MORI TRIO
The members of the Mori Trio got to know each other at the Cologne University of Music and founded their ensemble in 2013. At this point in time they were already able to point to remarkable solo successes in Europe and Asia, and played solo with outstanding orchestras or chamber music partners.
Their debut CD with Antonín Dvořák's piano trios op. 65 and op. 90, recorded in 2017, received excellent reviews from the BBC, Radio France, Vltava (Czech Radio) and other radio stations. The magazine Pizzicato applauded it as an “enriching Dvořák recording with an excellently arranged Mori Trio.” MusicWeb International commented: „These new accounts are gratifyingly played displaying excellent unity and intonation.” The French Clic Musique wrote: “The strings sound beautiful and expressive. The piano sings with finesse and discretion. ”And the French magazine ResMusica, accords it the highest praise by placing it in a series with the recordings of the trio Ax-Kim-Ma, the Beaux-Arts Trio and the Suk Trio.
The Mori Trio gives regularly chamber music master classes in Japan and in Germany.
They made their debut concert with the Triple Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven with the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen and conductor Johannes Klumpp.
A highlight in 2020 is the Beethoven ballet concert, a collaboration with legendary choreographer John Neumeier and his Hamburg Ballet Company.
The violinist and violist Werner von Schnitzler was born in Cologne in 1978. He studied with Igor Ozim in Cologne, Pinchas Zukerman in New York, and with Viktor Tretyakov, Antoine Tamestit (viola) and Harald Schoneweg (chamber music) in Cologne.
Engagements as solo violinist have taken Werner von Schnitzler to Israel, Asia and many European centres of music like Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Zurich (Tonhalle and Opera House), Munich (Philharmonie am Gasteig), Vienna (Konzerthaus and Musikvereinssaal), Cologne (Philharmonie), Stockholm (Koncerthus), Hamburg (Musikhalle), Birmingham (Symphony Hall), Frankfurt (Alte Oper) and Berlin (Schauspielhaus) to perform with such renowned orchestras as Camerata Salzburg, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dutch and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre National de Lyon, Sinfonia Varsovia, Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Hamburg Philharmonic, under the direction of Sándor Végh, Heinrich Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Gerd Albrecht, Hans Vonk, Edmond de Stoutz, Marcus Creed and Emmanuel Krivine. His chamber music partners have included Lars Vogt, Emmanuel Pahud, Alban Gerhardt, Pavel Gililov, Vasily Lobanov, Aleksandar Madzar and Dennis Russell Davies.
Werner von Schnitzler has won numerous first prizes at national and international competitions, including Germany’s nationwide youth competition “Jugend musiziert”, the Yfrah Neaman Competition in Mainz, the SNS Music Award on Dutch TV, the 2008 HRK Competition in Freiburg and the 2014 Carl Wendling Competition in Stuttgart. He has made numerous TV and radio recordings for German stations ARD and ZDF, Sender Freies Berlin, WDR, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Hessischer Rundfunk and SWR, Austria’s ORF, Radio de la Suisse Romande and for the Danish, Dutch, French and Slovenian television networks, documenting the wide-ranging repertoire of an artist who since 2007 has also increasingly performed as a viola soloist and chamber musician.
Werner von Schnitzler has been leader of the Schnitzler Quartet since 2010. April 2016 saw the release of his second CD “From my homeland. Czech Impressions” on the Ars Produktion label. It features works for violin and piano by Dvořák, Smetana, Martinů, Suk and Janáček and was acclaimed by the international music press. Werner von Schnitzler has been teaching since 2013 at the International Franz Liszt Academy in Cologne, and gives regular master classes, some of them in Japan.
The cellist Aiki Mori-von Schnitzler was born in Japan in 1988. She began playing the piano when she was six. At the age of eight, she discovered her love of the cello and began her tuition with renowned cellist Hakuro Mohri.
After just a few years she was attending master classes in Japan, Germany and France with Philippe Muller, Alexander Rudin, Young-Chang Cho and Wolfgang Boettcher.
When she was 15 years old she was accepted into the master class of Frans Helmerson at the College of Music and Dance in Cologne, gaining her diploma there in 2009. Her chamber playing benefited from the guidance of Harald Schoneweg, Rainer Moog, Anthony Spiri, Richard Gwilt and Pavel Gililov. She played in the York Höller farewell concert of 2008 at the Cologne College of Music. Further significant impetus for her artistic development came from Karine Georgian in London and Roland Pidoux in Paris.
Aiki Mori-von Schnitzler has distinguished herself at numerous leading competitions in Japan. She won first prize and the Grand Prix at the Japan Classical Music Competition and the Gold Prize at the Stars of Tomorrow Competition. In each of these competitions, she was the youngest prizewinner in the history of the event.
Her international concert schedule has taken the young artist to Germany, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland and Russia. She has accepted invitations to perform as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Chernigov (Ukraine), the Kaluga Chamber Orchestra (Russia) and the Anglo- Japanese Society of Wessex Ensemble (England).
Aiki Mori-von Schnitzler has performed as a chamber musician with such partners as Paul van Zelm and the leader and members of the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nagoya.
The cellist has been praised by critics for her “incomparable expressiveness”, her “wonderfully warm tone” and her “powerful playing”.
The pianist Asa Mori was born in Japan in 1981. She began learning the piano at six with Hideo Sugiura and Izumi Komoriya. Just a year later she took first prize at the Kohnan Music Competition and won first prize at the Japan Piano Teachers’ Association Audition, receiving the latter award as the youngest prizewinner. She has gained further prizes at various national and international events, including the Japan Classical Music Competition, the Nagoya International Music Competition and the Prix D’Amadeo Jeunesse. As a soloist, she has celebrated her debut with the State Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of Cracow.
Asa Mori attended the Toho Gakuen High
School for Music in Tokyo, completing her studies there in 2000 with distinction and playing in the university entrance concert in Tokyo’s renowned Casals Hall. She began her tertiary studies at the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo and transferred in 2002 to the College of Music and Dance in Cologne, where she was accepted into the master class of Pavel Gililov. She attained her diploma with distinction in 2008 and passed her concert examination in 2011. She has been
deepening her artistic expressiveness with the aid of the Alexander technique, in which she has had instruction from Nadia Kevan and Ron Murdock. She has gained further artistic insight from Halina Czerny-Stefańska and Ferenc Rados.
Asa Mori has given piano and chamber recitals at the Eurasia Cultural Association and at the “Villa Musica” Foundation of the Land of Rheinland-Pfalz. She has played with such artists as Christian Altenburger, Thomas Demenga and Klaus Thunemann. She has also been assisted by the “Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now” organisation. At other concerts she has worked with the celebrated Japanese composer Tokuhide Niimi. As a highly respected chamber musician, Asa Mori has also played in concert and at their invitation with the solo strings of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Asa Mori has guested at such festivals as the Ogaki Music Festival in Japan, the Amadeo Festival in the Netherlands and Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany. Concerts of hers have been broadcast by German radio stations including SWR and WDR. In addition to her concert performances, she has been teaching at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen since 2016 and since 2017 at the Toho-Gakuen University of Music in Tokyo.