD which was released to great acclaim. This was the trio’s second win, also taking the prize for their groundbreaking 2004 release of Canadian premieres, featuring new works by leading Canadian composers.

Deeply committed to the education of the next generations of audiences and performers alike, the members of the Gryphon Trio take time out of their busy touring schedules to conduct masterclasses and workshops at universities and conservatories across North America, and are Artists–in–Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. In addition to Listen Up!, the trio’s educational initiatives include a series of in-depth lecture performances with composer Gary Kulesha which examine the art of chamber music through the centuries, and the Young Composers Program at Toronto’s Claude Watson Arts High School.

Gryphon Trio cellist Roman Borys is entering his fourth season as Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Chamber Music Society (OICMS), where the trio has been a mainstay since the Festival’s inception in 1994. Annalee Patipatanakoon and Jamie Parker serve as the OICMS’s Artistic Advisors.

(as of September 2011)

REVIEWS

“The evening’s highlight came as the Gryphons…dug into the Mendelssohn trio with full-blooded gusto, carrying us off in wave after wave of Romantic emotion. It was musicmaking at its most communicative.”

-TORONTO STAR

"This is a piano trio that plays with strength and unanimity...big, bold, almost orchestral performances."

- THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

“As playing per se, this is exquisite. I don’t just mean technically, though the ensemble and tonal control can be almost breathtaking. Both performances bring out the kind of delicacy and sensuous beauty that’s often overlooked in Beethoven.” [Beethoven Trio: Analekta CD]

- BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

"Not only extra-ordinary instrumentalists but they have also mastered the art of ensemble playing"

- WESER KURIER, Germany

"The Gryphon Trio show themselves to be well up for the task, once again affirming their status as one of Canada’s premiere ensembles." [Mendelssohn / Lalo Trio: Analekta CD]

- WHOLENOTE Magazine

"The Gryphon's musical conversations are animated and charming...it has character and detail to spare, and elegance is no small accomplishment."

- THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Toronto

“…dynamics of unusual depth and variety…”

- THE WASHINGTON POST

“This is where an outstanding group such as the Gryphon Trio really comes into its own. Unshackled from the interpretative constraints of the nineteenth-century rhetorical tradition (as few twentieth-century artists were), they play with a compelling directness, spontaneity and free-flowing expressivity that has Beethoven’s muse emerging with the insatiable vitality of a young man flexing his creative muscles in public for the first time.” [ Beethoven Trio: Analekta CD]

- INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW

“Cet excellent Trio canadien, don’t la violoniste, Annalee Patipatanakoon, fut laureate de notre CMIREB, confirme par ce troisieme CD les qualities de raffinement sonore et d’élegance de style qui en font l’une des toutes premiéres formations actuelles dans ce domaine. [Mendelssohn/ Lalo Trio: Analekta CD]

- CRESCENDO MAGAZINE, Belgium

A more popular combination of piano trio repertory than this would be hard to contemplate, but these accomplished accounts by Canada’s Gryphon Trio are worthy competitors in the field…played with musical insight, technical accomplishment and passionate commitment.”

- THE STRAD Magazine

PREFERRED CONCERTO LIST
2011-2013

Beethoven   Triple Concerto
John Estacio*   Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello
Ron Royer*   Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Cello and Piano
Jeffrey Ryan*   Equilateral – Piano Trio Concerto

* Canadian Composer

Recital repertoire available upon request
Master classes and workshops available
Other concerti available upon request


DISCOGRAPHY

Beethoven: Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 2; Piano Trio Op. 97 "Archduke"   Analekta AN 2 9858
Tango Nuevo: Piazzolla, Durán, Ginastera   Analekta AN 2 9857
Schubert: Complete Piano Trios   Analekta AN 2 9855-6
Christos Hatzis’ Constantinople   Analekta AN 2 9925
Shostakovich: Piano Trios 1&2   Analekta AN 2 9854
W.A. Mozart: Piano Trios   Analekta AN 2 9827-8
Dvorak and Mendelssohn: Piano Trios   Analekta FL 2 3110
Haydn: Four Piano Trios   Analekta FL 2 3104
Mendelssohn and Lalo: Piano Trios   Analekta FL 2 3127
Beethoven: Op. 1, Nos. 1 & 3   Analekta FL 2 3170
Canadian Premieres: Murphy, Chan Hatzis, Kulesha*   Analekta FL 2 3174

* Canadian Composer

LINKS

Artist Website
www.gryphontrio.com

Recording Label
www.analekta.com


ACADEMIC AFFILIATION

University of Toronto Faculty of Music
www.music.utoronto.ca
www.music.utoronto.ca/faculty