Trio Owon
Copyright (C) Simon Wall
Emmanuel Strosser, piano · Olivier Charlier, violin · Sung-Won Yang, cello
Founded in 2009, Trio Owon was born from the artistic convergence of three musicians trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, united by a shared devotion to chamber music and a long-standing musical friendship. From the outset, the ensemble has pursued a deeply integrated vision of music-making, shaped by collective commitment, stylistic openness, and a rich diversity of artistic influences.
Trio Owon’s performances are guided by the belief that chamber music is not a dialogue of individuals, but a single, breathing organism — one in which structure, emotion, and imagination are inseparable. This philosophy has informed their concerts and recordings
across France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, China, Japan, and Korea, where the trio has established a distinctive artistic identity marked by maturity, intensity, and expressive depth.
The ensemble has been invited to appear at numerous prestigious international festivals, including La Roque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée de Nantes, Festival Beethoven de Beaune, Music in PyeongChang, and the Yeulmaru Chamber Music Festival, and regularly performs on major concert stages throughout Europe and Asia. Alongside an active concert life, Trio Owon has built a substantial discography, devoted to the core piano trio repertoire from Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms to later Romantic and twentieth-century works. Their recordings have been widely praised for their clarity of musical thought, balance of voices, and profound sense of ensemble unity.
Beyond the concert hall, Trio Owon has also taken part in interdisciplinary artistic projects, notably the production of the feature film Pour la fin du temps, created in homage to French Catholic priests martyred in Korea during the nineteenth century — a project reflecting the trio’s enduring interest in history, memory, and the ethical dimension of artistic creation.
The trio takes its name from the great Korean painter OWON Jang Seung-Up, whose life and art embody a universal vision of creativity. A contemporary of Brahms, yet emerging from a radically different aesthetic and cultural world, Owon represents a powerful synthesis of tradition and renewal in nineteenth-century Korea. His story — portrayed in the film Strokes of Fire, awarded at the Cannes Film Festival — reveals the inner conflicts, doubts, and uncompromising commitments of an artist in constant search of truth.
For Trio Owon, this name is more than a poetic reference. It symbolizes the osmosis between knowledge and modernity, heritage and innovation — values that lie at the heart of the trio’s musical journey. Through their performances, recordings, and artistic collaborations, Trio Owon continues to explore this fertile ground, seeking to connect