Praised for their “slow-burning, gripping performance” by The Strad, and “virtuosity, presence of mind, and wit” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Linos Piano Trio has earned international acclaim for its unique and innovative style. First Prize winners of the chamber music category of the German Record Critics Prize (2021), the Trio’s accolades include First Prize and Audience Prize of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (2015), the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize (2014), and multiple five-star reviews for its album releases.
The rich cultural and artistic backgrounds of the three musicians contribute to the Linos Piano Trio’s colourful and distinctive musical voice. Their seven languages, five nationalities, and breadth of specialisms ranging from historical performance to new music, contribute to their multifaceted and personal performances. Alongside the ensemble’s commitment to the genre’s masterpieces, Linos expands the repertoire by championing hidden gems and creating new trio transcriptions.
The Linos Piano Trio’s reputation has taken it to prestigious stages and festivals internationally, including London’s Southbank Centre, Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Melbourne Recital Centre, MA Festival Bruges, and Les Heures Musicales Haut-Anjou. Since 2019, the Trio has directed the Linos Festival in Cologne: an annual chamber music festival where the trio is joined by other musicians, expanding programmes and concepts beyond the trio repertoire, and creating gripping concert experiences.
Known for their innovative output of piano trio recordings, the Linos Piano Trio’s discography has earned international critical acclaim and is heard in radio broadcasts across the world. ‘In Search of Lost Dance’, a ground-breaking performance of music by Ravel on period instruments, was released in 2023 by CAvi-music in partnership with SWR. They were immediately invited by CAVi to make three further albums, comprising the complete Beethoven Piano Trios from the perspective of the evolution of keyboard instruments over the course of Beethoven’s life. Recorded live at the beautiful Schloss Bruschsal in Germany this year, the first in the series centres on a copy of a 1787 Andreas Stein piano similar to those with which Beethoven would have been familiar in his formative years, and features the two op. 1 trios. The concert was subsequently broadcast by German national radio station SWR Kultur. The Trio’s debut album, the first recording of the complete Piano Trios by C.P.E. Bach, was issued by CAvi-music in 2020 and received several five-star reviews from across the European press, with Gramophone Magazine describing the playing as “smart, efficient and alert to Bach’s quicksilver changes of mood and material.”
Linos’ ongoing project, Stolen Music, is a rapturously-received series of trio arrangements of orchestral masterpieces such as Ravel’s La Valse, and Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In each Stolen Music arrangement, the musicians work collaboratively to reimagine the works as if they had been originally written for the piano trio. Their award-winning 2021 album Stolen Music, for CAvi-music in partnership with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, features four important turn-of-the-century works, centred around the theme of transformation. The Strad called the album “compelling, dramatic, fascinating and unfailingly musical”, and, following the album’s success, the Trio launched Linos Edition, its own digital sheet-music publication of Stolen Music.
Formed in London in 2007, the Linos Piano Trio studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Professors Oliver Wille and Markus Becker. The ensemble also received generous scholarships from London’s ChamberStudio and Paris’s ProQuartet programmes to conduct its further studies with Sir András Schiff, Peter Cropper, Ferenc Rados, Rainer Schmidt and Eberhard Feltz, all of whom were highly influential in crystallizing Linos’ musical approach. Over the last six years Linos has enjoyed sharing this approach with students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, as Carne Ensemble in Residence.
Thai-born London-based musician Prach Boondiskulchok enjoys a uniquely diverse career as a pianist, fortepianist, and composer. Equally at home improvising in 18th Century styles and composing with microtonal harmonies, Prach’s performances have taken him to international stages and festivals. His collaborations have included recitals with Steven Isserlis, Roger Chase, and Leonid Gorokhov. Prach’s works include chamber song cycle Goose Daughter, premiered in New Orleans, New York, and London in 2016-17, and Ritus for String Quartet, commissioned by the Endellion Quartet for its 40th anniversary in 2019, and praised as “a work of great charm” by The Guardian. Prach is an artistic researcher at the Orpheus Institute and teaches piano and chamber music at the Royal College of Music in London.
Praised for his “perfectly poised” (The Strad) music-making and “beautiful tone, articulated like speech” (Klassikfavori), London-born German-Brazilian violinist Konrad Elias-Trostmann‘s vivid performance style and natural flair for entertaining break down the wall between audience and performer. He has held positions in several renowned orchestras, such as the WDR-Sinfonieorchester, and regularly appears in leading positions with orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. More recently he has been turning his attention to pursue his interests in independent and creative projects. Whether travelling or at home in Berlin, you can find Konrad enjoying a vibrant social life, doing yoga, or drawing inspiration from some of his greatest artistic influences: Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, or that video of Aretha Franklin singing “Nessun Dorma”.
Berlin-based French-born multi-faceted musician Vladimir Waltham is equally at home on Cello, Baroque Cello, and all sizes of da Gamba instruments. Praised for his “luminous tone” by Gramophone, Vladimir is passionate about sharing the broadest possible musical palette, in repertoire spanning from the Middle Ages to collaborations with composers and world premieres as well as everything in between. Vladimir has performed in concert halls all around the world with his ensembles the Linos Piano Trio and La Serenissima, but also regularly appears as a guest soloist and chamber musician in halls and festivals worldwide. When not busy traveling and performing, you can find Vladimir at home enjoying his love of cooking and of coffee, or taking his family on a hike in the mountains.
Linos (Λῖνος) was a celebrated musician in Greek mythology. The son of Apollo, Linos received from his father the three-stringed lute, sometimes depicted as the lyre. As one of the original demi-gods of music, Linos had many pupils, most famously Heracles and his brother Orpheus. Linos was known as the inventor of new melodies, lyric songs, and eloquent speech.
