Ahn Trio Ensemble
Called "classical revolutionaries" by New York Newsday, the Ahn Trio is known for expanding the definition and experience of chamber music. Their work blends original compositions by world renowned composers across genres and innovative interdisciplinary collaborations that span visual and multimedia art, street dance, DJ culture, to rock.
The Ahn Trio is applauded for their freewheeling genre-bending approach to chamber music, known as the Korean-American musical visionaries redefining the boundaries of classical music. Juilliard-trained and celebrated as “classical revolutionaries,” the sisters fuse virtuosic chamber music with contemporary minimalism, electronic soundscapes, and fearless cross-genre collaborations. Their award-winning legacy includes Germany’s prestigious ECHO Award, while Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac reached No. 8 on the Billboard charts and remained there for 26 weeks.
The original members—pianist Lucia Ahn, cellist Maria Ahn, and former member violinist Angella Ahn—have released critically acclaimed albums on EMI Classics, Sony Music, Warner Music, and Maria Ahn Music. With a distinguished career spanning decades, the Ahn Trio has established an international presence, performing at some of the world’s most prestigious stages and cultural platforms, including President Obama’s White House, the TED Conference, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón, Vienna’s Musikverein, New York’s Lincoln Center, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Beijing Concert Hall, and Istanbul’s Aya Irini in Topkapı Palace.
Their artistry has reached audiences beyond the concert hall, with features in TIME and Vogue Magazines, appearances in global Gap ad campaigns, coverage in GQ Magazine, and inclusion in People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue.
Now, with a renewed artistic configuration, the Ahn Trio continues to explore new sonic territories through contemporary minimalism, pioneering electronic compositions, and innovative collaborations. The Trio recently brought sold-out performances of Mark O’Connor’s Triple Concerto and their acclaimed recital program—alongside Maestro In-Hong Cha and Grammy-winning violinist Zach Brock—to Seoul and Yeosu. The Trio presented new works at the Firenze Summer Festival in Florence, Italy, and collaborated with DJ Spooky and violinist Khullip Jeung at New York City’s Festival of Music, Arts & Activism, at the Bernstein Remix Concert hosted by Jamie Bernstein. Recent releases include Ahn Trio Ensemble Plays Laurie Spiegel (2025), featuring her exquisite work Island of Peace written specifically for Maria Ahn and Lucia Ahn. The ensemble followed this with Ahn Trio Ensemble Plays Michael Nyman (2026) and WSP × 11 (2026)—a digital single by their electroacoustic alter-ego ensemble, (((April33))), which was formed with music technologist and composer Tae Hong Park. This year also marked the release of an audience favorite, Almost Never Was (2026), a piano trio version written especially for the Ahn Trio by Zach Brock. Additionally, they debuted Ahn Trio Ensemble Plays Arvo Pärt (2026), featuring an evocative interpretation of Spiegel im Spiegel created together with Danish electronic artist Mikkel Metal for the Trio's new Ambient Ahnbient Music Series. The music video for Laurie Spiegel’s A Paraphrase Plus, directed by artist Vijay Gautham Rajkumar, also made its debut this year.
Other notable releases are Maria Ahn’s Je T’aime Bowie, a solo cello EP featuring David Bowie’s music, created with Emmy-winning composer Mark Baechle, the Trio’s musical diary album BLUE (released in 2017), Maria Ahn’s cello cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (2022) and the Trio singles Nuvole Bianche (2019), by Ludovico Einaudi, and Candybox (2020), a Piano Trio version gifted to the Trio by the composer Chiel Meijering. Smetana, a collaborative album with the acclaimed Czech alternative band Tata Bojs (released by Warner in 2008) and Mark O’Connor’s Triple Concerto, “March of the Gypsy Fiddler” with Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, which was released as a live-recording at its World Premiere. The Trio was featured in Three Sisters, a music and art film produced by Tippet Rise Art Center, performing Yuryung, written for the Trio by their idol, the jazz guitar legend Pat Metheny. Their music continues to appear in figure skating, modern dance, film, and television, most recently appeared in the documentary “Escape from Extinction: Rewilding”, narrated by Meryl Streep.
In 2024, Maria Ahn Music, in collaboration with 3AD, commissioned a special Piano Trio version of Dusan Bogdanovic’s “PRISMS – Six Songs by Sting” to honor the legacy of their late mother, Young-Joo Rhee, alongside a new work written for the Trio by Atanas Ourkouzounov in her memory. Other MAM commissions include Zach Brock’s “Common Ground”, written for Ahn Trio Ensemble in celebration of Brolly Arts’ 30th anniversary. New works written for the ensemble include “Snow Dance” by Laurie Spiegel and “We Are Here (Only For a Little While)”, a stunning four-movement work by Emmy-winning composer Mark Baechle, which premiered in New York City this fall as part of The Village Trip Festival. Two Triple Concertos have been written for the Trio and Pat Metheny, Michael Nyman, Hyung-ki Joo, three-time Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre, Mark O’Connor, DJ Spooky, Chiel Meijering, Nikolai Kapustin, and Kenji Bunch have written Trios for them.
Staying true to their adventurous musical spirit, Maria and Lucia also formed another ensemble, an electroacoustic music ensemble, (((April33))) with music technologist composer and bassist Tae Hong Park. The primary source of this group’s original music composed by Park uses recycled noise pollution. (((April33))) has performed and presented work at premier international electroacoustic and computer music festivals including ICMC NYC, ICMC Seoul, WAC INDY, AI Music Creativity in Brussels, IRCAM NYC, FARM Milano, SEAMUS INDY, Nextsound Festival Seoul, and the Firenze Summer Festival in Italy.
In keeping with the Ahn Trio's versatile new configuration, they are thrilled to announce one of their newest collaborations, with electronic music artist Mikkel Metal. The ensemble is also currently working on an encore collab with K-singer-producer Ra.D, and will launch a special recording event of Tae Hong Park's Triple Concerto for Cello, Piano, Bass & Phones in E featuring their electroacoustic band, (((April33))).
With multiple projects in play, the Ahn Trio Ensemble continues to explore the possibilities of “ahn-classical” music, creating musical experiences that reach far beyond convention.
Photo credits Arthur Elgort