Osiris Trio: Individual Bios

Peter Brunt Peter Brunt studied at the Conservatorium van with Davina van Wely and Herman Krebbers and continued his studies with Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School in New York and Sándor Végh in Salzburg. In 1981 he won the Violin Competition ‘Oskar Back’ and went on to win various prizes at other international competitions.

Peter has performed extensively as a soloist with numerous orchestras including The Hague Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta. William Jeths wrote his violin concerto Glenz specially for Peter, who recorded it with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, conducted by Lev Markiz. He has also been very active in the richly diverse Dutch ensemble scene, including the contemporary music ensembles Asko|Schönberg and Nieuw Ensemble.

From 1984 he was principal second violinist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, leaving the orchestra in 1987 in order to dedicate himself to his piano trio’s flourishing international career. Since then he has been a guest concertmaster with various orchestras, including the Basel Kammerorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht.

A founding member of the acclaimed Osiris Trio, Peter has performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Kölner Philharmonie and the Wigmore Hall and has recorded numerous CDs, with repertoire ranging from Haydn to newly commissioned works for the trio. He has also performed as a duo with the electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans for many years, focusing on improvisation and crossover repertoire.

Peter teaches violin as principal study as well as a specialised piano trio Master’s degree programme at the conservatoires of The Hague and Amsterdam. He is also on the teaching faculty at the Hochschule Luzern in Switzerland.

‘Larissa Groeneveld, remember this name’, wrote the French daily Le Figaro in 1995.

In 1990 Larissa graduated with highest distinction from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where she studied with Dmitri Ferschtman. She continued her studies with Natalia Gutman at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and followed master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Shafran and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1988 she made her debut in the Main Hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw as a soloist in Beethoven’s triple concerto. She has made solo appearances with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Berliner Symfoniker and the St. John's Smith Square Orchestra. In 2005 she performed Gulda’s concerto with members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Over the years, besides forging a solo career, Larissa has formed ensembles with the pianist Frank van de Laar and harpist Gwyneth Wentink and has been a member of the Osiris Piano Trio for more than a quarter of a century. She has performed concerts with Giora Feidman, Natalia Gutman, Herman Krebbers, Reinbert de Leeuw and Giovanni Sollima.

Larissa has been with the Osiris Trio since its inception, performing in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Kölner Philharmonie and Wigmore Hall. She has an extensive discography as a soloist and chamber musician, with repertoire spanning four centuries, including early classical and freshly commissioned works.

Larissa is a keen advocate of contemporary music. Many well-known Dutch composers have written compositions for her, including Theo Loevendie, Theo Verbey and Guus Janssen, who wrote a double concerto for Ernst Reijseger and her. At the 2010 Amsterdam Cello Biennale she played the world première of Theo Verbey’s Bandersnatch for cello and pianola. During the 2012 biennale she premièred Words and Song Without Words by Yannis Kyriakides, who won the 2014 International Rostrum of Composers Award with this work.

A dedicated teacher, Larissa holds teaching posts for both cello and chamber music at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. She teaches piano trio Master’s students at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, as well as coaching young talent at the AMT (Musical Talent Academy) in Utrecht.

Larissa Groeneveld plays on a Domenico Busan cello from Venice, dated 1763.

Ellen Corver Ellen Corver studied with Else Krijgsman and Naum Grubert at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. At the age of seventeen she began working with Karlheinz Stockhausen, performing his works at international festivals such as the Festival d’Automne, Salzburger Festspiele and Holland Festival. This collaboration culminated in the first complete recordings of his fourteen Klavierstücke for solo piano, issued by the composer’s own record label. Besides giving frequent performances of mainstream works by Debussy, Ravel, Brahms, Beethoven and Haydn, Ellen has established a reputation as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music. She has performed concertos by John Cage, György Ligeti and György Kurtág. Klaas de Vries and Theo Verbey both wrote new concertos for her. Ellen regards her intensive collaboration with all these composers as having had a decisive influence on her formation as a pianist. In her view, the experience of direct contact with living composers also changes one’s interpretive attitude towards works by the great masters of the past.

As a soloist Ellen has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, working with conductors such as Jonathan Nott, , Ed Spanjaard, Jaap van Zweden, Peter Eötvös and .

In 1989 Ellen co-founded the Osiris Piano Trio. With this ensemble she has toured five continents, playing over eighty piano trios by various composers. Driven by musical curiosity, Ellen has commissioned and performed some twenty new pieces by contemporary composers, specially written for the Osiris Trio.

She has recorded fifteen CDs, many of which have been highly acclaimed by music critics. Her recording of Stockhausen’s Mantra, performed with her piano duo partner Sepp Grotenhuis, was crowned with an Edison Award. Her passion for chamber music has inspired many collaborations with a variety of musicians, including the soprano Charlotte Riedijk and clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer. Ellen has also joined forces with the mezzo-soprano Gerrie de Vries in the field of contemporary music theatre.

Since 1994 Ellen has held a position as a piano teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and is frequently invited to give international master classes. As a member of the Osiris Trio she teaches a Master’s degree programme for piano trio at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.