On monday (06/10/14), the Akato Trio had a masterclass with a very well known teacher/violist Ivo Jan Van Der Welff for an hour session. He came all the way from Houston Texas, Rice University to give masterclasses in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney!

We were privileged to be part of this session in Auckland and it was definitely worth the time!

We performed the Shostakovich Piano Trio No.1 to a few audiences in an intimate environment in room115 of University of Auckland School Of Music.

Being a violist, he would of never performed this work before, but his musical thoughts are more than enough to give us another dimension in the music and we all learnt many new things in this short time!

One of the highlight of the session was to realize how important it is to have your own story in the music you perform to be involved with the music.

We hope we get to meet him again in the near future!