CMLV hearts the Claremont Trio. They have appeared on our stage four times in the quarter century since their founding at Juilliard in 1999. A fifth appearance scheduled in 2020 fell victim to the COVID pandemic, and we are so happy, at last, to welcome them back. We embraced them as our little sisters (two of them are twins), fresh from winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (the only piano trio ever to do so) and watched them grow up to become queens of our hearts. “Queen of Hearts,” in fact, is the title of their 2022 CD, their eighth, a collection of works commissioned by them and self-produced with friends during COVID. The title track is composed by Kati Agócs, who explains that “queen of hearts” refers to “the mother of higher love” card in a playing card deck. Sisters to mothers, the Claremonts appear onstage as three gems in a jewel box and evoke for their listeners a treasury of liquid sound. “Their hearts beat together,” according to the Washington Post.

Beethoven Trio in E flat Major, Op. 1 No. 1

Shulamit Ran Soliloquy

Ravel Trio in A Minor