The Ahn Trio at MSUM

Thursday, March 2 | 7:30 p.m. | Gaede Stage

From Prince to Hendrix to Bach and Beyond

The Ahn Trio helped the FM Symphony sell-out both of its performances at Festival Hall in 2007. Local musicians and audience members still talk about it. The stunningly beautiful and scarily talented sisters performed Kenji Bunch’s Hardware Concerto with the local orchestra, and what people remember is the excitement and energy the three women brought to the stage, along with musical virtuosity, of course.

On Thursday, March 2, they perform on the Gaede Stage in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts on the MSUM campus. The Gaede is a much smaller venue, so a sell-out is practically guaranteed. Get your tickets early, advises Rebecca Sundet-Schoenwald, managing director of MSUM’s Cheryl Nelson Lossett Performing Arts Series. 

For this engagement, the trio (violin, cello and piano) will perform music by a variety of composers, including Hyung-ki Joo, Nguyên Lê, Pat Metheny, the aforementioned Bunch, and others. They will also perform arrangements of Prince’s “Purple Rain” and music by Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.

Born in Seoul, Korea, and educated at Juilliard, sisters Maria, Lucia and Angella have performed in all 50 states and in more than 30 countries. They’ve recorded six albums, including Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, which made No. 8 on the Billboard Charts for 26 weeks in the classical album category.

The Ahns have attracted a lot of attention outside the music world, too. They were featured in Time Magazine’s cover story “Asian American Whiz Kids,” and have appeared in the pages of Vogue and GQ, photographed by such photographers as Arthur Elgort, Ellen von Unwerth, and Patrick Demarchelier. They have been featured in ad campaigns for GAP, Anne Klein and the Body Shop, among others. They have been named three of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People and most recently made a one-page appearance in Glamour Magazine.

As glamorous and talented as they are, the Ahns are passionate about sharing their knowledge and time. Angella is a professor of violin and viola at Montana State University, in Bozeman, Mont. Maria teaches cello and is the head of the String Department at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City. Lucia has a growing private studio. They hold master classes and workshops across the United States and around the world. In fact, the trio arrives in Fargo-Moorhead two days ahead of the performance so they can work with young musicians in the community. They will perform and inspire middle school orchestra students at Horizon Middle School in Moorhead, and conduct a masterclass for student string quartets who are members of the Fargo-Moorhead Area Youth Symphony. The masterclass is free and open to the public, and takes place Feb. 28 at 4:30 p.m. in Fox Recital Hall, also located in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts.

The March 2 performance starts at 7:30 p.m. To purchase tickets, go to www.mnstate.edu/perform or call the MSUM Box Office at (218) 477-2271 Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are also available at the door if still available.