Chamber Music in Yellow Springs is proud to announce the two finalists of their 41th Annual Competition for Emerging Ensembles: Trio Timia and Trio Caspar. Theses ensembles, selected by a panel of professionals, will each perform for one half of the concert on April 26th at the First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs.
The competition is one of the signature programs of the all-volunteer non-profit, and is designed to recognize and support new talent. Following the April 26 concert, three judges will choose the winners of the $4,000 first prize and the $3,000 second prize. While they decide, CMYS will conduct a poll for the $500 Audience Favorite Prize.
Trio Timia
Rooted in sincerity and creative collaboration, Trio Timia unites three musicians whose artistry is defined by openness, imagination, and expressive depth. Formed in Montréal, the trio takes its name from the Greek word timia—meaning “truth” and “honesty”—as well as a playful echo of the Korean phrase “we are a team.”
Winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (3rd Prize, 2025), the ensemble has already established a distinctive voice within North America’s chamber music scene. This season, Trio Timia will work in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, premiering a new piano trio by Canadian composer Yejin Kwon as part of their project “Second Attempts: Music of Persistence in Exile, Recovery, and Transformation.”
From its inception, the trio has embraced a shared artistic vision rooted in honesty, sensitivity, and profound musicality, striving to bring fresh and meaningful interpretations to the chamber music repertoire. Since forming, Trio Timia has worked with a distinguished roster of mentors — André Laplante, Jinjoo Cho, Jean Marchand, Guillaume Sutre, and Elizabeth Dolin.The ensemble is coached by violinist and pedagogue Violaine Melançon at the Schulich School of Music. This summer, the trio attended the Lunenburg Music Academy in the class of cellist Steven Isserlis as well as the Flaine Music Academy in France with a fellowship supported by Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (Aida Fund).
Trio Caspar
The first group to be named as the Colburn Conservatory’s inaugural Honors Chamber Music Ensemble, Trio Caspar is an innovative union of three individual voices. Founded in 2024 by clarinetist Andrea Caputo, violinist Jason Moon, and pianist Bogang Hwang. Trio Caspar aims to bring a fresh perspective of the highest standard to chamber works that are less frequently performed.
The name pays homage to the German painter Caspar David Friedrich, whose exploration of the complexity of individualism inspires the trio’s distinctive
sound. 2025-26 season highlights include a debut recital at the Colburn Conservatory and a performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time alongside cellist Gary HoPman.
Trio Caspar is proudly mentored by Colburn faculty members Jonathan Brown, Yehuda Gilad, Fabio Bidini, and Martin Beaver.
Since the first Competition in 1985, we have retained a focus widely recognized to be unique among chamber music competitions. The Competition, as a companion part of a well-established chamber music concert series, intends to foster the development of new chamber music ensembles. Promoting new groups as performing ensembles is an essential part of our goal of sustaining chamber music concert series like ours. Competitors must perform a 30-minute program of their own choosing, an unedited video-recorded performance, and with all the same ensemble members. Recordings made during the last three years are permissible as long as the video recordings were made with the current ensemble members. Finalists often remark that they greatly appreciate being able to perform music they select rather than being judged on comparative performances of standard repertoire. In this way, we believe we are able to hear our Finalists at their best. Seeking to recognize the best new ensembles with a likelihood of having careers as professionals, our Competition has featured ensembles of differing instrumentation in the majority of our 40 competitions. This approach has proven to be successful with over 50% of our Finalist ensembles still performing today. We look forward to receiving your entry materials and to selecting this year’s Competition Finalists.
For questions regarding the competition, please contact the competition chair, Linda Menz, lindamenz@gmail.com.
To keep up with the latest information, follow us on our competition Facebook page
First Prize – $4,000
Second Prize – $3,000
People’s Choice Award – $500