‘Masterpieces Among Peers’ leaves 2020 with musical imprint

This has been one [insert any expletive or adjective of your choice] year. Are you ready for 2020 to be over? In the words of my fellow trio member, Misha: Let’s get this over with already!

With seven days left of 2020, a year that has been full of pain, devastating loss, and lack of common sense throughout the world and bizarrely, equally as many silver linings, the Namirovsky-Lark-Pae Trio has been presented with some wonderful news to round out the year.

In August 2020, our debut album Masterpieces Among Peers, which features Frank Bridge's Piano Trio No. 2 and Brahms' Trio No. 1 in B major was awarded the German Record Critics' Award / Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in the category of Chamber Music. Next to the GRAMMY Awards in the United States, the Echo Klassik in Germany, and the ICMA-International Classical Music Awards, we are told that the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik is one of the most notable honors in Europe.

Today, we’ve received news that our album has been named of one of the 5 Best Albums of 2020 by German Classical Music magazine Fono Forum, which will be featured in their January 2021 publication.

We could never have known the release of our album would coincide with the coronavirus outbreak; with so many lives affected throughout the world, including in our own backyards, we quietly released this album in June 2020 without making any announcements. How completely surprised we were to learn in July 2020 that we were nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. The nomination was a glimmer of positivity, something to remind us that our music was out there and being appreciated while we were trying to make sense of what’s happening around us. We are astonished and grateful to receive these acknowledgments and it reinforces how much we look forward to making music again, together and in person.

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported us through this recording—Andreas Ziegler and the entire team at TYXart Records, the Tarisio Trust London, Si-Yo Music Society Foundation, Inc., our award-winning record producer Paul Eachus, and audio engineer Andrew Tripp, and our wonderful friends Thea Boyd, Fernand Brunschwig & Jennifer Herring, Sue Nowak, Nami & Si Pae, Rene Yon Pak, Victoria Roth, and Yi Qun Xu & Yoon Lee of Cookie's Music House who generously donated rehearsal space—a difficult commodity to come by in New York City—and organized several performances for us before recording. This is as much yours as it is ours!

If you’d like to ring in 2021 with the sounds of Brahms and Bridge, you can order your copy here.

Wishing you all a festive and very safe end of 2020!