For classical music lovers, it doesn’t get much better – the highly-acclaimed NZTrio playing at Sir Michael and Christin Lady Hill’s The Lodge at The Hills on Wednesday.
The ensemble – Amalia Hall, violin Ashley Brown, cello, and Somi Kim, piano – are stopping in Arrowtown during their ‘Legacy 3’ tour.
The name was chosen, Kim says, as the trio’s celebrating its 20th anniversary, but it also spotlights really key, epic masterpieces of the piano trio repertoire”.
That includes, for this concert, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, considered “the largest, most symphonic piano trio of all”.
Kim says the name also refers to one of the trio’s greatest legacies – championing more than 75 commissions, more than two-thirds by New Zealand composers.
This concert includes Gao Ping’s Searching for the Mountain, which Kim calls “really amazing” – the composer’s back in China after a stint in NZ.
The programme also includes piano trios by Schumann and Schuller.
Kim and Hall officially joined the trio in 2020 after illustrious careers overseas – Hall, for example, has won five international competitions – while Brown’s a founding member.
A music critic in the NZ Herald newspaper’s called NZTrio a “national treasure” and “NZ’s most indispensable ensemble”.
Meanwhile, Kim, one of NZ’s most sought-after pianists, returns to Arrowtown for a solo recital in March and will be one of the piano accompanists for the Queenstown rounds of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
NZTrio ‘Legacy 3’ concert, The Lodge at The Hills, December 7, 7.30pm following pre-concert refreshments; tickets $83.98 via Eventfinda
