This is our photo diary from the SMETANA TOUR of the Tata Bojs. We had an incredibly hectic schedule, but the tour was so much fun. Shows in Prague were sold out before we even got there, so they had to add extra afternoon concerts! We love that the album is called, Smetana! (Of course, we used to play his Trio)

Milan (lead singer of Tata Bojs) explained to us that Smetana in Czech means ‘cream’, so, the album, “Smetana” (Tata bojs & the Ahn Trio collaboration album) is sort of the ‘creme dela creme’ of Tata Bojs’ best & favorite songs from the past and present and also the ‘Toreadorska’ song the Tatas sing quotes Smetana’s ‘My Country’… Milan created this fountain and filled it with cream instead of water! (Milan is also considered one of the important artists in the Contemporary Art Scene in Prague)

Amazing audiences: We can get used to this & may expect this from ALL our concerts from now on! We felt so loved!

Did you know that on a Rock’n Roll Tour–absolutely everything on the stage is already set up perfectly before you get there? So, we’d show up to rehearse and everything on stage is all set for us, gosh, LOVE love that about the Rock’n Roll Tours!!

Guess what… she did NOT ask us to autograph. ONLY from the BOJS!

Mardosa is missing in this photo, but after every concert, we signed CD’s and posters for a LONG TIME! (but, apparently, it’s OK to hold a beer while doing this…pretty cool, huh?)

Tatas created the stage like a room with lamps with the Cream Fountain as the center piece, for ‘chamber music’, since it was a sextet made up of a rock trio and the modern classical trio! We didn’t get the photo of it, but Lucia christened the Smetana CD by dipping it on the cream fountain at every show and threw it from the stage to a happy fan!

The only fifteen minutes where we got to actually walk outside! Walking to see Janacek’s House after we performed in Olomouc and on the way to Brno.

Janacek’s house was closed, but, we’re in front of it!

Milan is holding the Smetana album & Lucia’s holding the Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac album!

One of the TV Morning show taping, we tried very hard not to look tired, but we never got proper sleep!

Vlada, Maria, Milan, Mardosa, Lucia

Backstage, we always had a blast…being really really tired makes you a little bit brazen Czech!

Filmed all the time–during the whole tour.. this was at the photoshoot (we forgot to talk about which clothes to bring for the photoshoot, but, managed to match perfectly as if we planned!!! Maybe we’re all related.

Angella, Milan, Mardosa, Lucia, Vlada, Maria – we were a happy bunch (wonder if that would change if we did a LONGER TOUR all the time!?)

Quick! It’s embarrassing to stand here!!!!! And then we ran!

Many funny photoshoots (this was our ‘concert dress’ for the Smetana tour!)

More TV interviews…minutes before we have to play! (Hey, we’re girls, we actually need some time to change!) But, some days, we had less than10 minutes before the show.

I like this photo, we had a hard time ‘unifying’ the look for the camera–much easier to play together!

You can see the Moravian Philharmonic Theater where we performed in Olomouc, another beautiful town.

That’s all for now. Check back soon for more photos from the road!!

Love, Maria

Next week, the Ahns are heading to Iowa to perform the following shows:

Tuesday, Sept. 16 – City High Opstad Audiotorium, Iowa City (more info)

Thursday, Sept. 18 – Herrick Chapell, Grinnell College, IA (more info) (read about it in DesMoinesRegister.com)

Saturday, Sept. 20 – The Stephen Sondheim Center for Performing Arts, Fairfield, IA (more info)

If you are in the area, be sure to check it out!!

Ahn Trio at the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival Aug 7-11.  We played the world premiere of Pat Metheny’s “Yu-Ryung” and the Mexican premiere of almost every piece on the program, most of which were either written or transcribed for us.

Ahhhh, this is how Maria’s sweet cello suffers flying with many airlines with different (sometimes outrageous) regulations!

  
Angella and Maria rehearsing at the concert hall in Mexico.  We were super excited to play the world premiere of Pat Metheny’s “Yu-Ryung” in Mexico, and people loved it!

 
The Angela Peralta Theater in beautiful San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where we performed.  We were thrilled that our first ever performance in Mexico was successful and that all our CDs were sold out at the concerts.  We felt ‘mucho’ loved!

  
We savored authentic Mexican food for five days!

Teatro de la Republica in Queretaro (where we also performed) nearby city of San Miguel. Another charming city.

The famous Parroquia Chuch in San Miguel was one of the most beautiful buildings we have seen. 

