trio khnopff
United by the spirit of a Belgian symbolist painter whose exceptional work bears witness to the vitality of art in Brussels at the turn of the 20th century, Sadie Fields, Stephanie Salmin and Romain Dhainaut share their formidable experience and creativity to present innovative programmes with enthusiasm and commitment.
Trained in the most prestigious European academies (Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, Royal Academy of Music London, the Berne, Mons, and Brussels Conservatoires) and holders of numerous prizes and awards, they individually lead rich careers, performing around the world and recording a wide variety of solo and chamber music repertoire. Their shared curiosity, passion, and dedication to music was clear very soon after they met in 2014, and this innate musical complicity allows Trio Khnopff to explore the possibilities and push the emotional and technical boundaries of the piano trio medium.
Free spirited and avant-garde, resolutely modern and uncompromising, Khnopff left a legacy of paintings of incomparable seductiveness: mysterious portraits, melancholy landscapes, and indecipherable mysteries. Music - or silence - often holds a special place. His career spanned the years 1880 to the 1920, an epoch of great artistic experimentation and adventure. Beyond their extensive knowledge of the "great repertoire", Trio Khnopff is passionate about presenting works of this period, creating a dialogue between more famous works and those that have been unfairly forgotten by history. They regularly play Weinberg, Frank Martin, Krenek, Lajtha, Jongen, Saint-Saens... alongside Brahms, Dvorak, or Piazzolla.
The trio performs frequently in festivals and concert series in Belgium, and is regularly invited to play abroad.
Their first album, "Resilience", presenting the works of Weinberg, Lajtha, and Krenek, will be released in 2019.
Trained in the most prestigious European academies (Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, Royal Academy of Music London, the Berne, Mons, and Brussels Conservatoires) and holders of numerous prizes and awards, they individually lead rich careers, performing around the world and recording a wide variety of solo and chamber music repertoire. Their shared curiosity, passion, and dedication to music was clear very soon after they met in 2014, and this innate musical complicity allows Trio Khnopff to explore the possibilities and push the emotional and technical boundaries of the piano trio medium.
Free spirited and avant-garde, resolutely modern and uncompromising, Khnopff left a legacy of paintings of incomparable seductiveness: mysterious portraits, melancholy landscapes, and indecipherable mysteries. Music - or silence - often holds a special place. His career spanned the years 1880 to the 1920, an epoch of great artistic experimentation and adventure. Beyond their extensive knowledge of the "great repertoire", Trio Khnopff is passionate about presenting works of this period, creating a dialogue between more famous works and those that have been unfairly forgotten by history. They regularly play Weinberg, Frank Martin, Krenek, Lajtha, Jongen, Saint-Saens... alongside Brahms, Dvorak, or Piazzolla.
The trio performs frequently in festivals and concert series in Belgium, and is regularly invited to play abroad.
Their first album, "Resilience", presenting the works of Weinberg, Lajtha, and Krenek, will be released in 2019.
The musicians
Stéphanie Salmin was born in 1982. She studied piano with Dalia Ouziel and Aleksandar Madzar. She got her piano High Diploma with highest distinction in Royal Conservatory of Mons; she graduated from the Queen Elisabeth Music College where she met and worked with Maestros such as: David Lively, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Brigitte Engerer, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Menahem Pressler, Boyan Vodenitcharov, Michel Béroff, Fou T'Song, Piotr Anderszewsk, amongst others. In 2006 and 2008, she was awarded Concert and Soloist diplomas at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern in Switzerland.
Stephanie is 1st prize winner of different competitions: 1996: Grand Concours International de Piano (Paris); 1997: Concours Jeune Talent (Mannage); 1998: Concours André Dumortier (Leuze); 1999: Concours Belfius Classics (Bruxelles); 2000: Concours Excellentia (Bruxelles). In 2002: Namuroise de l'année and in 2004: she won the Fonds Thirionet prize. She has played with the Flemish Radio Orchestra, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, the Sturm und Klang Orchestra, the Namur Symphony Orchestra, the Orchetra of Royal Conservatory of Mons and also with the English orchestra Academy of St Martin in The Fields, the European orchestra l'Orchestre des Musiciens d'Europe, and the Berner Symphony orchestra. In recital, Stephanie performs in countries including Switzerland, France, Portugal, Italy, Korea, Germany, and Poland. She has recorded for Belgian Radio and TV. Stephanie Salmin is a piano teacher in Namur Conservatory and at I.M.E.P. In 2007, she created an association, Cavatine, that organizes classical concerts in Namur and she also founded the Namur Chamber Orchestra. For several years, she has been playing in concerts with her husband, Pierre Solot, in piano four hands- two pianos (Duo Solot). They won in 2010 a 3rd prize at The International Piano Four Hands Competition in Valberg (France) and they recorded a CD of Rossini opera transcriptions for Pavane Records. |
Young Belgian cellist Romain Dhainaut performs recitals throughout Europe and on four continents. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Festival Contrastes in Tournai. He has received numerous awards and has shared the stage with important musical personalities such as Maxim Vengerov, Sir Simon Rattle and Trevor Pinnock.
