Celebrating Dignity, Rights, Contribution of Women

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Expanding our Mind Series

For those of you (the men - Cambodian and foreigners alike) who are only used to seeing Asian women as a slab of flesh, take this! Power to the Asian women! Power to Cambodian women! Power to the Ahn Trio! For your listening pleasure... absolutely amazing!

The three Ahn sisters (cellist Maria, pianist Lucia, violinist Angella) breathe new life into the piano trio with their passionate musicmaking. At TEDWomen, they start with the bright and poppy "Skylife," by David Balakrishnan, then play a gorgeous, slinky version of "Oblivion," by Astor Piazzolla.

Why you should listen to her:

Born in Seoul, Korea, and educated at Juilliard, cellist Maria, pianist Lucia, and violinist Angella Ahn are breathing new life into the standard piano-trio literature. They’ve commissioned works from visionary composers such as Michael Nyman, Maurice Jarre, Pat Metheny, Paul Schoenfield, Mark O’Connor, Kenji Bunch, Nikolai Kapustin and Paul Chihara. The trio’s latest CD is Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, a showcase of this vibrant and original music. The trio has been touring for a decade, and have made six albums so far, five for major labels; for Lullaby, the trio formed their own production company, L.A.M.P. (Lucia Angella Maria Productions) to self-produce.

The Ahn Trio has fused their work with that of dancers, pop singers, DJs, painters, installation artists, photographers, lighting designers, ecologists and even kite makers; recently, they performed in the Czech Republic with rock group the Tata Bojs to sold-out shows.

"Their willingness to play new music at such a high level is an inspiring and exciting quality that will continue to define the unique spot that they are carving for themselves in the music world. "

Pat Metheny