Trio Accanto on wergo

The trio was originally founded in 1994 by Yukiko Sugawara (piano), Marcus Weiss (saxophone), and Christian Dierstein (percussion). From 2013 to 2025, the pianist of the ensemble was Nicolas Hodges. Since 2025, Stefan Wirth has joined the group as pianist. 

Chamber music ensemble with rarity scoring 

This group of three soloists bound together by a unique approach to chamber music has been praised for its “mastery” and “world-class interpretations”. The scoring of saxophone, piano and percussion is common in jazz, but was a rarity in classical music (leading to the description “a jazz trio that does not play jazz”) until Trio Accanto turned this situation around, stimulating nearly one hundred composers to write new works over the years. Major figures such as Mark Andre, Georges Aperghis, Aldo Clementi, Michael Finnissy, Vinko Globokar, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann, Brice Pauset, Rolf Riehm, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Martin Smolka, Christian Wolff and Walter Zimmermann have contributed to the trio's repertoire, along with a substantial list of younger composers from around the world. A rigorous and increasingly broad-ranging programme of commissions continues. 

Trio Accanto has performed at festivals in Donaueschingen, Witten, Darmstadt, Hanover, Cologne, Munich, Freiburg, Huddersfield, Basel and Saarbrucken, as well as at Éclat (Stuttgart), Munich Biennale, MaerzMusik (Berlin), Salzburg Festival, Wien Modern, Tage für Neue Musik (Zurich), and further afield in Madrid, Seville, Chicago, Viitasaari (Finland) and at the Takefu Festival (Japan). 

Recordings on Wergo 

Among others, the trio’s recorded projects include Funambules, featuring music by Georges Aperghis, Rolf Riehm, Johannes Schöllhorn and Stefan Prins, Songs and Poems with works by Aldo Clementi, Andreas Dohmen, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans Thomalla and Walter Zimmermann, Other Stories, presenting music by Helmut Lachenmann, Martin Schüttler, Yu Kuwabara, Martin Smolka and Michael Finnissy, as well as Trio IX and Exercises, devoted to music by Christian Wolff. out into the open represents the final project of Trio Accanto with Nicolas Hodges, piano.