Archive
Leopold
String Trio
BBT
Award Winner
2004
The Leopold String Trio is firmly established at the forefront of the international chamber music scene and received the 2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Ensemble Award. The Trio were the recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Award in 2004 which they used to help mount Leopold String Trio: The Series, a three year cycle of concerts at Wigmore Hall and Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. Many of the programmes included guest artists such as pianists Pascal Rogé, Paul Lewis, Marc-André Hamelin and Paul Lewis, cellist Natalie Klein, and oboist Nick Daniel. The Trio was selected for the inaugural BBC New Generation Artists scheme, giving them tremendous exposure on BBC Radio 3 with many studio recordings and live broadcasts from around the country. They have toured extensively through Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada and in November 2010 will be giving concerts in Vienna and Innsbruck with pianist Paul Lewis. They were chosen as the British representative for the ECHO Rising Stars scheme for the 2001/2002 season leading to their debut recitals at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein Vienna, La Cité de la Musique Paris, The Athens Concert Hall, Stockholm Concert Hall, the Philharmonie Köln, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Palais de Beaux Arts Brussels and Symphony Hall Birmingham. Their recordings for Hyperion Records have all been greeted with outstanding reviews and nominations for awards, most recently a Gramophone Award nomination for the Brahms Piano Quartets. Their recording of the Taneyev String Trios was released in October 2008.
Last updated: August 2010
Photograph taken by Benjamin Ealovega
"This is an ensemble with a mission - to reignite the public's interest in the string trio repertoire. Long seen as a poor relation to the mighty string quartet, this concert made a real statement about the integrity of the string trio genre...The Leopold Trio's programming is inventive and thought-provoking"
Classical Source 11 November 2006
"Both programmes - the fifth and sixth of eight - characteristically combined established works with some interesting novelties [...] - in short, a thrilling performance that set the masterpiece (Mozart's E flat major Divertimento K563) in a new light"
Daily Telegraph 16 November 2006
Project: A series of 12 programmes over three seasons to showcase the string trio repertoire presented at London's Wigmore Hall and the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton
- The Series – six pairs of programmes with linked themes performed over a three year period at the Wigmore Hall and Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton
- Setting up a website
- New photos
Leopold String Trio used their BBT Award to support 12 concerts over three seasons, presenting the expanse of the string trio repertoire. We filmed with the trio in 2006 at the moment that their work was acknowledged by an RPS Award for chamber music. They reflect on their motivations for the series and its value for the future.
Isabelle van Keulen joined the trio in 2007 following the departure of the trio’s founding violinist, Marianne Thorsen, to concentrate on other aspects of her busy career. This short video, filmed during early rehearsals with the trio, introduces Isabelle.
A profile of Leopold String Trio, filmed in London in 2004 as part of an audio CD and CD-ROM produced by BBT to introduce that year’s Award and Fellowship Winners.