Curtis Studio Releases Fourth Recording: “Trio Zimbalist: Piano Trios of Weinberg, Auerbach, & Dvořák”

Learn more about Trio Zimbalist and their debut recording at curtis.edu/TrioZ, and click HERE to watch the official album trailer. Listen to Piano Trios of Weinberg, Auerbach, & Dvořák.

Curtis Studio, the recording label of the Curtis Institute of Music, which is dedicated to discovering new and traditional music and recording performances by inspiring artists of our time, announces its fourth recording: Trio Zimbalist: Piano Trios of Weinberg, Auerbach, & Dvořák. The album consists of three virtuosic works of chamber music performed by distinguished Curtis alumni Josef Špaček, violin; Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, cello; and George Xiaoyuan Fu, piano. It will be available on all major streaming platforms starting on Jan. 12, including Apple Music Classical. It is distributed by Platoon.

Taking its name from Efrem Zimbalist—a famed violin virtuoso and longtime teacher and director of the Curtis Institute of Music — Trio Zimbalist carries on his legacy through its commitment to artistic excellence. The group has garnered critical acclaim for its “precision and feverish intensity” (Greece’s EfSyn) and received praise for its “liveliness and vigor of playing” in performances that were “pure enjoyment!” (Athinorama) at the Nights of Classical Music at the Gennadius Library festival in Athens, where it served as ensemble-in-residence during a 2021 tour of Greece, Germany, and France. Špaček, Gavriilidis-Petrin, and Fu are in demand across Europe and the U.S. as soloists, chamber musicians, and recitalists, forming an inimitable ensemble with repertoire that spans Romantic masterworks to today’s most lauded composers.

This album of piano trios by Mieczysław Weinberg, Lera Auerbach, and Antonín Dvořák is cast in the spirit of the Dumka, containing works composed under the shadows of troubled and traumatic political histories. Dumka is a Ukrainian term that means “thought,” and in classical music it is a type of epic Slavic ballad. Dumky were sung by traveling minstrels, usually Ukrainian, who played some kind of strummed instrument (like the bandura, kobza, or lira). Their songs often contained a thoughtful or melancholic lament of oppressed peoples.

Dvořák used that form as the foundation of his “Dumky” Trio, which was on Trio Zimbalist’s first program and maintains a special place in its repertoire. The work’s significance transcends the passage of time, finding renewed depth as the echoes of ongoing conflicts reverberate through our lives.

The energetic Piano Trio No. 1 by the Soviet-born contemporary composer Lera Auerbach was completed immediately after her defection from the Soviet Union in 1991, while the dramatic Piano Trio in A minor by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996) carries the trauma of a Polish-born composer who lost his entire family in the Holocaust and was later persecuted by the Soviet Union’s regime. Both works are vibrant yet tragic, reflecting the intensity and strength of the creative human spirit in desperate times, and the emotional catharsis involved in telling one’s own story through music.

The program by Trio Zimbalist is a heartfelt response to the enduring human struggle still unfolding today around the world. It encapsulates an unwavering aspiration for a world where peace, freedom, and individualism can flourish. The album follows Curtis Studio’s acclaimed recordings Portraits (Viano Quartet, 2023), Revival (pianist Michelle Cann, 2023), and Scheherazade (Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, 2022).

More about Trio Zimbalist

The members of Trio Zimbalist—violinist Josef Špaček, cellist Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, and pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu — are all distinguished alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The group draws upon the lineage of previous world-class ensembles formed at Curtis. Its members have studied with faculty representing the Guarneri Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. With regular appearances at the La Jolla Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland, Marlboro, and Moritzburg music festivals, they are active composers, adventurous and multidisciplinary collaborators, and passionate advocates for the impact of music on communities across the globe. For more information about the trio, visit triozimbalist.com.

• To watch the album trailer, click HERE.

Photos of Trio Zimbalist by Viktor Jelinek.