Doudna Fine Arts Center’s director of programming, Dwight Vaught, said most people don’t find chamber music thrilling. However, he added, most people haven’t yet heard the Ahn Trio.

The Ahn Trio is a family piano trio-a band that features piano, cello and violin-that plays chamber music internationally. They are the first headlining musical acts to be scheduled at the Doudna Fine Arts Center this school year.

The trio does not play the classic Hayden, Bach, and Mozart that your great-grandparents used to listen to on the phonograph. Instead, they perform contemporary pieces in the chamber music format. Contemporary as in, The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.” The Juilliard trained piano trio has incorporated the infamous Doors tune into its broad repertoire, which features not only new classical pieces, but also reworked pop classics and old bluegrass stomps.

Because of this fresh approach, the Ahn Trio has recently been causing quite a stir within the worlds of classical music, which at times can seem rigidly fixed in its tradition, Vaught said.

He explained that a classical audience could be pretty unforgiving; it’s usually an audience that knows a thing or two about music. So, if you have ambition, it is crucial that you have the talent to back it up.

But according to Doudna programmers, all three members of The Ahn Trio possess a great deal of each, and they know how to appeal to a popular audience as well.

“(The Ahn Trio) are treating a very old genre with a young person’s excitement and enthusiasm,” said Dan Crews, director of promotions and publicity for the College of Arts and Humanities.

“They’re playing at such a level that they are attracting the attention of a lot of listeners who maybe wouldn’t have paid attention to classical music otherwise,” he said.

Twins Maria, cello, and Lucia, piano, as well as their younger sister of two years, Angela, violin, were born in Seoul, South Korea. All three began studying piano while still young. As they progressed, Lucia stuck with the piano, while her siblings each chose to pursue accompanying instruments. By 1979 the trio began to perform live and on Korean television, and by 1991 they had immigrated to New York, where they were enrolled in one of the world’s top performing arts school.

In 1987 the Ahn sisters received their first bit of media attention when they were featured in a TIME cover story called, “Asian American Whiz Kids,” and in 1994 they were signed to a recording contract with EMI, with whom each subsequent recording tended to feature a bit more experimentation and personal expression, according to their press release.

In redefining conventions, The Ahn Trio has become one of the most popular acts in its genre. It was the only classical group to be invited to perform at last year’s iTunes LIVE festival in London, and the trio’s first recording with Sony BMG, “Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac,” reached No. 8 on the billboard classical charts as of last month.

They have also been considered style icons for their fashion choices and have frequented fashion pages the likes of Vogue and GQ, have appeared in adds for GAP. In 2003, People Magazine named them three of the 50 most beautiful people.

Dwight Vaught says students who attend this evening’s concert stand to gain more than quality entertainment.

“Whatever you choose to do with your college career or beyond, it’s a matter of dedicating yourself to it, doing it with passion, making a commitment to it, and seeing it through… those are lessons that I think transcend the stage or any musical work,” Vaught said.

The Ahn Trio will perform tonight at 7p.m. in Dvorak Concert Hall, in Doudna.

General admission is $15 for employees, $12 for students and $7 with a current I.D.

Jason Hardimon can be reached at 581-7942 or at jhardimon2@eiu.edu