The Khio Trio explores the music of Armenian life, casting a contemporary light on ancient stories of land, diaspora, and spirituality. The convergence of Lucine Musaelian’s Armenian identity, Oliver Dover’s command of traditional wind instruments, and Fred Thomas’ improvisatory powers creates a sound rooted in tradition yet alive to Armenian themes of renewal and regeneration.

Traditional mountain dance music sits alongside songs of love and exile, while haunting chants dating back to the 10th century are reworked, revealing a faith still embedded in Armenian spiritual life. Through this striking blend of sonorities, Khio Trio has assembled its own book of Armenian music, blurring the lines between old and new, and softening the edges between past and present. Their programme features Lucine’s unique sound as a vocalist self-accompanied by the viola da gamba, supported by colourful instrumental combinations that include kaval, clarinet, piano, percussion, and vielle. Audiences are drawn into an intimate and immersive listening  experience, moving through a shifting landscape of emotion, memory and sound in which tradition is not fixed but continually reimagined.

Their EP ‘Havoon’ is out now

“It felt like everything in the world stopped while Musaelian pulled us into the fervent prayer, delivered with an uncanny balance of grace and fearless intensity” Seen and Heard International

“A plaintive, melancholic quality … of Dover’s increasingly emotive playing in particular … that is both a lament and a celebration” The  Jazzmann

“Thomas is challenging the status quo of the classical music genre” Vice Magazine

“Extreme sensitivity to colour and nuance …. Fred Thomas is brilliant” BBC Music Magazine