Junction Trio

Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and has been dubbed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine, and an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times. He is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. As a composer, he was also the recipient of a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, his collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher.

Conrad Tao has recently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. As a composer, his work has been performed by orchestras throughout the US; his first large scale orchestral work, Everything Must Go, was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 18-19, and will be premiered in Europe by the Antwerp Symphony in 21-22. In the same season, his violin concerto, written for Stefan Jackiw, will be premiered by the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Spano, and the Baltimore Symphony under Kirill Karabits. In the 2021-22 season, he will also make his London solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall, and will appear in recital throughout North America, including Boston, New York, Washington, and Seattle. Tao’s Bessie Award-winning dance work with Caleb Teicher, More Forever, will continue to tour North America, including performances at Cal Performances in Berkeley and Fall for Dance North in Toronto. Other collaborations include his duo work Counterpoint, also with Caleb Teicher, and a multi-city tour with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Jay Campbell, as a member of the Junction Trio.

In the 2020-21 season, Tao was the focus of a series of concerts and interviews with the Finnish Radio Symphony, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with Hannu Lintu and Andrew Norman’s Suspend with Sakari Oramo, live on television. While most performances in the 20-21 season were canceled due to the COVID epidemic, he appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and Louis Langrée, returned to the Seattle Symphony to perform Beethoven Concerto No. 4, and returned to Blossom with the Cleveland Orchestra, and Bravo! Vail with the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden. Further invitations included the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His creation with Caleb Teicher, More Forever, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, was planned for tours across the US, including Dance Cleveland and Fall for Dance, Toronto. Tao and Teicher’s latest collaboration for Works & Process, Rhapsody in Blue, kicked off the Guggenheim’s return to in-person performances and was lauded by The New York Times as “monumental.”

Violinist Stefan Jackiw is recognized as one of his generation’s most significant artists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. Hailed for playing of "uncommon musical substance" that is “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe), Jackiw has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, among others.

This season Stefan Jackiw will perform Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall with Mikhail Pletnev, before embarking on a multi-city tour with the Russian National Orchestra. He will also appear in recital with acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk performing Ives Violin Sonatas, including performances at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. In Europe, Stefan makes his debut at Berlin's Konzerthaus and returns to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. And in Asia, Stefan appears for the first time with the Tokyo Symphony at Suntory Hall under the direction of Krzysztof Urbanski, and returns to the Seoul Philharmonic under Mario Venzago. He will also tour Korea playing chamber music with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica.

Last season, Stefan toured Australia playing Mendelssohn with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and appeared with the Detroit Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Forth Worth Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Philharmonische Orchester Heidelberg, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia de la Coruna, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, and Tampere Philharmonic.  He also returned to the Aspen Festival performing Lutoslawski's Partita alongside Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5. In March 2014 he gave the world premiere of American composer David Fulmer’s Violin Concerto No 2 “Jubilant Arcs”, written for him and commissioned by the Heidelberg Festival with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Matthias Pintscher.

In recent seasons, Jackiw made his Carnegie Hall recital debut performing Stravinsky, Brahms, Strauss and the world premiere of a new work for piano and violin by David Fulmer. Other recent highlights include performances with the St. Louis Symphony under Nicholas McGegan, and with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Stefan's recent return engagements include performances with the Indianapolis Symphony under Krzysztof Urbanski, the Pittsburgh Symphony under Juraj Valcuha, and the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern.

Stefan has recorded for Sony the complete Brahms sonatas, hailed by Fanfare as “now the recording of the Brahms sonatas to have”. He is also a member of Ensemble Ditto - a wildly popular Korea-based chamber music group, with a mission to introduce new audiences to the chamber music repertoire. Ensemble Ditto plays to sold out halls across the country, presenting works from Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven to George Crumb, Steven Reich, and John Zorn.

Stefan made his European debut age 14 to great critical acclaim, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra. His sensational performance was featured on the front page of London’s Times, and theStrad reported, “A 14-year-old violinist took the London music world by storm.” Stefan has also performed abroad with the London Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra of Ireland, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Stefan is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. He has performed in numerous important festivals and concert series, including the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and Caramoor International Music Festival, the Celebrity Series of Boston, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Washington Performing Arts Society and the Louvre Recital Series in Paris. As a chamber musician, Stefan has collaborated with such artists as Jeremy Denk, Steven Isserlis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gil Shaham. He is a regular participant at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music and Bard Music Festivals. At the opening night of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, Stefan was the only young artist invited to perform, playing alongside such artists as Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Evgeny Kissin, and James Levine. 

Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, and is the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. He lives in New York City. Learn more at stefanjackiw.com.

Armed with a diverse spectrum of repertoire and eclectic musical interests, cellist Jay Campbell has been recognized for approaching both old and new works with the same probing curiosity and emotional commitment. His performances have been called “electrifying” by theNew York Times; “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by the Washington Post; and on WQXR by Krzysztof Penderecki for “the greatest performance yet of Capriccio per Sigfried Palm”. A 2016 recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jay made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and worked with Alan Gilbert in 2016 as the artistic-director for Ligeti Forward, a series featured on the New York Philharmonic Biennale at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2017, he will be Artist-in-Residence at the Lucerne Festival with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, where he will give the Swiss premiere of Michael Van der Aa's multimedia cello concerto Up-Close, and the world premiere of a new concerto by Luca Francesconi, conducted by Matthias Pintscher in Lucerne's KKL Auditorium and the Cologne Philharmonie.

Dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of our time, Jay has worked closely with some of the most creative musicians of our time including Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Matthias Pintscher, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, and countless others from his own generation. His close association with John Zorn resulted in the 2015 release of Hen to Pan(Tzadik) featuring all works written for Campbell, and was listed in the  New York Times year-end Best Recordings of 2015. Forthcoming discs include George Perle's cello concerto with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot (Bridge), a disc of Beethoven, Debussy, Stravinsky and Pintscher (Victor Elmaleh Collection), and a collection of works commissioned for Campbell by David Fulmer (Tzadik). Equally enthusiastic as a chamber musician and teacher, Campbell is a member of the JACK Quartet, a piano trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao, has served on faculty at Vassar College and has been a guest at the Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Moab, Heidelberger-Fruhling, DITTO, and Lincoln Center festivals. Learn more at jay-campbell.net.