Summer 2023
Time for Three Their Own Sound
By Jesse Hamlin
Read this article in flipbook view
Charles Yang is one of two violinists in the smashing string trio, Time for Three. The group plays Bach and the Beatles with equal aplomb, mashes up Mahler with Guns N’ Roses, writes their own tunes, and commissions orchestral pieces from renowned composers like Kevin Puts and Jennifer Higdon. Yang studied classical violin at Juilliard a decade ago but ignored the unspoken axiom to “stay in your lane,” as he puts it.
“At Juilliard, there was a classical division and a jazz division, but on weekends we’d all come together and jam,” says Yang, who performs at Festival Napa Valley on July 9 and 23 with Time for Three violinist Nick Kendall and bassist Ranaan Meyer. The trio won this year’s GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for their recording of Puts’ concerto, Contact, with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
One of Yang’s Juilliard colleagues was the famed pianist, TV bandleader, and GRAMMY® Award and Academy Award-winning composer Jon Batiste, who organized giant jam sessions at various venues. “People would come to jam and hang, and it would turn into a big parade,” recalls Yang by phone from his New York home. “We’d march around New York City just for the love of music — not jazz, not classical, but for the love of music. That was really inspiring. Time for Three is very much of that same kind of mindset.”
“We're all grounded in classical music. That's what brings us together.”
Yang grew up in Austin and began studying violin with his mother at the age of three. He joined Time for Three in 2015 after founding member Zach DePue left to devote his time to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster. Yang had seen Time for Three’s YouTube videos and was wowed by how well they played and improvised, and by their unique arrangements. “They were not just putting a beat behind the melody,” he observes.
Kendall and Meyer were equally impressed by the videos that Yang — whom the Boston Globe noted “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star” — had posted of himself singing as he played. He brings that vocal component to the trio, all of whom sing in the trio’s eclectic repertoire, including deft arrangements of pop classics like Stand By Me, Eleanor Rigby, and Hallelujah, the bluegrass barnburner Orange Blossom Special, J.S. Bach’s Chaconne, and Amazing Grace.
Because very little repertoire exists for two violins and bass, the trio is actively creating a body of work for themselves and for future ensembles.
“It’s music we love to explore,” Yang says. “We’re all grounded in classical music, that’s what brings us together. And we were influenced by and played different kinds of music growing up. Ranaan plays a lot of jazz. Nick played in a rock band. I grew up playing a lot of blues, and was really into hip-hop culture. We bring together all those different styles that we play individually to create something new.” The goal, he says, is “seeing not just how to fuse certain things, but to come up with a sound that’s our own and original.”