Founded in 2011, KAAÅS is a piano trio consisting of three enterprising musicians. Violinist Annemarie Åström specializes in Nordic violin music, is active as an event organizer, and serves as Artistic Director of the Wegelius Chamber Strings, among other roles. Cellist Ulla Lampela is a member of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and has produced hospital concerts throughout Helsinki, including for patients with eating disorders, psychiatric wards, and hospice care. Pianist Tiina Karakorpi has achieved significant success in international competitions and has performed at major concert venues across Europe. She is an active advocate for gender equality in the music world and has performed and recorded works by overlooked women composers, as well as edited and published sheet music of their compositions.

The activities of the KAAÅS trio reflect the interests of its members, and together they have been able to shape their artistic work with openness and independence. Among other projects, they have made the first recording of Helvi Leiviskä’s piano trio, commissioned a piano trio from Matthew Whittall, and studied improvisation with Matthew Barley. The name KAAÅS is derived from the members’ surnames and reflects their life situation at the time of the trio’s founding. All of them had small children at home, and for the trio it became meaningful to explore and give form to the chaos of life through making music together.