The Syrius Piano Trio is fast making an impression on the international stage after winning a place on Music Network Ireland's Young Musicwide Scheme in 2006, following which the trio performed an all Shostakovich programme on tour in Ireland and at the Weill Hall at Carnegie in New York.

The trio, comprising of three young exciting talents formed two years ago. Bobby Chen, piano and Elizabeth Cooney, violin both studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music respectively. Jane Cords-O'Hara, cello, studied at the Royal Northern College Manchester before moving to New York where she is now based.

All three are keen and active chamber musicians and share a particular enthusiasm for the advocacy of new music, particularly the works of Irish composers. In summer 2008 the trio is due to record a disc of composer Ben Dwyer's piano trios, commissioned especially for the trio. They also look forward to premiering his work at a contemporary music festival in Brazil in autumn 2008.

Described by Martin Lovett of the Amadeus Quartet as extraordinarily gifted, spotted by Tully Potter of The Strad as a talent to watch, and credited for her remarkable virtuosity by the Sunday Tribune on the release of her debut CD, Elizabeth Cooney has emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic young artists of her generation. Selected as the National Concert Hall Ireland's Rising Star 2006, she is laureate of numerous international violin competitions. Concerto performances have brought collaborations with conductors Paavo Jarvi, Laurent Wagner, Shlomo Mintz, and Alexander Anissimov. Elizabeth's performances at the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Victoria Hall, Geneva and the Weill Hall at Carnegie in New York have been highly critically acclaimed.

2008 highlights will include the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and performing Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time at the Brighton Festival in May with pianist Finghin Collins, clarinetist Carol McGonnell, and cellist Antoine Lederlin, as well as a recent work by Ian Wilson narrated by Gavin Friday. Elizabeth will perform Dvorak's Violin Concerto on tour with the National Symphony Orchestra in November and will give recitals in Ireland and throughout Europe with pianist Matthew Schellhorn. The Syrius Trio, of which she is leader, will perform in Brazil in September, where she will premiere a new work for solo violin written for her by Greg Caffrey.

In April 2010 The Syrius Trio released their CD for Toccata Classics of Piano Trios 1-3 by German composer Salomon Jadassohn.

'The Syrius Trio play it with an unfailingly graceful and light touch that seems sure to endear these pieces to music lovers with a sweet tooth.'

Michael Dervan, The Ticket, The Irish Times, April 23,2010

Elizabeth has given recitals at the Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford, Canterbury, Edinburgh and West Cork Chamber Music Festivals. Chamber music partners have included John O'Conor, Barry Douglas, Huw Watkins (in the Sans Souci Piano Trio with Gabriella Swallow, premiering Mark Anthony Turnage's piano trio A Fast Stomp and recording it live for BBC Radio 3 programme Hear and Now), Daniel Hill, Martin Cousin, Viv McLean. Last year Elizabeth released her first CD for Tzar Records consisting of works by Brahms, the Schumanns and Wieniawski. She also features on Redmond O'Toole's recently released disc for Bornheim Classics performing Rodrigo with Brahms guitar.

Elizabeth leads the Syrius Piano Trio, recently selected for the Music Network Young MusicWide programme for promotion over the next three years. The Trio made their debut at the Weill Hall at Carnegie in New York in autumn 2006 performing works by Shostakovich; they recently premiered Benjamin Dwyer's specially commissioned work and will continue to explore works by contemporary composers.
In 2002 Elizabeth won second prize, the audience prize and the award for best interpretation of the compulsory piece at the Sion-Valais International Competition for Violin in Switzerland. Her performance of the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1 with the Slovenian Philharmonic at the Victoria Hall, Geneva, established her as an exciting young talent and she was subsequently invited back to record a CD of Vivaldi concerti with the Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Hungary and Shlomo Mintz. She has performed as soloist many times with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and featured on The Symphony Sessions for RTÉ TV in summer 2007. She has also recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and was invited to perform Bizet/Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy with them for the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert for the National Concert Hall of Ireland.

Elizabeth studied violin with Adrian Petcu at the Cork School of Music in Ireland. Having won all the major prizes and awards in her home country, including the Strings Final of the RTÉ Millennium Musician of the Future Competition, she studied with Itzhak Rashkovsky on scholarship at the Royal College of Music London. While there she won the Seymour Whinyates Prize for Strings, the Ian Stoutzker Award for Violin and the Bernard Stevens Prize for Chamber Music. She gained 98% at the RCM for her Postgraduate Final Recital performing Beethoven and Prokofiev. She won numerous awards from the Maisie Lewis Trust, the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Martin Musical Fund and the Royal Overseas League Competition as well as support from the Arts Council of Ireland. She held both the Mills Williams and the Phoebe Benham Junior Fellowships at the RCM London for two years.

A member of Camerata Ireland, (director, Barry Douglas) Elizabeth also performs in a duo with violinist Ioana Petcu Colan, bringing rarely heard works to the public including pieces by Ysaye, Schnittke, Alard and Martinu. She had a 9-concert Irish tour with guitarist Redmond O'Toole toured 6 performances with pianist Finghin Collins in the Church Classics series in 2007.
Elizabeth plays a violin made in Venice in 1700 by Matteo Goffrilla.

