Photo by David Tom.

"a trio that has never met a keyboard they can't use in a novel way" 
​​-John Terauds

)junctQín (pronounced ‘junction’) consists of pianists Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie Chua.  The name of the collective is taken from junctio – the Latin word meaning to join, and from Qín – the Chinese character for keyboard instrument.  junctQín’s goal has been to recast the idea of the piano as more than a solo recital instrument.  The ensemble has discovered and re-introduced works for multiple hands from the 20th and 21st centuries alongside commissioning new works for piano six-hands, unusual keyboard instruments such as toy pianos, melodicas, and synthesizers, as well as those featuring everyday objects and live-electronics.

Founded in 2009, junctQín has commissioned and premiered over forty works for their unique instrumentation, by composers such as Canadians Emilie LeBel, Aaron Gervias, and Hiroki Tsurumoto, multi-media artists Kenneth Doren and Derek Liddington, in addition to European composers Karlheinz Essl (Austria) and Tomi Räisänen (Finland).  Notable performances include recitals and performances at the Canadian Opera Company’s Four Seasons Centre, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Open Ears Festival (Kitchener-Waterloo), and a double-bill concert with Pauline Oliveros at the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium.  Recent highlights include being a recipient of a commissioning grant from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (Switzerland), as well as an interview and special feature broadcast on Rondo Classic FM (Finland, rebroadcast in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Hungary).
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The ensemble’s debut recording ‘reTHINK’ was released on the Redshift Records label in 2020 with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and FACTOR. Current projects include a new multi-media work for piano six-hands by Canadian composer Nicole Lizée, and the CD release of a large-scale collaboration with the Bozzini Quartet and Canadian composers Rebecca Bruton and Jason Doell.  junctQín's upcoming events include the world première of a six-hand work by Vincent Ho at NUMUS in 2024 (with the financial assistance of the SOCAN Foundation), as well as the release of Germaine Liu's 星星 (Sing Sing), a multi-user interactive web-based piece (July 2024) and future installation and performance (forthcoming, October 2024).