The Chamber Music Association was established in Duino, Trieste, by a notarial deed dated 14 November 1995 and formalizing the existence of a group of five people gathered to give birth to an operational entity, which, with the organization of musical events, might preserve and pay homage to the outstanding activity and sophisticated interpretation of chamber music by the Trio di Trieste musical ensemble.
The first initiative to bring forth the objectives of the association was the “PREMIO TRIO DI TRIESTE” - INTERNATIONAL  COMPETITION FOR CHAMBER MUSIC ENSEMBLES WITH PIANO.
The founding group was composed of the following: Benedetto de Bernard, as the President of the Association, Tullio Corzani, as the Vice-President, Fedra Florit, as the Secretary and Treasurer, Vittorio Giammusso and Mario Pines.

In September 2001, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region, by Presidential Decree No. 0336, approved the Articles of Association of the Chamber Music Association and recognized its juridical personality.

At this time, the Association’s main office is situated in Trieste, Via S. Nicolò 7, and the Executive Committee is composed by: Ettore Campailla (President), Michele Lacalamita (Vice-President), Loredana Catalfamo, Luigi Cattin, Antonio Fogazzaro, Andrea Kassabian, Michele Lacalamita, Maria Luisa Vaccari.


The Executive Committee is supported in the organization of the various events by regular, meritorious and contributing members, according to the guidelines set out in the Articles of Association. According to the law, a meeting of the members of the association shall be called every year for the approval of the budget plan and final financial statement.

Fedra Florit is the Artistic Director for all events. She is a pianist, music critic, teacher of chamber music and former student of the Trio di Trieste.
The idea of establishing a competition shaped after the activity and interpretation criteria of the Trio di Trieste ensemble stemmed from an initiative promoted by Prof. Fedra Florit, who, together with the Trio di Trieste masters, has selected every year the members of the prestigious jury and meticulously defined the repertoire to be executed during the three preliminary heats indicated in the rules of the competition. According to such rules, Dario De Rosa, pianist of the Trio di Trieste ensemble,
shall always be present in the Jury. From its first edition in 1996 to its latest in 2009, 458  chamber ensembles have enrolled in the competition, with a total of 1003 musicians, ranging from duos to quintets and coming from 29 countries in the world. That means 170 presences in Trieste between competitors, jury, press and critics for each edition of the Competition.
For the evaluation of such young musicians, the most prestigious names of the international musical arena have been selected as the jury, such as Franco Gulli, Boris Bekhterev, Piero Farulli, Alexander Lonquich, Aldo Ciccolini, Franco Rossi, Konstantin Bogino, Peter Maag, Viktor Pikayzen, Norbert Brainin, Koichiro Harada, François-Joël Thiollier, Arnaldo Cohen, Elisso Virsaladze, Peter Maag, Dmitri Bashkirov, Hatto Beyerle, Marianne Chen, Irwin Gage, Barry Tuckwell, Maria Kliegel, Valentin Gheorghiu, Michael Frischenschlager, Igor Ozim, Homero Francesch, Yasuko Matsuda, Pavel Vernikov, Stephen McIntyre, Maria Tipo, Maureen Jones, Natalia Gutman, Friedemann Weigle, Marcello Abbado, Conrad Muck, Oleg Maisenberg, just to name a few.

The purpose of the “Premio Trio di Trieste” - International Competition for Chamber Music Ensembles with Piano is to support the chamber music work carried out by those ensembles who, by mentality and musical taste, follow chamber criteria similar to those that have brought the Trio di Trieste ensemble to the apex of world fame in more than sixty years of teaching activities and musical performance. These are: stable formations, punctilious reading of musical scores, fusion between strings and piano, phrasing precision, self-criticism and ability to accept criticism so that performance may be improved over time.
The selection of a specific type of formation – exclusively strings and piano ensembles are admitted, from duos to quintets – wishes to emulate the repertoire that the Trio di Trieste ensemble most loved and followed, but also to limit the area of competence of the international juries, which each year follow one another in the competition, to the most important chamber music “sector”.

The fame and prestige of the “Premio Trio di Trieste” are now so much established that it is considered both by specialized press and sector experts one of the major competitions at an international level.
Winning the “Premio Trio di Trieste” – which, besides a monetary prize, also offers more than 35 prestigious concerts in Italy and abroad, together with the recording of a CD – means to achieve an ambitious goal that may serve as a stepping stone on the path to a prestigious concert career.
All winners of the past editions - the Debussy Trio (Italy, 1997), the Triendl-Berg Duo (Germany, 1998), the Almonte-Tsunoda Duo (Australia and Japan, 1999), the Downes Duo (United States, 2000), the Ars Trio (Italy, 2001), the Tal Trio (Israel, 2002),  the Duo Giun-Haruka (Japan, 2005)  and the Trio Mondrian (Israel, 2007) - have carried on successful careers and today are listed among the most acclaimed chamber ensembles, in greatest demand on the stage of international music performance.

