Praised for its communicative power, engaging performances, and the ability to bring audiences from different cultures together through music, Trio Appassionata was formed at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in 2007. Coming from three distinct backgrounds, its members have been awarded numerous scholarships and prizes at competitions around the globe.
The members of Trio Appassionata are highly committed to bringing music to new audiences in a variety of ways. As artists-in-residence at Chamber Music Sedona (2012), the ensemble performed in a range of venues both formal and informal, including outreach programs in public schools and concerts in libraries and churches. The trio has performed extensively throughout North America at such venues as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, and Bard College. In December 2013, Trio Appassionata toured Europe as a part of the Project Odradek International Music Festival, which included performances in Madrid, Salamanca, and Pescara. The trio will return to Europe in the Fall of 2014 for several recitals, including a performance of the complete repertoire from its debut album at the London Festival of American Music in St. James Theatre. Additional engagements will take them to other concert halls in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the United States and Brazil.
Trio Appassionata has been guided by some of today’s most eminent chamber musicians including Michael Kannen, Allison Wells, Violaine Melançon, Marian Hahn, and Yellow Barn Artistic Director Seth Knopp. The trio has also performed in masterclasses for renowned ensembles such as the Miró, Orion and Brentano Quartets.
Born in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts, Lydia Chernicoff began her violin studies at the age of eight. Since then, Lydia has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, and Seiji Ozawa Hall among other venues, as well as in China, Europe and South America. Her principal teachers have included Violaine Melançon, Weigang Li, Milan Vitek, Magdalena Richter, and Alla Zernitskaya. She has performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and members of Alarm Will Sound, and has collaborated with artists Seth Knopp, Michael Kannen, Maria Lambros, and Courtney Orlando. Lydia has performed in master classes for noted performers and teachers including Charles Castleman, Boris Garlitsky, Ilya Kaler, and Elmar Oliveira, and members of the Brentano, Miró, Orion, Shanghai, and Takács Quartets. She has participated in summer music festivals including the Mannes Beethoven Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute, and California Summer Music, among others. Among prizes Lydia has won are the J.C. Van Hulsteyn award in Violin (2012), and the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize for excellence in Chamber Music (2010), both from the Peabody Conservatory, as well the Willem Willeke Memorial Prize from the South Mountain Association (2007-2011). Lydia is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where she received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. She is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland School of Music, where she studies with Dr. James Stern.
A native of Spain, cellist Andrea Casarrubios began playing the piano at the age of two and the cello at the age of five as a student of Maria de Macedo in Madrid. She developed her studies with Lluis Claret in Barcelona, before moving to the United States in 2007 to study at the Peabody Conservatory with Amit Peled. In 2011, she was invited on a full scholarship to the University of Southern California where she completed her Master of Music degree (2013), and is currently pursuing a Performance Diploma under the tutelage of Ralph Kirshbaum. Andrea is a first prize winner of several competitions including the Solo Violoncello Competition Illa de Menorca-FIDAH (2010), the American Fine Arts Festival International Concerto Competition (2012), and the SOR Solo String Concerto Competition (2009), among others. She was also awarded second and special prize at the XIV Llanes International Cello Competition (2012), and has been sponsored by the Wingate Foundation in the U.K., the Spanish Cello Forum, as well as Juventudes Musicales of Madrid. As a soloist and chamber musician, Andrea has played extensively in many countries throughout Europe, Asia and America and has performed with artists including Daniel Phillips, Ralph Kirshbaum, Ida Kavafian, Alexander Kerr, Atar Arad, Wing Ho, Amit Peled, Karine Lethiec and François Salque. Andrea's musicianship has also been shaped by working closely with Frans Helmerson, Laurence Lesser, Gary Hoffman, Timothy Eddy, Paul Katz and Thomas Demenga. Andrea has collaborated in festivals such as the Verbier Festival and the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, Pablo Casals Festival in France, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles, Ravinia Steans Music Institute in Chicago, Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany. Andrea currently lives in New York City where she is a fellow at the Carnegie Hall Academy Ensemble ACJW.
Described by the newspaper El Norte (Monterrey, Mexico) as an artist “specially capable of moving an audience through his interpretations,” Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim has distinguished himself among the newest generation of outstanding musicians. Winner of more than 30 awards in competitions around the globe, his latest accolades include top prizes at the Bösendorfer, San Marino and James Mottram International Piano Competitions. Ronaldo has performed extensively in his native Brazil, as well as in the United States, Mexico, South Korea, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. He has played at prestigious venues on four different continents including Carnegie Hall (New York), Steinway Hall (London), Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), and Seoul Arts Center (Seoul), among others. He has been a guest soloist with several Brazilian orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and São Paulo University Orchestra; in Europe, he performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Republic of San Marino Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Orchestra of Portugal, and in the United States he was a guest soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Pontiac Symphony and the Peabody Symphony Orchestras. Ronaldo has been invited to participate in important music festivals such as the Folle Journée, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and Ravinia's Steans Music Institute. Born in 1986 in Votorantim, Brazil, Ronaldo Rolim started his musical studies with his mother, giving his first public performance at the age of four. In 1998 he was admitted at the Magda Tagliaferro School, in São Paulo, as a student of professors Zilda Candida dos Santos and Armando Fava Filho. At the age of eighteen, after winning the Nelson Freire and the Magda Tagliaferro Piano Competitions, he moved to the USA to study with Flavio Varani at Oakland University (Michigan). In 2007, Ronaldo moved to Baltimore, where he attended the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Benjamin Pasternack. While at Peabody, he received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, as well as the prestigious Artist Diploma. Ronaldo Rolim is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Boris Berman.