page_title: Kevin Kwan Loucks
section_title: Trio Céleste
hierarchical_section_title: Kevin Kwan Loucks / Performance career / Trio Céleste
caption_attribution_description: English: Trio Céleste performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto at the Marcus D. Hurlbut Theater on July 12, 2014
context_page_description: Kevin Kwan Loucks, D.M.A., E.M.B.A. is a Korean–American classical pianist, educator, and arts entrepreneur. He is currently Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, a classical music presenting organization in residence at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. He is Co-Founder of Chamber Music | OC in Irvine, California, and previously served as Director of Innovation and Program Development at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. He is a founding member and current pianist of the award-winning piano trio, Trio Céleste.
context_section_description: At the recommendation of pianist Wu Han, Loucks formed Trio Céleste in 2012 with Krechkovsky and cellist Ross Gasworth who performed together with Krechkovsky during their graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2006 and 2007. The trio has since established itself as one of the most active and dynamic chamber music ensembles in the country with major recital performances in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, and Toronto. 
  In their inaugural season, Trio Céleste was selected as winners of the prestigious Beverly Hills Auditions in Los Angeles and were appointed Artists-in-Residence at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, where they also direct the annual Summer Chamber Music Festival. The ensemble also makes up the core of Chamber Music | OC, both as principal performers and as organizational administrators.
  The trio’s first major performance project, “The Complete Piano Trios of Ludwig van Beethoven” included three separate performances of the entire piano trio cycle of Beethoven in Irvine, San Francisco, and Toronto, as well as multiple performances of the Triple Concerto with the UC Irvine Symphony Orchestra at the Irvine Barclay Theater and the Capistrano Conductor's Institute Orchestra at the Marcus D. Hurlbut Theater in Southern California. “The American Project” took place in June 2015 featuring world premieres by Christopher Dobrian and jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell as well as established works by John Adams, Samuel Adler, John Corigliano, and Eugene Drucker, and "The Evolution of Ludwig van Beethoven" with music critic Timothy Mangan explored the creative evolution of Beethoven through his music for violin, cello, and piano.
  Trio Céleste recorded their debut album with Grammy Award winning recording engineer Jesse Lewis at Soka Performing Arts Center in June 2015. The album, released on the Navona label, debuted at No. 5 on iTunes for new classical music releases, and No. 10 on Amazon.com for chamber music releases and has received critical acclaim from major publications including The Strad who said, "The US West Coast-based Céleste Trio may have been formed only four years ago, but judging from its first disc it has an important career ahead of it...The playing in Beethoven’s early Piano Trio in G major is not only accomplished but unfailingly stylish – crisply turned yet high in character...The second movement is a rapt fusion of slow, pliantly lilting siciliana, prayer-like solemnity and twinkling delicacy. Constellations – ten newly commissioned variations based on the opening theme from the second movement of Beethoven’s Trio – are novel if not all successful...In Dvořák’s ‘Dumky’ Trio, the players contrast sparkling exuberance in the fast sections with heart-rending tragedy in the slow ones – the Poco adagio of the second movement is especially mesmeric in its frozen motion. They vividly realise the composer’s ambition to combine the ‘melancholy and delirious joy of life… in the same being’."
  The ensemble recorded their second album in June 2018 featuring Beethoven's Archduke Trio and Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 with recording engineer Louis Ng at Soka Performing Arts Center.
caption: Trio Céleste performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto at the Marcus D. Hurlbut Theater on July 12, 2014
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark III", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2014:07:13 01:09:12", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:12 16:21:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:12 16:21:45", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5351/643", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5357/1482", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "125", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1260", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "840", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1600", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1600", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 200, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "00004307f0"}