Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Jens Elvekjær, Piano
Soo-Kyung Hong, Cello
Soo-Jin Hong, Violin
Biography
“Exuberant joy,” “electric dialogue,” “perfect unanimity” . . . these are words that are frequently used about Trio con Brio Copenhagen, now considered one of the leading piano trios of the new generation.
The trio was founded by the Korean sisters Soo-Jin Hong and Soo-Kyung Hong and the Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer in Vienna in 1999, and first attracted attention to themselves with a sensational performance that took the highest prize at Germany’s prestigious ARD-Munich Competition in 2002. Since then, they won first prize in several more competitions—Italy’s Premio Vittorio Gui (Florence, 2003), Norway’s Trondheim Chamber Music Competition (2003), and the Danish Radio Competition (Copenhagen, 2002). They also won the “Allianz-Preis” for Best Ensemble in Germany's Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (2003)—and second prize in the Vienna Haydn Competition (2001) and the Premio Trio di Trieste (Italy, 2002). In 2005 the trio was further honored with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Piano Trio Award, giving them concert engagements in twenty major concert series across the USA.
The American Record Guide wrote of the trio’s début CD: “One of the greatest performances of chamber music I’ve ever encountered . . . What stands out from this ensemble is the range of tone and sound . . . They command an amazing range of timbres. Melodies sing with an aching sweetness, or seduce with wild eroticism, or haunt with impenetrable mystery.” And Gramophone Magazine wrote: “it’s easy to see what so impressed the judges . . . [the] performances can compete with the best available . . . airtight ensemble . . . a superb, greatly gifted chamber group.”
Now based in Copenhagen, the trio tours worldwide, with engagements taking them to major concert halls and festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, Musikhalle Hamburg, Bunka Kaikan Tokyo, Tivoli Concert Hall (Copenhagen), the Konzerthaus Berlin , the Mozart-Saal (Vienna), Herkulessaal (Munich), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Library of Congress (Washington, DC), Yale University, Chicago Chamber Music Society, Newport Music Festival, Seoul Arts Center, Sejong Center (Seoul), Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza, Italy), Società Filarmonica Trento (Italy), the Schwetzinger Festspiele (Germany), the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Germany), the Båstad Chamber Music Festival (Sweden), and the Bergen and Trondheim Chamber Music Festivals (Norway).
In 2003 Trio con Brio Copenhagen performed the complete Beethoven piano trio cycle in three concerts at Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen with great success (”olympian Mastery“ —Berlingske Tidende); in their 10th anniversary season (2009-10) they were again engaged to play the cycle in the Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Sejong Center in Seoul. The trio was ”Ensemble in Residence” in Copenhagen’s Rundetaarn (Round Tower), with five sold-out concerts in 2005 broadcast on the European Broadcasting Union and Danish Radio. The trio has also broadcast on the BBC, Korean Broadcasting Systems, Norwegian Radio, Swedish Radio, Radiotelevisione Italiana, Performance Today (American Public Media) and on the major German networks (ARD, NDR, Hessischer Rundfunk and Radio Berlin).
Trio con Brio Copenhagen is frequently featured as soloists in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with orchestras such as the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR, the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre Syrinx (France), and the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea).
The ensemble was coached by the Alban Berg Quartet, Frans Helmerson, Mihaela Martin and Harald Schoneweg at the Cologne University of Music and received excellent musical guidance by Ferenc Rados in Budapest.
Soo-Jin Hong and Soo-Kyung Hong play an Andrea Guarneri violin and an Amati cello, respectively, and Jens Elvekjaer is Denmark’s first Steinway Artist.
Copenhagen Artists represents Trio con Brio Copenhagen in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.