Storytellers: Higdon, Harbison, Ives

Storytellers is the debut album from Trio Azura, an emerging young piano trio formed at the Colburn Conservatory in 2022, built around three American works united by narrative and imagery. Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Trio paints in color — “Pale Yellow” unfolding as a gradual, hymn-like conversation, “Fiery Red” launching into mischievous, unrelenting figuration. John Harbison’s Piano Trio No. 2, “Short Stories” marks his return to the genre after three decades, its four movements (“Tale,” “Ballad,” “Rumors and Reports,” “Enigma”) each tracing a distinct narrative arc, from interrupted melody to bardic ritual to escalating rumor. Charles Ives’s early Piano Trio closes the program with the composer’s characteristic collage of quotation and dissonance — fraternity songs, Stephen Foster, hymn tunes — filtered through his Yale student days and a raucous “joke” scherzo before resolving into a hushed, ambiguous close.

Recorded over two intensive days at Zipper Hall under producers Fabio Bidini and Jonathan Brown (both Colburn faculty and mentors to the trio), the album captures a young ensemble — winners of the Fischoff Competition Grand Prize and now Colburn’s Chamber Ensemble-in-Residence — translating live performance intensity into the studio.

Trio Azura
Duncan McDougall – violin
Yejin Hong – cello
Yanfeng (Tony) Bai – piano