Ahn-Plugged

The Ahn Trio is a classical music group consisting of Korean-American sisters Angella Ahn, Lucia Ahn, and Maria Ahn. All three were born in Seoul, South Korea, first twins Maria and Lucia, then, two years later, Angella. They each took up the piano at a young age, but eventually Lucia stayed with the instrument, while Angella moved to violin and Maria to cello. They began playing in public in 1979, then moved to the U.S. and enrolled at Juilliard in 1981. A 1987 Time magazine story on "Asian-American Whiz Kids" brought them to national attention, leading to television appearances and more media coverage. By 1995, they were recording for Chesky Records, which released Paris Rio, an album of music by Villa-Lobos and Ravel, and concertizing, particularly, as of 1998, in the free-form, eclectic format they referred to as "Ahn-Plugged." Signing to EMI, they released Dvorak: Piano Trios, an album of music by Dvorák, Shostakovich, and Josef Suk, in 1999, and then Ahn-Plugged in June 2000. It included works by Kenji Bunch, Astor Piazzolla, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Ewazen, and Michael Nyman, and concluded with a version of the David Bowie/Pat Metheny hit "This Is Not America." Their fourth album, Groovebox, appeared on October 22, 2002, and featured works by Nyman, Piazzolla, Bunch, and Maurice Jarre, after beginning with the Doors' "Riders on the Storm." Their fifth album, Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, marked a move to Sony BMG Masterworks when it appeared on the RCA Red Seal label on April 1, 2008. ~ William Ruhlmann