A culminating performance of a weeklong interdisciplinary Visiting Artist residency that brings together classical chamber music, composition, choreography and contemporary dance. Trio Phōs’ project, The Sound of Connection, celebrates community, empathy and intergenerational relationships through the stories of older adults.
The show interweaves dance and aural histories collected over the course of the past year with the music of Brahms, John Bull, Karim Al-Zand, and a commissioned work by Shih-Hui Chen. Chen’s work, Our Stories, Our Songs, was commissioned for this project and inspired by music and conversations between Trio Phōs members and participants from Older Adult Community Centers in NYC.
This project is supported by a Visiting Artist Residency Grant through the Office of Academic Affairs.
Meet the Artists
Trio Phōs
- Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet
- Julia Yang, cello
- Sophiko Simsive, piano
A recipient of the 2024 New World Symphony BLUE Grant at The Ohio State University for its project The Sound of Connection, Trio Phōs is a fresh collaboration between clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg, cellist Julia Yang, and pianist Sophiko Simsive. The musicians are sought-after performers and core members of acclaimed and internationally prize-winning ensembles, including the Merz Trio and the Claremont Trio, alumni of Ensemble Connect and New World Symphony, and have performed across the globe at festivals such as Marlboro, Tippet Rise, Verbier and Yellow Barn.
In its first season, the Trio has garnered $35k of grant support for its project, The Sound of Connection, a celebration of community, empathy and intergenerational understanding through music, building relationships with—and listening to the stories of—elders across New York City. Alongside the New World Symphony BLUE Grant, Trio Phōs received a 2025 Visiting Artists Residency Grant at The Ohio State University to begin collaborations with dancers and choreographers as well as composer Shih-hui Chen for the second, multidisciplinary stage of its project (learn more here).
Its name Phōs, from the Greek word φῶς for “light” and “firelight”, implies the ensemble’s stir to light up its own corner of the chamber music world through virtuosic programming, exciting commissions, and highly innovative collaborations and projects.
Composer
Recipient of the 2023 Walter Hinrichsen Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Taiwanese-American composer Shih-Hui Chen is fascinated by the narratives at the intersection of identity, culture, and tradition. In her works, she seeks to cross boundaries between music and society, between the music of distinct cultures, and between music and other art forms. Recognition of her work has come from institutions that include: American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, and Fulbright Scholar Program. Chen’s compositions have brought her into contact with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Her recent projects include a thirty-minute, multimedia cello concerto, Our Son Is Not Coming Home To Dinner; a sixty-minute, mixed-media viola concerto sisila ila ila: saying goodbye, which includes shadow puppets; and a seventy-minute cross-genre theatrical work Kimchi, Pickles and Wine.
Shih-Hui Chen currently serves on the Performing Arts and Culture committee at Asia Society Texas Center and is on faculty at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. Her music can be heard on Albany, New World and Bridge Records. shihhuichen.com
Dancers from Perennial Movement Group
- Maureen H Clark
- Leslie Cohen
- Jill D’Antignac
- David Jon Krohn
- Kathy Steinman
- Kenneth Vail
Ohio State Choreographers
- Crystal Michelle Perkins, Associate Professor of Dance
- Zoey November, MFA candidate