The award-winning album, Letters for the Future, was recorded over two days at Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, in September 2021. The album comprises world premiere recordings of two technically demanding and musically virtuosic concerti for trio and orchestra by two Pulitzer Prizewinning composers, written 15 years apart but both commissioned for the group: Jennifer Higdon's Concerto 4-3, which is a three-movement concerto, and Kevin Puts' newly written, Contact. The latter was inspired by the unknown. "The word 'contact' has gained new resonance during these years of isolation," Puts says in a news release. "It is my hope that this concerto might be heard as an expression of yearning for this fundamental human need."
"On the first day, we recorded Contact, which is a very demanding piece. I would say it's the most challenging music piece of my career. On the second day, we recorded Concerto 4-3," recalls Zhang. "Those two musical works were written particularly for Time For Three. Contact was very new back then, and I remember that we had our first rehearsal on piano at my house during the summer of 2021.Kevin is also a pianist, so he played with musicians of Time For Three, and I was the conductor. It is a beautiful memory."
