TRIO KISOSEN
Trio Kisosen is named after the Abenaki solar deity, an eagle spirit who creates day and night by the opening and closing of his wings, just as music evokes changing contrasts of light and shadow. Together, the trio offers years of internationally recognized performances in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, South America, and Asia, performing in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal of Berlin, and les Invalides, Paris. All Yale School of Music graduates, the trio shares an interest in exploring new music as well as standard trio repertoire, and a love of teaching students of all ages. Cellist An-Lin Bardin and pianist Naomi Niskala, original members of Trio Kisosen, formed the group in 2017, with violinist Matheus Sardinha Garcia Souza joining in 2018.
Create. Enrich. Share.
Trio Kisosen strives to bring consciousness to the value of music-making at its highest level, sharing their performances with audiences in concert halls, intimate chamber music settings, under-served areas, hospitals, and schools. Trio Kisosen is committed to enriching communities and their people's lives through the communication of music.
Matheus Sardinha Garcia Souza - violin
A Brazilian violinist with an eclectic musical background who currently resides in New York City, during the last calendar year he has performed more than 160 times, including concerts at the United Nations in New York City and as soloist in Brazil with the Londrina State University Symphony Orchestra, and he has recorded soundtracks in the United States for franchises such as Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, and Kingdom Hearts. Souza is also a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, which regularly tours Japan, and violinist of the contemporary chamber ensemble Unheard-of//Ensemble. A sought-after instructor of both violin and music theory, Souza has given workshops and master classes throughout the United States and in Brazil and Japan, and has also been involved in community outreach as a violinist, conductor, and pedagogue through the Yale School of Music’s “Music In Schools Initiative” and the Associação Solidariedade Sempre of Londrina, Brazil.
Souza holds degrees from Stony Brook University, the Yale School of Music, and the University of Missouri, where he studied with Philip Setzer, Syoko Aki, and Eva Szekely. Souza has also worked with conductors Kurt Masur, Krysztof Penderecki, and Peter Oundjian, cellist Antonio Meneses, Baroque violinist Robert Mealy, and pianist Peter Frankl. In addition, his early interest in Brazilian Chôro gave him the tools to go beyond the strict classical training imposed on most violinists. He has collaborated with masters of this genre, including Joel Nascimento, Jaime Vignoli, and Oscar Bolao.
A Brazilian violinist with an eclectic musical background who currently resides in New York City, during the last calendar year he has performed more than 160 times, including concerts at the United Nations in New York City and as soloist in Brazil with the Londrina State University Symphony Orchestra, and he has recorded soundtracks in the United States for franchises such as Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, and Kingdom Hearts. Souza is also a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, which regularly tours Japan, and violinist of the contemporary chamber ensemble Unheard-of//Ensemble. A sought-after instructor of both violin and music theory, Souza has given workshops and master classes throughout the United States and in Brazil and Japan, and has also been involved in community outreach as a violinist, conductor, and pedagogue through the Yale School of Music’s “Music In Schools Initiative” and the Associação Solidariedade Sempre of Londrina, Brazil.
Souza holds degrees from Stony Brook University, the Yale School of Music, and the University of Missouri, where he studied with Philip Setzer, Syoko Aki, and Eva Szekely. Souza has also worked with conductors Kurt Masur, Krysztof Penderecki, and Peter Oundjian, cellist Antonio Meneses, Baroque violinist Robert Mealy, and pianist Peter Frankl. In addition, his early interest in Brazilian Chôro gave him the tools to go beyond the strict classical training imposed on most violinists. He has collaborated with masters of this genre, including Joel Nascimento, Jaime Vignoli, and Oscar Bolao.
An-Lin Bardin- cello
Described as “stunning,” and a “musician to keep an eye on” by the New York Times, cellist An-Lin Bardin currently freelances and teaches both music and math in the greater NYC area. As the cellist of the Vinca Quartet, she performed extensively throughout Europe and the US, including Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Aspen, and Vilar Performing Arts Center. Bardin’s performances have been broadcast on Deutschlandradio and WNYC. She is a laureate of several international quartet competitions, including the Paolo Borciani Quartet Competitions in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and the Fischoff, the Plowman, the Yellow Springs, Chesapeake, and the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competitions in the United States.
A recipient of a DAAD fellowship which enabled her to work with the Vogler String Quartet in Stuttgart, Germany, Bardin also studied extensively with Gunter Pichler and Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet, Walter Levine, Heime Mueller, and the Artemis String Quartet under the auspices of the ProQuartet program in Paris, France, and with the Emerson String Quartet through the Carnegie Hall Chamber Music Workshops. She was a graduate assistant to the Takacs Quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder for two years as part of the graduate quartet residency program. A strong proponent of music education, Bardin was a founding member of Music Haven, an intensive mentorship program serving youth from low-income neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut. She also founded two ongoing music educational programs in rural Washington State through the Gorgeous Sounds Residency Program.