New York City based Irish cellist Jane Cords-O'Hara has performed extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the United States. Concerto appearances have been with Philomusica of Gloucester (Elgar concerto) and the Hibernian Orchestra (Saint-Saens and Haydn D major concerti). As a recitalist, she has played at such venues as the National Concert Hall, Dublin, the Goethe Institute, Dublin and New York, and the Irish Consulate in Brussels. In 2005 she was awarded a Special Presentation Award from Artists International in New York. As a result she was presented in her New York Debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in March 2006.

Jane was the Performing Arts Foundation Artist-in-Residence at International House, New York, for the 2004-2005 season, a position that lead to numerous solo and collaborative performances. Other awards received include the Sir John Barbirolli and Amy Lindley prizes for cello, and the Malcolm Arnold Award for chamber music (RNCM awards).

An avid chamber musician, Jane has performed regularly at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and at numerous festivals in the UK. Recent performances in New York have been at Weill Recital Hall, New York Historical Society, Deutsche Verein, French Consulate, Oyster Bay Beethoven Festival, Merkin Hall, Yamaha Music Studios, Angel Orensanz Center, Columbia University's Miller Theater, The Stone, Symphony Space, Brooklyn Lyceum, MOBIA and at Barge Music in Brooklyn. She tours regularly with the Syrius Trio in Ireland. In September 2004, she was selected to participate in Carnegie Hall's Tradition and Innovation workshop with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, which culminated in five performances at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, and Carnegie's Zankel Hall.

Other festivals attended include the International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove (2000, 2004 and 2006), London Masterclasses, Conservatoire Americaine at Fontainebleau and Holland Music Sessions. She was selected to play in masterclasses at both the RNCM International Cello Festival and the World Cello Congress III.

Jane plays regularly with the conductorless Knights String Orchestra, with members of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble . Recent performances have been at Bargemusic, MATA festival and Symphony Space. In December 2007 they made their Carnegie Hall debut to huge critical acclaim before embarking on their first international tour to Ireland, playing at the National Gallery as part of the Music for Museums concert series. Future tours include a residency in Dresden, Germany, in May '09. They have worked with such musicians as flutist Paula Robison, cellist Jan Vogler and continue an ongoing relationship with fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor.

Jane has also recently toured the US with SONYC, another New York based conductorless string orchestra. Performances took place in Florida, Mississippi, Connecticut and Virginia in March 2008.

A keen explorer of new music, Jane enjoys collaborating with several composer's collectives in New York, including Columbia Composers and Wet Ink. She has also performed and recorded with Argento, and with them worked with IRCAM. The Syrius trio continues its relationship with Irish composer Ben Dwyer. They recently premiered his Praeludium and Passacaille (which was written for them) at several venues in Ireland, and look forward to performances at the Musica Nova contemporary music festival in September 2008.

Jane enjoys performing and recording with non-classical artists too! Recent work has been with Kanye West on Saturday Night Live!, singer/songwriter Christina Courtin, guitarist Kaki King and Sufjan Stevens, with whom she was part of the premier of his BQE composition at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Jane studied with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She moved to New York in 2002 to study on scholarship with the world renowned Timothy Eddy at Mannes College of Music.

One of the most respected young artists of his generation, Bobby Chen, born in Sandakan, Malaysia, burst on the scene in 1996 with a sensational season of concerts, which included a British tour with Lord Menuhin in a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto and a recital at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank Prokofiev Festival.
Since then, regular appearances in mainstream London and British venues such as Bridgewater Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall as well as venues in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Europe have contributed to Chen's remarkably fast rise as a household name in Britain and the Far East.

Ruth Nye, who nurtured his precocious talent in 1991 at the Yehudi Menuhin School, brought him to the Royal Academy of Music where Chen also worked with Hamish Milne.
During his four-year spell there, Chen won no fewer than eight coveted awards, noticeably that for 'Best Final Recital'. He was also awarded numerous scholarships including the prestigious 'Yamaha European Foundation Scholarship' and 'Royal Overseas League Prize', which enabled him to collaborate with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Fanny Waterman, John Lill, Charles Rosen, Nikolai Demidenko and Krystian Zimerman.

His highly successful concerto début in 1998 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra playing Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations led to collaboration with conductors Maximiliano Valdes, Lan Shui, Sir Neville Marriner, Lord Menuhin and several orchestras including the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Warsaw Sinfonia and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has since travelled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan, the USA and most of Europe.

In Kuala Lumpur, his performance at the Petronas Towers of Beethoven's first Piano Concerto with Sir Marriner was so warmly received, he was asked to return for a series of recitals in the country and concerto performances with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003. That same year saw the release of the acclaimed 'Live at the Wigmore Hall' recording for the Jaques Samuel label with which he previously recorded a solo CD of works by Haydn, Liszt, Schubert and Stravinsky.

Chen also recorded for the 'Cello Classics' label with cellist Leonid Gorokhov and broadcasted on Classic FM.
Recent highlights include Bobby Chen's return to Malaysia for performances of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under Matthias Bamert, solo recitals in central London, appearance at the London Chamber Music Festival, appearance with London Sinfonietta at Cadogan Hall, broadcasts for the Radio Television Hong Kong and PianoForte Chicago (USA), concerto appearance in the USA, concert appearances and masterclasses in Sweden as well as recitals and adjudications in Malaysia.

Bobby will also be giving world premieres of a concerto and a solo piano work written especially for him

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to listen to the Debut CD of The Syrius Trio" performing Salomon Jadassohn and to find out where you can buy the CD