Praised for its communicative power and engaging performances, Trio Appassionata was formed at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in 2007. Coming from three distinct backgrounds, its members have been awarded numerous scholarships and prizes at competitions around the globe.

In 2013, Trio Appassionata joined the artist roster of Odradek Records, a non-profit, artist controlled label. The ensemble’s first CD, gone into night are all the eyes, features piano trios by American composers, including a commissioned work by composer Thomas Kotcheff. This new piece and the recording project as a whole were made possible thanks to a grant awarded by the Presser Foundation. The CD was released in November, 2014.

The members of Trio Appassionata are highly committed to bringing music to new audiences. As artists-in-residence at Chamber Music Sedona (2012), the ensemble performed in venues both formal and informal, including outreach programs in public schools and concerts in libraries and churches.

The trio has performed throughout North America, at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, and Bard College, among other venues. In December 2013, they toured Europe as a part of the Project Odradek International Music Festival, which included performances in Madrid, Salamanca, and Pescara. The trio returned to Europe in 2014 for recitals, including a performance of the complete repertoire from its debut album at the London Festival of American Music in St. James Theatre.

Trio Appassionata has been guided by some of today’s most eminent chamber musicians including Michael Kannen, Allison Wells, Violaine Melançon, Marian Hahn, and Yellow Barn Artistic Director Seth Knopp. The trio has also performed in masterclasses for renowned ensembles such as the Miró, Orion and Brentano Quartets.

Lydia Chernicoff, violin

Born in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, Lydia Chernicoff began her violin studies at the age of eight. Since then, Lydia has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, and Seiji Ozawa Hall among other venues, as well as in China, Europe and South America. Her principal teachers have included Violaine Melançon, Magdalena Richter, and Alla Zernitskaya. She has performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and members of Alarm Will Sound, and has collaborated with artists Seth Knopp, Michael Kannen, Maria Lambros, and Courtney Orlando. Lydia has performed in master classes for noted performers and teachers including Charles Castleman, Boris Garlitsky, Ilya Kaler, and Elmar Oliveira, and members of the Brentano, Miró, Orion, Shanghai, and Takács Quartets. She has participated in summer music festivals including the Mannes Beethoven Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute, and California Summer Music, among others. Among prizes Lydia has won are the J.C. van Hulsteyn Award in Violin (2012), and the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize for excellence in Chamber Music (2010), both from the Peabody Conservatory, as well the Willem Willeke Memorial Prize from the South Mountain Association (2007-2011). Lydia is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where she received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. She is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the School of Music of University of Maryland, where she studies with Dr. James Stern.

Andrea Casarrubios, cello

A native of Spain, cellist Andrea Casarrubios began to play the piano at the age of two and the cello at the age of five becoming a student of Maria de Macedo in Madrid, developing her studies with Lluis Claret in Barcelona before moving to the United States in 2007, in order to study at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University with Amit Peled. In 2011 she was invited on a full scholarship to the University of Southern California where in 2013 she completed her Masters and is currently pursuing a Performance Diploma under the tutelage of Ralph Kirshbaum. Andrea was a first prize winner of several competitions including the Solo Violoncello Competition Illa de Menorca-FIDAH 2010, the American Fine Arts Festival International Concerto Competition 2012 and the SOR Solo String Concerto Competition in 2009, among others. She was also awarded second and special prize at the XIV Llanes International Cello Competition 2012 and has been sponsored by the Wingate Foundation in the U.K., the Spanish Cello Forum, as well as Juventudes Musicales of Madrid. As a soloist and chamber musician, Andrea has played extensively in many countries throughout Europe, Asia and America and has performed with artists including Daniel Phillips, Ralph Kirshbaum, Ida Kavafian, Alexander Kerr, Atar Arad, Wing Ho, Amit Peled, Karine Lethiec and François Salque. Andrea's musicianship has also been shaped by working closely with Frans Helmerson, Laurence Lesser, Gary Hoffman, Timothy Eddy, Paul Katz and Thomas Demenga. Andrea has collaborated in festivals such as the Verbier Festival and the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, Pablo Casals Festival in France, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles, Ravinia Steans Music Institute in Chicago, Heifetz International Music Institute and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany. Andrea currently lives in New York City where she is a fellow at the Carnegie Hall Academy Ensemble ACJW.

Ronaldo Rolim, piano

Described by newspaper El Norte (Monterrey, Mexico) as an artist “specially capable of moving an audience through his interpretations,” Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim is a prominent figure among the newest generation of outstanding musicians. Winner of more than 30 awards in competitions around the globe, his latest accolades include top prizes at the Bösendorfer, San Marino and James Mottram International Piano Competitions. Ronaldo has performed extensively in his native Brazil, as well as in the United States, Mexico, South Korea, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, having played at prestigious venues in four different continents, such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Steinway Hall (London), Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), and Seoul Arts Center (Seoul), among others. He has been a guest soloist of several Brazilian orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and São Paulo University Orchestra; in Europe, he performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Republic of San Marino Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Orchestra of Portugal; in the United States he was guest soloist of the Phoenix Symphony, the Pontiac Symphony and the Peabody Symphony Orchestras. Moreover, Ronaldo has been invited to participate in important music festivals, such as the Folle Journée, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Ravinia's Steans Music Institute. Born in 1986 in Votorantim, Brazil, Ronaldo Rolim started his musical studies with his mother, giving his first public performance at the age of four. In 1998 he was admitted at the Magda Tagliaferro School, in São Paulo, as a student of professors Zilda Candida dos Santos and Armando Fava Filho. At the age of eighteen, after winning the Nelson Freire and the Magda Tagliaferro Piano Competitions, he moved to the USA to study with Flavio Varani at Oakland University (Michigan). In 2007, Ronaldo moved to Baltimore, where he attended the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Benjamin Pasternack, having pursued the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, besides the prestigious Artist Diploma. Ronaldo Rolim is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music (New Haven, CT), where he studies with Boris Berman.

Review

"...forward-looking (recording)...deserves automatic respect."

- Gramophone

"The trio plays the music with complete dedication and assurance...Trio Appassionata is at once weirder and more controlled than the Beaux Arts Trio."

- International Record Review