The Damocles Trio was founded in 1996 by pianist Adam Kent, violinist Airi Yoshioka, and cellist Sibylle Johner, who met in the doctoral program at The Juilliard School.  The trio has performed throughout the USA, appearing numerous times at Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, and completed highly successful tours of Switzerland in 1999, 2001 and 2003. Commenting on a performance in Interlaken, the Oberländisches Tagblatt wrote, "The members of this international trio were perfectly attuned to each other and interpreted the magnificent work (of Brahms) with great expressiveness," and a critic from the Zürichsee Zeitung enthused, "The three artists did justice to the great work of Beethoven with perfect harmony, courtly elegance, subtle coloration, and great virtuosity." The Damocles Trio was also invited to present a special memorial program in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 at Trinity Church in New York City and has been frequently featured on Robert Sherman's "Young Artists Showcase" on WQXR radio.     

The Damocles Trio’s years of devotion to the music of Spain and Latin-America has won international recognition from a variety of sources. The Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center has presented the ensemble on numerous occasions, including its inaugural event in honor of pianist Alicia de Larrocha.   In 2004, the trio’s recording of Joaquín Turina’s complete piano trios and quartet with Emerson Quartet violist Lawrence Dutton was released on Claves Records to widespread critical acclaim. BBC Music Magazine praised the performances for their “great swagger,” Scherzo of Spain called the disc “a revelatory recording,” and Le Monde de la Musique lauded the ensemble’s “joyous interpretations.” Claves Records released the ensemble’s next disc in 2009, devoted to the complete piano trios of Heitor Villa-Lobos and the world-premiere recording of Oscar Lorenzo Fernândez’s Trio Brasileiro. The trio also conceived and directed, all underwritten by the Spanish Ministry for Education and Culture. Among the highlights of the festival were the premiere of Salvador Brotons's Requiem Trio, a panel discussion at the Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center with Cuban composer Tania León, and a performance at Merkin Concert Hall with guest artists violinist Stephen Clapp and violist Toby Appel. BargeMusic has presented the trio in programs of Spanish and Latin-American music, and the Spanish Consulate, Instituto Cervantes, the Museo del Barrio, and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU have underwritten the trio’s numerous Hispanic-themed projects. 

Contemporary music has also figured prominently in the trio’s programming, and the ensemble has appeared frequently on the Composers Now! series at Symphony Space as well as at the recent Live Wire! festival of new music at the University of Maryland, Baltmore County. Composers Eric Nathan, Anthony Korf, and Salvador Brotons have written trios for the ensemble, and their recording of Linda Dusman’s “Diverging Flints” was released in 2012.

On concerts with the Damoces Trio

“The three artists did justice to the great work of Beethoven with perfect harmony, courtly elegance, subtle coloration, and great virtuosity.” —Zürichsee Zeitung

“Music was made with almost unsurpassable ensemble, passionate expression, and dynamic nuance. The instrumentalists shone as a trio as well as soloists in a flawless performance of the lush ‘Dumky Trio.” —Obwaldner Wochenblatt

On Damocles Trio’s recording of Trios Brasileiros

“…captures this composer’s graceful early effort with an irresistible joie de vivre.”
—Bruce Hodges, The Juilliard Journal, May, 2010 [read the article]

“The Damocles Trio performs all works with panache and style and the recording quality is superb.”

“….the Juilliard trained Damocles Trio makes a compelling case for this music. Violinist Airi Yoshioka and cellist Sibylle Johner understand that the composer’s melodic lines need to sing, while pianist Adam Kent lightens the texture wherever possible and points rhythms to emphasize the music’s unflagging energy. Once again, these first-rate musicians give us a highly accomplished and sympathetic performance. Sound is excellent. Highly recommended.” —Fanfare Magazine [read the article]

On Damocles Trio’s recording of Piano Trios and Piano Quartet by J. Turina

Double four-star rating:
“…the pieces have a similar way of boiling up to chunky rhetorical climaxes often with sweeping strings in octaves, which the Damocles Trio brings off with great swagger. The contrasted dance variations of Trio No. 1 and the superimposed speeds in the tiny scherzo of No. 2 are elliptical delights, played with finesses, and the recording keeps them intimate without getting swamped by big build-ups.” —BBC Maganzine, Dec. 2004 [read the article]

Four–star rating:
“For its first disc, the young Damoces Trio offers a joyous interpretation…. their joie de vivre is communicative. The movements are in turn dancing, explosive or lyrical, always well worked out… [in the quartet] the sound of the strings superbly expresses the Andalusian lament, proud and heartrenching…” —Le Mode de la musique, Sept. 2004

Four–star rating:
“… the three young musicians…offer a beautiful sensibility in their approach…reconciling transparence, lightness, proud rhythm and lyricism.” —Diapason

“The Damocles’ finely calibrated timbral shadings, richly sonorous tone, and flowing phrasing makes for unalloyed pleasure throughout both works… Lawrence Dutton’s contribution adds to the group’s persuasive performance of this thematically pungent and emotionally vibrant work” —ClassicsToday

“All these performances proves that the members of the Damocles Trio... are excellent interpreters. The articulations, as well as the intonation, are simply irreproachable.” —Foundation Suisa

“[The Damocles Trio] delivers a radiant interpretation… The playing is precise and light, the touch sensitive…The music of Turina is heard with pleasure on this well conceived program.” —Tribune de Genève

forthcoming