The classically trained, bluegrass-infused ‘garage band’ Time for Three has a whole new sound

Long familiar to Philadelphians for buoyant, high-velocity music with the rhythm of stand-up comedy, the string trio Time for Three is in a new phase that was often envisioned but out of reach.

Letters for the Future is the title of the trio’s new album on the venerable Deutsche Grammophon label, which doesn’t usually cater to a self-described “classically trained garage band,” but it’s one that has attracted two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers willing to join them in their synthesis of bluegrass, classical — and now vocal harmony.

Yes, Time for Three now sings during concertos by Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts in the new recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their voices are the first sounds heard in the Puts piece, titled Contact, whose East Coast live premiere was July 28 by the orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which commissioned it with the San Francisco Symphony.

The group has been playing Higdon’s Concerto 4-3 since 2008, and because she left the trio in charge of the cadenzas, its members started adding their voices. As if Time for Three needed to broaden its focus. “We were once told by a dear friend that our artistic life would be easier if we could just do less,” said double bassist Ranaan Meyer. “Our biggest problem is that we can do so many different things.”

Try stopping them. The concerto draws heavily on Higdon’s upbringing in rural Tennessee, with each movement named after a river in the Smoky Mountains. Adding vocals is meant to suggest harmonizing around a campfire. “It feels like such a logical flow,” said Higdon in an email from Prague, where she is premiering her newest piece. “And since I like a lot of color changes in my orchestration in general, having the voice in there is a nice change.”

This altered DNA in the group is due partly to its newest member, Charles Yang, a 34-year-old Juilliard School graduate whose more reckless energy — in contrast to the two other members, who are married with children — makes him the group’s canary in the coal mine. But while he is pushing into unexplored possibilities, there’s always a sense of consolidating into a central aesthetic that’s their own.

“We’ve found our sound,” said Yang, “but in our minds, it’s a never-ending search, to stay curious.”

Having known the group members for years, Higdon was well acquainted with Time for Three’s musical capabilities, and in her concerto all but predicted where the group was going. Puts visited much more recent Time for Three live performances and placed them in a more lush, symphonic terrain similar to his new opera, The Hours, which he basically composed at the same time and which was premiered last year by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Puts didn’t always envision starting with voices, which may be unprecedented in the history of concertos. The effect is easing one’s ears into the piece. “It begins on a unison and opens up into triads,” said Puts in an email. “I imagined them singing it falsetto.” Not intentionally, the music recalls some of the more sophisticated pop-music harmonies of Brian Wilson. The entire package is so attractive, the album could be a Grammy Award magnet.

The bluegrass influence that was once so pervasive — and put Time for Three on the map after an 2003 impromptu performance at the Mann Center, when a power failure left the Philadelphia Orchestra unable to deliver Beethoven — is still there. “We weren’t trying to be a bluegrass band. That’s a tradition that demands respect. It’s deep in its history,” said violinist Nicolas Kendall, who once played percussion on trash-can lids in Rittenhouse Square. “We were just guests to those sounds — and as a release for our energy.”

At first, the group wasn’t full-time. The original members — Kendall, Meyer, and violinist Zach DePue — were in demand, and in a hurry. Kendall played with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Meyer teaches at the Wabass Institute at the Honeywell Arts Academy. And DePue became co-concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony. Somehow, the group worked in exhaustive tours and, over the years, released five albums. While it was often hired as an opening act for headliners such as Chaka Khan, the trio was also tapped to do outreach for classical music organizations and its members were resident artists with the Indianapolis orchestra.

Eventually, DePue left the group to concentrate on the Indianapolis orchestra, which he has since left, becoming concertmaster of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra in California. Time for Three recruited Nikki Chooi, who then left after landing a concertmaster position with the Metropolitan Opera. Then, in 2016, came Yang, who grew up in Austin, Texas, and has a diverse career that includes collaborations with choreographer Twyla Tharp. He had intersected with Time for Three periodically at music festivals and through mutual friends. One day, Kendall phoned and asked him to come by and jam. With Yang based in New York and Kendall in Washington, they met in between at Meyer’s home in Cherry Hill.

When Yang emerged from his rental car in cool sunglasses and carrying a skateboard, Meyer and Kendall sensed he was a good fit.

“We became brothers immediately,” said Yang. The bond is so tight now that the relationship can be called “trigamy.” They don’t argue with that. The group was working on an album of “mash-ups” — lots of different styles colliding and arguing — but had already outgrown it.

Vocalizing came easily. As a child, Meyer performed in local musical theater. According to his Wikipedia bio, Yang has a secret alternate identity, known as “BoyWithUke,” whose music has the verbal density of hip-hop but with a folksy ukulele accompaniment (Yang swears he knows nothing about this performer).

In any case, the group’s small portfolio of concertos — by Higdon, William Bolcom, and Chris Brubeck — was broadened by Puts, but due to pandemic postponements, the recording came before the live premiere. Philadelphia Orchestra CEO and president Matías Tarnopolsky arranged to cover recording costs. Conductor Michael Stern and the National Repertory Orchestra allowed pre-recording read-thoughs so that the players could get their feet wet.

The actual September 2021 recording sessions conducted by Xian Zhang at Verizon Hall took place over two days, plus a “patch session,” all of which is a luxury rarely known to American orchestras, which mostly record live in concert for economic reasons. It’s the kind of recording that changes the symphonic mainstream from the inside, with music not likely to exclude any subset of listeners, and suggests future works in ways that mash-ups (which tend to be special-occasion music) do not.

“We want to play with the greatest orchestras in the world. Not for the vanity; ... we can help them by progressing at a faster pace. That can open up some minds,” said Meyer. “Even if we meet up with institutions that aren’t opening up their arms in our direction, we’re still here, like intelligent golden retrievers, wagging our tails. ...”