The twice-Grammy-nominated, Billboard-charting Lincoln Trio – violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian – surveys works by five of Chicago’s most highly lauded contemporary composers on an album that features three world-premiere recordings. The Lincoln Trio’s hometown heroes in this project are Shawn E. Okpebholo, Augusta Read Thomas, Shulamit Ran, Mischa Zupko, and Stacy Garrop.

Okpebholo’s music has been described as “devastatingly beautiful” and “fresh and new and fearless” (Washington Post). His three-movement city beautiful, a world-premiere recording, evokes the distinctive Chicago architecture of Jeanne Gang’s wavy, water-inspired Aqua skyscraper; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School masterpiece, the Frederick C. Robie House; and Daniel Burnham’s Beaux-Arts Union Station.

Recipient of many awards and honours, Augusta Read Thomas is “a true virtuoso composer” (The New Yorker). Her vibrant, multicoloured …a circle around the sun… gives each instrument, by turns, a “starring” role in the centre of a compact musical solar system.

In addition to receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1991, Ran has received almost every major honour a U.S. composer can earn. Her Soliloquy, depicting unrequited love, is based on a musical fragment from her first opera, Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk), with the violin serving as its emotional centre.

Zupko’s music has earned kudos from The New York Times, Classical Voice North America, the Chicago Tribune, and other major publications and has been championed, commissioned, and premiered by leading U.S. orchestras and chamber groups. His celebratory Fanfare 80, a world-premiere recording, opens with the hallmarks of a classic fanfare, with “antiphonal volleys” among the instruments and occasional “savage dance-like” passages from the piano.

“One of Chicago’s most keenly sensitive composers” (Chicago Tribune), Garrop is also among the busiest. Recent commissions include works for The Crossing, Grant Park Orchestra, and St Louis Symphony. Her Sanctuary, another world-premiere recording, is a deeply personal tribute to her late father. The music evokes a child’s lonely search for memories of a lost parent, followed by the joy and solemnity of a father-daughter reunion.

The Chicago-based Lincoln Trio’s Cedille Records discography includes four critically acclaimed full-length albums. Most recently, Trios from the City of Big Shoulders, released in 2021, debuted at No.7 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart. ClassicsToday.com awarded the album its highest rating, a 10/10 for artistic and sound quality. Trios from Our Homelands, released in 2016, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. The group also performed on the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of James Whitbourn’s Annelies.

Trios from Contemporary Chicago was recorded by the Grammy-winning team of producer James Ginsburg and engineer Bill Maylone.