Colors on the streets, which you see everywhere in San Miguel, are so inspiring and beautiful.  No wonder they attract so many artists here.  Side note: Neal Cassady (from Jack Kerouac’s ‘on the road’ book) died here.

Live broadcast of our concerts was aired in the same evening in the main square.  It was set up in such a beautiful spot!

We became tourists ourselves in the main square.

When we got to the square, people started cheering us instead of watching the screen…We loved their warm welcome in Mexico!

Angella, Lucia and Maria with the Mexico City Youth Philharmonic Orchestra students.

Having the Parroquia as a backdrop, I have to say, was a bit more of an exquisite and exotic view than the TV-screens in Times Square!

With very talented students at the San Miguel Chamber Music festival, whom we gave formal master classes earlier that day.  They played for us as we walked by the outdoor cafe where they were playing a show.

That’s all for now.  We will post some photos from our Lincoln Center Out of Doors concert next.  Have a great week!

Best from Maria

We hope you can join us…

Thurs. (Aug.14th) at 7PM, Lincoln Center Outdoors FREE CONCERT!

USA Premiere of Pat Metheny’s “Yu Ryung” written for the Ahn Trio plus many selections from our latest album, “Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac,” including Ronn Yedidia’s “Song on the Land”

Damrosch Park
Southwest corner of the Lincoln Center Plaza
(62nd Street near Amsterdam Avenue) NYC

P.S. many thanks to friends in Mexico for coming to our shows 2nights in a row last weekend!

http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=-62530

Best from Maria

When: Thursday, August 14, 2008 7:00 PM
Where: Damrosch Park Bandshell (62nd Street near Amsterdam Avenue) map
Admission: FREE, no tickets required!!

We had a great time at the iTunes Live Festival in London last week!  Here are some pictures that we would like to share with you.

Classic FM (Classical music radio in UK) interviewed us at Koko in London before the show (from left: Lucia, Angella and Maria):

We loved being part of the iTunes Live Festival!!  We were the only classical group chosen to perform at the festival!

Maria, Angella and Lucia at Koko.  Koko is a converted theater and a great fun venue with a vibe similar to Irving Plaza in NYC:

Juno (an electronic music artist from Berlin. We invited him to perform with us on a few tracks) and Lucia with the iTunes crew.  They were super nice even when we were a bit panicky as we only had 45min. for soundcheck.  Thanks, guys!

Angella, Lucia, Michael Nyman and Maria at the Barbican Hall:

Pat Metheny invited us to his performance with the Gary Burton Quartet, so we went with Michael Nyman.  The concert was incredibly inspiring!  Pat’s guitar playing is just phenomenal, and we felt very lucky that we happened to be in London and got to see him play.   We are also grateful that Pat wrote a piece for us, which we will play the “world premier” of in Mexico next week.

Michael Nyman with Lucia and Angella.  Incredibly enough, Michael actually sat in for Lucia during our performance at the iTunes Festival, and Angella and I played the music written by Michael.  What an honor!  We still can’t believe he played with us.

Juno, Angella and Lucia in the backstage area.  We all were a little bit nervous (in contrary to how relaxed we look in the picture), since this was the live recording that would be made available on iTunes.

That’s all for now.  We are leaving for Mexico soon to perform a few shows next week.   Have a great week!

Maria Ahn

Well, it took us 59 bars of chocolate tatranky, 25 bars of hazelnut tatranky, 38 cans of iced coffee, countless slices of pizza and 7 fidorkas (wafers) to record the Tata-Ahn album, and we finished it in 3.5 days!  Here are some photos from the recording session (note the Czech film crew taping us):

Day 3 of the recording session

Ahn Trio's debut as backup vocals for Tata Bojs

Lucia & Tata Bojs reviewing a newly recorded track

Angella

Maria

Lucia

Long hours of listening and reviewing recorded tracks

… and we finally got a few hours to stroll through the beautiful ”old town” of Prague, and grabbed lots of our favorite Czech food!  (More on that in my next post.)

Lastly, our Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac CD has been released in the Czech Republic.  You can read the local coverage here. (if you can read Czech!)

That’s all for now.  Have a great week!

 

iTunes Festival: Live from London ’08
July, 29 2008 at Koko – - Free Concert!
1A Camden High Street, London, London and South East NW1 7JE

RSVP here or visit iTunes Festival website to win tickets to see the Ahn Trio at Koko in Camden!!