Trio Gaspard

Nicholas Rimmer | Piano
Jonian Ilias Kadesha | Violin
Vashti Hunter | Violoncello

“Heartbreakingly honest, true to style and rich in color, with transparency and good agogics. This trio belongs to another league.”

Founded in 2010, Trio Gaspard is one of the most sought-after piano trios of its generation and is praised for its unique and fresh approach to music. The trio has repeatedly performed in major international concert halls such as Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie and Pierre-Boulez Saal Berlin, Phliharmonie Essen, Schloss Grafenegg in Austria, Salle Molière Lyon, Unione Musicale Turin, KKL Lucerne, and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

In addition to exploring the traditional piano trio repertoire, Trio Gaspard regularly collaborates with contemporary composers and strives to discover rarely performed masterpieces. In 2022, it performed Ethyl Smyth’s Piano Trio in D minor at the live BBC Proms. The trio also performed the rarely presented work Présence – ballet blanc for piano trio and speaker by Bernd Alois Zimmermann in collaboration with urban-contemporary dancer Luka Fritsch. The presentation at Boulez Saal was recorded in cooperation with Deutschlandradio and appeared on the trio’s recording “Live in Berlin”.

For a first recording project on Chandos Records, the musicians are recording all 46 piano trios by Joseph Haydn and supplementing them with Haydn-related contemporary works, for which the trio has commissioned compositions from Olli Mustonen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Helena Winkelmann, Sally Beamish, Kit Armstrong, Johannes Julius Fischer and Leonid Gorokhov, among others. The first CD in the series was released in the summer of 2022 to critical acclaim. Reviews appeared in The Times and Limelight Magazine. The Strad gave the recording a recommendation, promising that it would leave listeners hungry for more.

The members of Trio Gaspard come from Germany, Greece and Great Britain. They worked regularly with Hatto Beyerle, co-founder of the Alban Berg Quartet. The ensemble also studied at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), where they received important impulses from Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet), Ferenc Rados, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Jérôme Pernoo and Peter Cropper (Lindsay Quartet). The trio gained their own teaching experience in master classes at Kyung-Hee University Seoul, the Royal Irish Academy Dublin and the Shanghai Chamber Music Festival. At the latter, the musicians were also on the jury of China’s national chamber music competition.

The trio won various special and first prizes, including the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, the 5th International Haydn Competition in Vienna and the 17th International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach, France. In 2012, the musicians were awarded the “Wiener Klassik” prize by the city of Baden in Austria. The trio also held a “Fellowship of chamber music” at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester between 2017 and 2019.

The performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto is also very close to the musicians’ hearts. In 2018 there were several performances under Gabor Takács-Nagy in Switzerland. 

All musicians are also successfully pursuing their careers as soloists. 

Short biographies

Nicholas Rimmer | Piano

has already performed on renowned stages such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Munich’s Gasteig, Zurich’s Tonhalle and Berlin’s Philharmonie and as a soloist and chamber musician at renowned festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg, Grafenegg and Heidelberg. His CD recording with Nils Mönkemeyer was awarded the Echo Klassik in 2009, and his recording of Rihm’s complete works for violin and piano with Tianwa Yang received the Diapason d’Or, the Pizzicato Supersonic Award and the International Record Review ‘Outstanding’ Award. Rimmer studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover with Christopher Oakden. Since 2020, Rimmer has held a professorship in piano at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He is a member of the Belli-Fischer-Rimmer trio in the unique and experimental instrumentation of trombone-percussion-piano.

Jonian Ilias Kadesha | Violin

is pursuing a successful career as a soloist and has already performed with renowned orchestras such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Russian State Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Sir András Schiff, the London Mozart Players and the Aurora Orchestra. He is keen to expand the standard repertoire and can be heard, for example, with the Skalkottas Violin Concerto, Hillborg’s Bach Materia or the world premiere of Giovanni Sollima’s Tyche. Kadesha studied at the Kronberg Academy with Antje Weithaas and is a laureate of international violin competitions. He is also a member of the Kelemen Quartet and co-founder of the Caerus Chamber Ensemble.

Vashti Hunter | Violoncello

enjoys a diverse career as a soloist and chamber musician, and is a regular guest at leading music festivals and concert halls concert halls such as the Wigmore Hall, the Rudolfinum Prague, the Salle Moliere Lyon, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Pierre Boulez Hall, among others. She studied in London and Hannover with Leonid Gorokhov and in Berlin with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. A very important influence is cellist Steven Isserlis, with whom she studied for many years at IMS Prussia Cove. Vashti Hunter is now a professor herself at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz and teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Medien in Hannover. Vashti Hunter is also a member of the renowned Kelemen Quartet.

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Haydn: The Complete Piano Trios, Vol. 1 – Trio Gaspard

Haydn: Trio in G Major XV:25, “Gypsy” III. Presto – Trio Gaspard

Beethoven, Turnage & Ravel – Debut in the Berlin Philharmonie, Portrait made by Deutschlandradio

Schubert: Piano Trio in E-flat Major op. 100 – Trio Gaspard

B. A. Zimmermann: “Présence” Ballet blanc en cinq scènes pour violon, violoncelle et piano – Trio Gaspard & Luka Fritsch