CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Trio Mediaeval
Aquilonis
Part of Salon Encores.
Performers
Trio Mediaeval
·· Anna Maria Friman
·· Linn Andrea Fuglseth
·· Berit Opheim
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately one and one-half hours, including one 20-minute intermission.The Program
Bios
Trio Mediaeval
Anna Maria Friman
Linn Andrea Fuglseth
Berit Opheim
The brilliant Scandinavian singers of Trio Mediaeval have created a fascinating and unique
world of sound, which they portray with unerring virtuosity. Founded in 1997 in Oslo, Trio
Mediaeval has a specialized repertoire of ballads and songs from the Norwegian Middle Ages;
polyphonic music from medieval England, France, and Italy that the women arrange
themselves; and contemporary works written specifically for the ensemble.
The group has performed throughout Europe, giving concerts in such prestigious venues as
the Oslo Concert Hall, Bozar in Brussels, London's Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Brugge, and
Vienna Konzerthaus. Several engagements have also taken them outside of Europe, including
performances at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Carnegie Hall. Trio Mediaeval's first CD on
ECM Records, Words of the Angel, immediately reached the top 10 on
Billboard's classical albums chart in 2002. The album Folk Songs was
nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category. Their latest
CD, Aquilonis, was released in 2014 on ECM.
Collaborating with Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Ensemble Musikfabrik, Trio
Mediaeval premiered the oratorio Shelter--its biggest contemporary multimedia
music project to date--in Cologne in 2005; it was fully staged the same year at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music. Wolfe was so fascinated by the trio members' voices that she
wrote a piece for them entitled Steel Hammer. Together with Bang on a Can
All-Stars, Trio Mediaeval premiered Steel Hammer at Carnegie Hall in November
2009; four years later, they performed it in Belgium and Sweden, and at the Barbican Centre
in London. A recording of Steel Hammer was released by Cantaloupe Music in
April 2014.
In the 2016-2017 season, Trio Mediaeval premieres its Aquilonis program in
the United States, returning to Carnegie Hall, among other venues. The group also presents
Aquilonis on tour in the Netherlands. In addition, they are working on a new
recording with trumpeter Arve Henriksen entitled RÍMUR.