About the Trio
Trio [k l a ŋ ʃ p ɛ k t r ʊ m] was founded in 2020 and the following year immediately won First Prize in the German Music Competition in the category “Ensemble for New Music” and the Special New Music Prize of the Ensemble Academy Freiburg as well as a scholarship from the Marie-Luise Imbusch Foundation Lübeck. The wide range of timbres of the three instruments – clarinet, cello and accordion – makes it possible for the young musicians to develop their own unmistakable tonal language. Although at first glance the instruments may not seem related, the wind, buttons and strings resonate beautifully together, allowing them to sound like one instrument while offering an inexhaustible range of tonal shadings. The ensemble focuses on the active artistic exploration of new performance techniques on each instrument, the exploration of new sounds, and the creation of new works for their combination of instruments in collaboration with young composers such as René Kuwan, Rachel C. Walker and Philipp Henkel.
The Trio has received important artistic impetus from Jens Thoben, Goran Stevanović, Max Riefer and Tatjana Prelevic, among others.
Since its formation, the Trio has been successful at national and international competitions and has won First Prizes at the Akkordeon-Musik-Preis competition held in Bruchsal, Germany and the Val Tidone International Music Competition in Italy.
In winter 2022, the debut CD "Breathe" was released on the Leipzig label GENUIN with works by Fagerlund, Rojko, Tiensuu, Goldmann, Kuwan and Katzer.
Paula Breland
Clarinet
Born in 1997, Paula Breland received earliest instruction on the clarinet at the age of 15 from Eddy Vergauwen. Only a year later she successfully took part in the nationwide “Jugend musiziert” Music Competition and became a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Youth Orchestra. She completed her studies with Johannes Peitz and Ulf-Guido Schäfer at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media with distinction. She is currently studying in Lübeck with the renowned clarinetist Jens Thoben. A native of the Rhineland, in 2016 she won a scholarship from the Hannover Region and shortly afterwards became a scholarship holder of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation Hannover. In 2020 she was awarded the Hannover Student Union Prize. In addition to her focus on chamber music, she has played the clarinet in orchestras such as the ensemble rauschkulisse, the Neue Philharmonie Hamburg and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Jennifer Aßmus
Cello
Born in 2001, Jennifer Aßmus started playing the cello at the age of five. She was initially taught by Konrad Haesler and later by Jan Hendrik Rübel. She regularly took part in the nationwide “Jugend musiziert” Music Competition with outstanding success and won seven prizes at the national level with the cello and her second instrument, the piano. She has performed concertos by Édouard Lalo and Antonín Dvořák as a soloist with various symphony orchestras. After initial appearances with a piano trio at the age of eight, as a cellist she began to focus on chamber music. Since then, she has performed in various chamber music ensembles. Together with her piano quintet she won a scholarship from the Lower Saxony Youth Music Foundation. This was followed by a recording of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, for the north German NDR broadcaster. Since October 2019 she has been studying the cello with Alexander Gebert at the University of Music in Detmold.
Anna-Katharina Schau
ACCORDION
Born in 1995, Anna-Katharina Schau began playing the accordion at the age of six after discovering the instrument during her early musical education. Her interest in contemporary music and new playing techniques led her to the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media, where she successfully earned a Master of Music degree in 2022. Important teachers in her musical development include Goran Stevanović, Matti Rantanen, Claudia Buder and Veli Kujala. In addition to the German Music Competition 2021, her competition successes also include First Place at the Akkordeon-Musik-Preis Competition in 2021. She received grants from the Hannover Region, the sponsors group of the Hannover University of Music, Theater and Media, the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation Hannover and Hamburg, and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.