Remember I-Sis Trio: Con Brio

If you think chamber music is boring, this trio of lovely, talented ladies will prove you horribly wrong.

They’re described as the new wave of classical chamber music. Armed with their individual musical strengths and sterling reputations, harpist Katryna Tan, violinist Cindy Yan and cellist Natasha Liu came together to form the girl group, I-Sis Trio last March. Their group is a unique collaboration of 55 strings. Besides being Singapore’s newest chamber group, they are the first of its kind in Asia.

They present and reinterpret classical pieces from Bach to Piazolla, movie music to jazz. Expect an interesting mix of talents that combine traditional art forms and different musical styles, resulting in a surprisingly contemporary twist.

Katryna Tan, who directed Harpfest 2008, attributes this to the fact that “the music we play is arranged by ourselves, not just some dead composer.” In 2005, she was awarded the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council of Singapore.

The trio transcribes all their own pieces as there are hardly any compositions arranged for the combination of instruments that they have. They meet twice a week to practice but for them, the hardest thing isn’t practicing the pieces – it’s thinking up names for their works and concerts.

They have come up with Con Brio for their last showcase, Italian for “with vigour”, capturing exactly the spirit of their music.

Cindy Yan is the brains behind the repertoire. She says that she likes “to challenge (the others) to push our instruments to the limits and for us to improvise, showing what our instruments can do.”

All trained in classical music, they are now stepping up to the challenge of changing the common misconception that chamber music is boring. The trio constantly comes up with something new for their repertoire, which isn’t limited to classical music. Though they haven’t been trained formally outside of classical music, they do have some jazz pieces, and aspire to play music pieces of many genres.

The 3 professional musicians met while working on The King And I in 2006. They found themselves thoroughly enjoying playing with one another and I-Sis Trio was formed. The name Isis plays on the name of the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility, also referring to their 3 instruments being sisters in the string family.

They delivered successful full house performances in Singapore and Hong Kong last year, and have more tours lined up in other Asian countries this year. We don’t have any specifics, as Katryna wouldn’t let us in on their next piece of work. “You’ll have to find out,” she says, but there’s definitely something to look forward to soon. To date, they have released one DVD, I-Sis Trio.