Trio Egmont Founded in autumn 2019 by musicians based in Berlin and Leipzig, Trio Egmont combines historical awareness, radical freedom and a delicate sense of sound with an explosive joy of music making. In summer 2021, Trio Egmont won first prize at the first international competition “Beethoven in his time” for chamber music on historical instruments, winning also the special prize for an exceptional performance of a piece by Ferdinand Ries. The award also includes a new collaboration with the CD label NAXOS.From the jury’s remarks on the ensemble – “They meet the most difficult challenges with breathtaking ease. Normal categories such as technical ability, understanding of style, phrasing or expression – everything at the highest level. But above all, it was their virtuosic creativity that delighted the jury. Their exuberant enthusiasm for experimentation develops a seductive attraction and seduces even the music into dreaming. Should one be forced to limit oneself to just one point, it is their ability to make every single musical phrase exciting, interesting and unexpected for the listener.” Tickling the ivories on his beloved fortepianos, Gilad Katznelson particularly contributes to the free sense of tempo and the plasticity of the ensemble, inspired by his studies in Basel and Frankfurt, and by old, rare recordings dating back to the childhood of musical recording. His intuitive feeling for the nature of the fortepiano invites his fellow players and the audience to dream themselves far from the hectic reality of modern everyday life. The violinist Luiza Labouriau is characterised by a remarkably beautiful sound, freedom in musical communication, a great deal of fantasy and an unusual emotional depth in her playing. With her high energy and special stage presence, she wishes to continually reinvent the limits of what music can communicate and to discover new ways of delivering musical stories from the early baroque to contemporary artworks. The virtuoso cellist Martin Knörzer connects the players of the trio with one another through his unique feeling for musical communication, teamwork and balance. Through many years as a chamber musician, Martin has developed a special sensitivity for harmony musical rhetoric, and thereby opens the dams of inspiration to his fellow players and the audience. Martin Knörzer also loves to play concerts on modern and historical keyboard instruments from time to time.