Beethoven Trio Bonn

Beethoven Trio Bonn is one of Germany’s most successful chamber ensembles. The group’s repertory includes not only music of their namesake but also a wide variety of other Romantic-era works, including little-known pieces from Russia.
Beethoven Trio Bonn was formed in 2005. The original members were violinist Mikhail “Misha” Ovrutsky (a protege of Anne-Sophie Mutter), cellist Grigory "Grisha" Alumyan (an in-demand solo artist as well as principal cellist of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn), and pianist Rinko Hama; Hama was replaced by Jinsang Lee (laureate of several major competitions in the 1990s and early 2000s) in 2015. Ovrutsky and Alumyan were born in Moscow, Hama was a Tokyo native, and Lee is from Seoul. All have successful solo careers in addition to their work with the trio. The group performed music of Beethoven frequently in its early years, earning strong acclaim from German critics. Later, the trio took up Russian repertory, including unusual works by Nikolai Kapustin as well as familiar trios by the likes of Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. The Beethoven Trio Bonn has toured widely, performing in South Africa and Japan as well as Europe and the U.S. The group has appeared at major German venues and festivals, including the Beethovenfest in Bonn and Cologne’s Raderberg concert series.
The Beethoven Trio Bonn is notable for its recordings, made in cooperation with the Deutschlandfunk radio network. The group has recorded exclusively for the CAvi-Music label, making its debut in 2013 with an album featuring trios by Kapustin, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Anton Arensky. Albums devoted to music by Alexander Alyabyev and Georgy Sviridov followed in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In 2020, the Beethoven Trio Bonn released a complete cycle of Beethoven's piano trios in three volumes, including such novelties as the Gassenhauer Trio, Op. 11, and an arrangement of the Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (“Pastoral”). ~ James Manheim