In recent years the Busch Trio has developed into a leading piano trio. Mathieu van Bellen (violin), Ori Epstein (cello) and Omri Epstein (piano) met in London during their studies at the Royal College of Music. They became friends and, before long, were inseparable.

Its name, ‘Busch Trio’, is derived first and foremost from Mathieu’s violin, an ‘ex- Adolf Busch’ G.B. Guadagnini (Turin, 1783), but also from Adolf Busch, the shining example for the young trio. We should also note that in 1935, violinist Adolf Busch, together with Rudolf Serkin (piano) and Hermann Busch (cello), made a legendary recording of Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat major – one of the most important works in the literature for trios, and a core piece in the Busch Trio’s repertoire.

What is unusual is that the Busch Trio, while not strictly part of the historically informed performance movement, do play on instruments with gut strings. They decided to do so because gut strings provide a different type of articulation and a better sound, which cannot be achieved using modern metal strings due to the greater pressure they require.

Since its formation in 2012, the Busch Trio has regularly appeared on major stages and festivals throughout Europe. They have been recognised for their work and received important awards in the Netherlands and Germany: The Kersjes Award and the Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Their many years of fruitful collaboration with the record label Alpha Classics have delivered notable recordings of the complete works of Dvorák and Schubert.

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