Trio Hélios: Bohemia, Smetana, Shostakovich and Novak

TRIO HELIOS

• Raphaël Jouan cello
• Eva Zavaro violin
• Alexis Gournel piano

PROGRAMME

Vítězslav Novák: Piano Trio No. 2 Op. 27 "Quasi una ballata

Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8

Bedrich Smetana: Piano trio in G minor op. 15

Trio Hélios was born in 2014 out of a shared passion among three friends for the eclectic world of the piano trio repertoire. Eva Zavaro (violin), Raphaël Jouan (cello) and Alexis Gournel (piano) form an ensemble that has established itself over the years on French and international stages.

Based in Paris, the trio performs in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Salle Cortot, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and the Phoenix Hall in Osaka, and is a regular guest at festivals such as the Festival d'Auvers-sur-Oise, the Rencontres Musicales d'Evian, the Festival des Arcs, the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, the Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron and the Folle Journée in Nantes, Warsaw and Tokyo. He has performed Beethoven's Triple Concerto on several occasions in Paris, Rennes, Lyon and Metz.

The Trio Hélios has won numerous international competitions, including second prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition (2019), second prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition (2018), the Kammermusikpreis at the ISA Festival in Reichenau, Austria (2019), and the Franz Liszt Special Prize at the Joseph Joachim Competition in Weimar (2019). In 2024 they were awarded the Kammermusikpreis Hasselburg by the Stahlberg Foundation.

"D'un matin de printemps", their critically acclaimed debut album featuring works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Lili Boulanger, was released in 2021 on the Mirare label. Their second album, 'Bohemia', featuring works by Czech composers Smetana, Novàk and Fibich, was released in 2023 and was awarded a CHOC by Classica magazine.

A graduate of the CNSMD in Paris (master & perfectionnement), the Trio Hélios has regularly benefited from the advice of such luminaries as the Trio Wanderer, the Ebène, Talich and Modigliani quartets, Claire Désert, François Salque and Emmanuel Strosser. It is also an alumni ensemble of the ECMA - European Chamber Music Academy - and has studied with such masters as Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Patrick Jüdt and Avedis Kouyoumdjian.

Trio Hélios is represented by Agence Claire Laballery. It is also an ensemble in residence at the Fondation Singer-Polignac. Eva plays on an Italian violin known as "Le bel Inconnu", combining work by Nicolo Amati with that of Antonio Stradivari, which is kindly on loan to her. Raphaël plays a cello by Matteo Goffriller (Venice, 1700-1710) that belonged to Antonio Meneses, and a Lamy Fils bow provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.