Trio Fontenay

The Trio Fontenay was founded in 1980 by pianist Wolf Harden ( born 1962), together with violinist Michael Mücke ( born 1962) and cellist Niklas Schmidt (born 1958) in Hamburg. This piano trio chose its name for two reasons: on the one hand, means " Fontenay " the old French translation for " source " and "Fantasy ", on the other hand carries a road near the Hamburg Academy of Music, the first exercise facility offered the ensemble that name. Interpretative impulses picked up the ensemble in Cologne courses of the Amadeus Quartet.

From the mid- 1980s, a fast-paced concert career, the trio was a permanent guest in their performance in the most important concert halls and at major festivals in Europe developed. In 1986, the American debut took place. Since then, every year, two major tours of the U.S. and Canada with regular appearances in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal. The ensemble's repertoire includes works in the entire piano trio literature by CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn to compositions of contemporary music.

The discography of the trio includes, inter alia, recordings of all trios by Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Dvorak and Brahms. For the recording of the complete Beethoven Trios Trio Fontenay was honored with an annual Prize of the German Record Critics

Following the departure of cellist Niklas Schmidt 1998 Jens Peter Maintz took over the cello part. 2006 the trio split up for good.