Time For Three perform ‘Contact’ by Kevin Puts

Watch the string trio Time For Three perform Codes, the second movement Scherzo from Pulitzer Prize winning composer Kevin Puts’s work Contact. The trio, comprising bassist Ranaan Meyer and violinists Nick Kendall and Charles Yang, perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Xian Zhang.

’When the world was plunged into the fragility of the pandemic, we were really inspired by the incredible work and international cooperation that was happening on the International Space Station – how humans from all over the world were quite literally rising above us all, working together for a future that transcended the pandemic,’ commented Time For Three.

’The idea that there were people able to look at the world from a perspective we lacked instilled a sense of hope for the future in us, and that hope has been woven into the very fabric of this concerto.’

Composer Puts also highlights the influence of the pandemic on the title, which was originally just Triple Concerto: ’The word “contact” has gained new resonance during these years of isolation. It is my hope that this concerto might be heard as an expression of yearning for this fundamental human need’.

Contact was written especially for Time For Three and features on the trio’s new album Letters for the Future, released on 10 June with Deutsche Gramophone. It was commissioned by a collective group of arts organisations consisting of the Florida Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Sun Valley Music Festival, Colorado Symphony, and Spokane Symphony.