Raised in California by two nuclear physicists, Bardin began her cello studies at the age of eight with Irene Sharp. She holds a B.S. from Yale University in Geology and Geophysics, and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Aldo Parisot and was a member of the Grammy-Award-winning Yale Cellos.
Described as “stunning,” and a “musician to keep an eye on” by the New York Times, cellist An-Lin Bardin currently freelances and teaches both music and math in the greater NYC area. As the cellist of the Vinca Quartet, she performed extensively throughout Europe and the US, including Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Aspen, and Vilar Performing Arts Center. Bardin’s performances have been broadcast on Deutschlandradio and WNYC. She is a laureate of several international quartet competitions, including the Paolo Borciani Quartet Competitions in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and the Fischoff, the Plowman, the Yellow Springs, Chesapeake, and the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competitions in the United States.
A recipient of a DAAD fellowship which enabled her to work with the Vogler String Quartet in Stuttgart, Germany, Bardin also studied extensively with Gunter Pichler and Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet, Walter Levine, Heime Mueller, and the Artemis String Quartet under the auspices of the ProQuartet program in Paris, France, and with the Emerson String Quartet through the Carnegie Hall Chamber Music Workshops. She was a graduate assistant to the Takacs Quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder for two years as part of the graduate quartet residency program. A strong proponent of music education, Bardin was a founding member of Music Haven, an intensive mentorship program serving youth from low-income neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut. She also founded two ongoing music educational programs in rural Washington State through the Gorgeous Sounds Residency Program.
Raised in California by two nuclear physicists, Bardin began her cello studies at the age of eight with Irene Sharp. She holds a B.S. from Yale University in Geology and Geophysics, and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Aldo Parisot and was a member of the Grammy-Award-winning Yale Cellos.
Naomi Niskala - piano
A soloist and chamber musician who has appeared in Europe, North America, Russia, Israel, Thailand, and Japan, her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio, Deutschlandradio, RTV Germany, and NPR’s Performance Today. Niskala performs regularly with Spectrum Concerts Berlin, one of Germany’s leading chamber organizations, and has also recorded two discs with them. Recent performance highlights include the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Series at Davies Symphony Hall, soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic of Russia, and solo and chamber performances with Spectrum Concerts Berlin in the Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal of Berlin, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, in Thailand, and in Kosovo. Her release of the only complete recordings of American composer Robert Helps’s solo piano works on two discs with Albany Records in 2007 was met with high acclaim, and she has also recorded piano chamber works of Robert Helps and Ursula Mamlok with Spectrum Concerts Berlin for two discs on Naxos, as well as the world premiere of Mamlok’s 2015 quintet “Breezes” for Bridge Records. Niskala is featured in the 2013 German rbb television documentary entitled Sehnsucht Musik (Searching for Music), documenting the work of four members of Spectrum Concerts Berlin towards improving the harsh conditions for young musicians at a music school located in Prizren, Kosovo.
Born to Japanese/Finnish-American parents, she began studying piano at the age of three, raised in Rochester, New York and then later in Tokyo, Japan. Niskala holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Stony Brook University, and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Claude Frank, Gilbert Kalish, and Patricia Zander. She also worked with pianists Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, and Maria Louisa Faini, and violinists Louis Krasner and Eugene Lehner. Niskala is currently Associate Professor of Music at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches piano and theory, and leads a summer chamber music exchange program to Japan.
A soloist and chamber musician who has appeared in Europe, North America, Russia, Israel, Thailand, and Japan, her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio, Deutschlandradio, RTV Germany, and NPR’s Performance Today. Niskala performs regularly with Spectrum Concerts Berlin, one of Germany’s leading chamber organizations, and has also recorded two discs with them. Recent performance highlights include the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Series at Davies Symphony Hall, soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic of Russia, and solo and chamber performances with Spectrum Concerts Berlin in the Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal of Berlin, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, in Thailand, and in Kosovo. Her release of the only complete recordings of American composer Robert Helps’s solo piano works on two discs with Albany Records in 2007 was met with high acclaim, and she has also recorded piano chamber works of Robert Helps and Ursula Mamlok with Spectrum Concerts Berlin for two discs on Naxos, as well as the world premiere of Mamlok’s 2015 quintet “Breezes” for Bridge Records. Niskala is featured in the 2013 German rbb television documentary entitled Sehnsucht Musik (Searching for Music), documenting the work of four members of Spectrum Concerts Berlin towards improving the harsh conditions for young musicians at a music school located in Prizren, Kosovo.
Born to Japanese/Finnish-American parents, she began studying piano at the age of three, raised in Rochester, New York and then later in Tokyo, Japan. Niskala holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Stony Brook University, and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Claude Frank, Gilbert Kalish, and Patricia Zander. She also worked with pianists Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, and Maria Louisa Faini, and violinists Louis Krasner and Eugene Lehner. Niskala is currently Associate Professor of Music at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches piano and theory, and leads a summer chamber music exchange program to Japan.