Trio Fadolín

Sabina Torosjan, violin; Ljova, fadolín, Valeriya Sholokhova, cello

About the program:

Trio Fadolín performs an eclectic repertoire from around the world and across the ages, featuring music from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Latin-inspired grooves and much more, all featuring the fadolín, a unique string instrument that encompasses the range of the violin, viola and cello.

About the artists:

Trio Fadolín is a new ensemble with a unique sonority — featuring Sabina Torosjan on violin, Valeriya Sholokhova on cello, and Ljova, performing on the fadolín – a new instrument that encompasses the range of the violin, viola, and most of the cello, finding its footing in an acoustic chamber music setting for the first time. In our inaugural season, Trio Fadolín has been presented by Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the brand new Perelman Performing Arts Center (PACNYC) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We formed during the COVID-19 pandemic — our first performances were in the summer of 2021 on a makeshift at the Javits Convention Center mass vaccination site, operated by the US Army and sponsored by Sing for Hope. As our opportunities to play together grew, our repertoire evolved steadily — it now includes works by Ukrainian composers Vasyl Barvinsky, Mykola Kolessa, and Miroslav Skoryk, Spanish-American composer Andrea Casarrubios, Estonian-American composer Lembit Beecher, folk music from Armenia, Denmark, Sweden and Romania, in addition to original works by our fadolínist, Ljova. All three of us are graduates of The Juilliard School.

Trio Fadolín is the recipient of the Ensemble Forward grant from Chamber Music America and the New York Community Trust, as part of which we will spend some time this year working on a new project with the Syrian clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh. This spring we were the inaugural ensemble-in-residence at Interlochen Public Radio, where we recorded material for our forthcoming debut album. We’ve also completed our first East Coast tour with stops in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

Our focus is multifaceted — on the one hand, we are exploring the unique sonority of the acoustic fadolín (six-string violin, with low C and F strings) within a trio context, using it — for the first time in history — as an integral instrument in an acoustic chamber music setting.

On the other hand, we also share a deep personal connection — all three of us grew up in the former Soviet Union and arrived in New York as teens. Sabina was born in Estonia of Armenian-Jewish heritage; Valeriya was born in Ukraine of Ukrainian, Jewish, and Russian heritage; Ljova was born in Moscow, Russia, of Ukrainian-Jewish, German-Jewish, Polish and Romanian heritage. We share a common bond of immigration, Eastern European literature, humor, animation and music.

We are here to tell the complicated story, to tell the stories of immigrant composers, to collaborate with immigrant artists, to showcase places where cultures intersect.