Violin, guitar and double bass meet in the Astor Trio. Alexander Prushinskiy, Tobias Kassung and Stanislav Anischenko have played their way into the elite of German chamber music ensembles with this unusual line-up.
This formation was created through the long-term collaboration between Tobias Kassung as artistic director of the Cologne Classical Ensemble and the musicians of this ensemble: the violinist and 1st concertmaster of the Dortmund Philharmonic, Alexander Prushinskiy and the solo bassist of the WDR symphony orchestra Stanislav Anischenko. Since 2018 the Astor Trio has also expanded its program with the solo cellist Lena Kravets.
Originally derived from gypsy jazz and flamenco groups, the idea of combining the violin, guitar and double bass has led the Astor Trio to emancipating this music from its folk music environment and converting it into serious classical music. With sophisticated arrangements, virtuosic instrumentation and the soloistic abilities of all three instrumentalists, the three musicians present a new form of chamber music, where the joy of playing is experienced through their rhythmic precision, their sophisticated playing and aesthetic for sound. Thus old and new music, serious and popular classical music, come together and are combined by the creative impulse of the trio to look for contemporary forms of expression. The result is of a specific variety that is never arbitrary and exemplifies how the masterpieces of music are always built upon each other.
