Time for Three brings their infectious energy, virtuosity, and showmanship to Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, January 31 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.
Time for Three, comprised of violinist Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, double-bassist Ranaan Meyer, and violinist Charles Yang, is a groundbreaking trio that transcends traditional classification, blending elements of the pop, rock, country, western, gypsy, jazz, and classical genres. The members carry a passion for improvisation, composing, and arranging, and perform everything from Bach to Brahms to ingenious mash-ups of hits by the Beatles, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, and more.
Time for Three has performed hundreds of engagements as diverse as its music: from featured guest soloists on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s subscription series, to Club Yoshi’s in San Francisco, to residencies at the Kennedy Center, to Christoph Eschenbach’s birthday concert at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. Recent highlights included their Carnegie Hall debut, appearances with the Boston Pops, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a sold-out concert at the 2014 BBC Proms, and an appearance on the ABC prime time hit show Dancing with the Stars.
Time for Three’s high-energy performances are free of conventional practices, drawing instead from the members’ differing musical backgrounds. The trio also performs its own arrangements of traditional repertoire, and Meyer provides original compositions to complement the trio’s offerings.
In 2014 Time for Three released their self-titled debut Universal Music Classics album, which spent seven consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Classical Crossover Chart. The ensemble has also embarked on major commissioning programs to expand its unique repertoire for symphony orchestras including Concerto 4-3, written by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon, Travels in Time for Three by Chris Brubeck in 2010, co-commissioned by the Boston Pops, the Youngstown Symphony, and eight other orchestras, and Games and Challenges by William Bolcom, commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony. Their latest project, a three-year residency with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, includes commissions for three new works. Time for Three premiered the first of these works, Elevation: Paradise, in Sun Valley in August 2015 and the second, Free Souls, in July 2016.
On March 25, 2016 PBS premiered the Emmy-winning show Time for Three in Concert nationwide. Time for Three in Concert is an hour-long program in collaboration with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Universal Music Classics and WFYI Public Media, which brings together diverse artists and unique arrangements to create a one-of-a-kind concert experience.
The trio is currently recording their sophomore album for Universal Music Classics.