Trio Accanto was formed in 1994 and consists of Marcus Weiss (saxophone), Nicolas Hodges (piano) and Christian Dierstein (percussion). This group of three internationally prominent soloists bound together by a unique approach to chamber music has been praised for its "mastery" and "world-class interpretations". The scoring of saxophone, piano and percussion is common in jazz, but was a rarity in classical music (leading to the description "a jazz trio that does not play jazz") until Trio Accanto turned this situation around, stimulating close to one hundred composers to write new works over the years. Major figures such as Mark Andre, Georges Aperghis, Aldo Clementi, Michael Finnissy, Vinko Globokar, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann, Brice Pauset, Rolf Riehm, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Martin Smolka, Christian Wolff and Walter Zimmermann have contributed to the trio's repertoire, along with a substantial list of younger composers from around the world. A rigorous and increasingly broad-ranging programme of commissions continues, including works by Lisa Illean, Misato Mochizuki, Eivind Buene, Beat Furrer, Evan Johnson, and Mikel Urquiza.
Trio Accanto has performed at festivals in Donaueschingen, Witten, Darmstadt, Hanover, Cologne, Munich, Freiburg, Huddersfield, Basel and Saarbrücken, as well as at Eclat (Stuttgart), Munich Biennale, Maerzmusik (Berlin), Salzburg Festival, Wien Modern, Tage für Neue Musik (Zurich), and further afield in Madrid, Seville, Chicago, Viitasaari (Finland) and at the Takefu Festival (Japan). The trio's CD recordings have appeared on Kairos, HatHut, Edition Zeitklang, Assai, Verso and Wergo. Recent releases include Funambules, featuring music by Aperghis, Riehm, Schöllhorn and Prins, and Songs and Poems, featuring music by Clementi, Dohmen, Rihm, Thomalla and Zimmermann. A new album, Other Stories, featuring music by Finnissy, Kuwabara, Lachenmann, Schüttler and Smolka, was released in spring 2020.