The following are the new features of the last edition of the Competition, which was held in May 2009 and was reserved – for the first time - to piano trio and piano quartet.
Three prizes were offered: Euro 20,000.00, the recording of a CD and a series of prestigious concerts in Italy and 4 tour in Europe and USA  to the first-ranking ensemble; Euro 10,000.00  to the second-ranking ensemble; Euro 7,000.00 to the third-ranking ensemble.
Winners shall have the opportunity to perform during the concert season in Trieste, organized by Associazione Chamber Music (Sala del Ridotto, in the Teatro G.Verdi).
Four special prizes have been granted in the total amount of Euro 13,000.00. Particularly noteworthy is the special prize offered by In.C.E. (Central European Initiative), to those ensembles coming from one of the 18 countries belonging to the organization.

In the 2009 edition of the Competition we had the compulsory piece (one for each category) composed by Azio Corghi, to be played during the second preliminary round.

The 2009 Jury - in spite of the high level of the Competition - decided so:
1° Prize “Premio Trio di Trieste” 2009:  not awarded
2° Prize: Quartetto Avos (Italy - Japan)
3° Prize: Trio Cervantes (Russie - Spain)

Special Prizes:
The “Amedeo Baldovino” and the Audience Special Prizes  to the Quartetto Avos (Italy - Japan)
The “Rotary Club Trieste Nord” Special Prize to The Yarra Trio (Australia)
The Young Award to the Shaykin-Saidov-Zemlerub Trio (Russie)

The final concert (Sala Tripcovich, May 23rd) was recorded by RAI-Radio 3 (music by Corghi, Shostakovich, Turina and Fauré).

On May  25th  the Quartetto Avos  was presented to the city of Trieste with a concert at the Palazzo del Governo of Trieste, with a musical program by Corghi and Brahms. It was really a great success!

The Competition is listed in the World Federation of International Music Competitions of Geneva and takes place in May with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Assets, Directorate General for Live Entertainment, Rome, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, the Province and the City of Trieste and thanks to the sponsorships granted by Assicurazioni Generali, Casali Foundation, CRTrieste Foundation and the “Camera di Commercio di Trieste”.

Starting from the year 2003,  the Competition is biennial. The next edition will be therefore held in May 2011 and it will be reserved to the Piano and String Duos.

Executive Committee 2009
president  Ettore Campailla
vice-president  Michele Lacalamita
Loredana Catalfamo, Luigi Cattin, Antonio Fogazzaro, Andrea Kassabian, Maria Luisa Vaccari.

Honorary Members
Amedeo Baldovino, Corrado Belci, Dario De Rosa, Maureen Jones, Mario Moscatelli, David Sutcliffe, Renato Zanettovich

Meritorius Members  and Supporter Members
Provincia di Trieste, Comune di Trieste, Fondazione Benefica Kathleen Foreman Casali, Associazione Industriali di Trieste, Anna Illy, Maureen Jones, Franz e Leslie Kraus, Francesco Rosato, Samer & Co. Shipping,, Maria Luisa Vaccari.

Ettore Campailla, Luigi Cattin, Giovanni Cervesi, Giorgio Costanzi, Ludovico Dalla Palma, Luciano Del Piccolo, Dario De Rosa,  Associazione Epicantica, Jan Kaspar, Michele Lacalamita, Sylva Marsi, Giorgio Ribotta, Televita s.p.a.

Sandro Apa, Marisa Benci, Marina Bergani, Odetta Bökmann, Nevia Bressan, Giulio Cannata, Etta Carignani, Loredana Catalfamo, Aurora Cerviatti, Giorgio Costanzi, Licia Danneker, Patrizia D'Antonio, Lorenzo De Vecchi, Ferruccio Del Savio, Francesco Fabris, Clementina Frescura, Isabella Gallo, Vittorio Giammusso, Celestina Grizancic, Siglinde Kulterer, La Vigile srl, Edda Marini, Aldo Michelini, Ilda Mohovic, Rienzo Pellegrini, Marisa Perlini, Franca Pross, Cesarina Pugliese, Paola Rigotti, Tancredi Scaramella, Marco Sessa, Renato Zanettovich.

Consultants for the Competition
ACM secretariat   Anna Boniciolli
logistical coordination   Luisa Testa
competitors coordination  Gabriella Nocentini
jury secretariat  Adriana Vasques
press office  Volpe & Sain Comunicazione

artistic and organizational director  Fedra Florit


Associazione Chamber Music
34121 Trieste - Italy - via S. Nicolò 7 - Tel. +39 040 3480598 - Fax +39 040 3477959
e-mail: info@acmtrioditrieste.it