Born in Tournai, Romain Dhainaut started learning the cello in his hometown with Christiane Diricq. He then studied with Didier Poskin at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He went on to study at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag with Harro Ruijsenaars and at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Mats Lidström. In June 2012, he was awarded a DipRAM, a special diploma awarded by the Royal Academy of Music to its best students. He also participated in masterclasses with Edmond Baert, Gustav Rivinius, Truls Mork Steven Doane, Peter Brown, Colin Carr and Frans Helmerson. Roman has appeared as soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Orchestra of Wallonia, Brussels and Ensemble Orchestral de la Chapelle Musicale de Tournai. Festival performances include the King's Place Festival, the Norwich and Norfolk Festival, Den Haag Muziek Drie daagse, the Cello Festival Alfredo Piatti in Bergamo, the Servais-Concerten Halle, and Concerts Astoria in Brussels. In 2011, Romain was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at the BBC Proms playing music by Kevin Volans. He was chosen to represent the Royal Academy of Music at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles in 2012, and the same year, he performed as soloist in Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante with the famous Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov. Romain is an active chamber musician. He has been a Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, and he recorded the chamber version of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony under the direction of Trevor Pinnock for Linn Records in May 2013. Among the numerous awards that have been awarded to him are the First Prize at Dexia Axion Classic competition, the Fock-Medaille best recital 2010 all disciplines at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag and the Belgian Vocation Foundation Prize. |
Canadian/British violinist Sadie Fields enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber musician, and writer. Sadie discovered the violin at the age of seven when her primary school went to see the famous Axelrod collection of Stradivarius violins. Her talent was quickly apparent, and she began concertizing at an early age. Sadie performs across North America, the UK, and continental Europe, and her concerts have also brought her further afield, including to the Middle East, Asia, and New Zealand. Sadie indulges her love of chamber music at festivals around Europe and at IMS Prussia Cove, and both her solo and chamber music repertoire is extensive and diverse.
Sadie broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio New Zealand, NDR (Germany), Swedish radio, and Musiq’3 (Belgium), amongst others. As a recording artist, she has recorded extensively for BIS Records with the Swedish ensemble Camerata Nordica, and has released two discs with Champs Hill Records. The first, a disc of Mendelssohn chamber music, was chosen as BBC Music Magazine’s Editor’s Choice and ‘Chamber Disc of the Month’ for September 2014, and was also ‘Chamber Music Disc of the Quarter’ by the German Record Critics’ Award Association (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik). Sadie’s second disc for Champs Hill is the complete Brahms Sonatas with pianist Jeremy Young, released in May 2015 to critical acclaim. Sadie holds a PhD from the Royal Academy of Music (2015). Her practice-led doctoral research addresses practical and philosophical ideas associated with the concepts of learning and ‘tradition’, focusing on her own engagement with Bartók’s violin writing. Sadie has won awards from over twenty UK and international associations, and has been a Leverhulme Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music and the Edison Visiting Fellow at the British Library. Principal teachers include György Pauk, Yair Kless, and Atis Bankas, and Sadie has also been guided and mentored by Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, and Ferenc Rados. As a teacher herself, Sadie teaches violin and chamber music, and she has given masterclasses at conservatoires and universities in China and the UK. |
the instruments
By uncanny luck, both Sadie and Romain play on instruments by the Ghent luthier Hendrick Willems II, made between 1700 and 1740. Willems crafted beautiful instruments based on early 17th century Cremonese models, and both of these instruments were featured at an exhibit presented by Maison Bernard on the occasion of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium.
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