In business, marketing strategies often revolve around defining your ideal customer. What specific interests and demographics do they represent? The more specific you are in your targeting, the better.

But Time for Three proves just how wrong that approach to building an audience can be. Performing their unique blend of Americana, modern pop, and classical music, the acclaimed string trio has grown a large fan base that defies demographics — people who are just as likely to listen to Brahms as bluegrass and the Beatles.

And now the members of Time for Three — violinists Charles Yang and Nick Kendall and bassist Ranaan Meyer — are celebrating their latest achievement: a Grammy Award for Letters for the Future, the Deutsche Grammophon album they recorded last year with the Philadelphia Orchestra. 

For Yang, the nominations carry a comforting sense of validation. "As a group as eclectic, and unique, and weird as we are, we've had to swim upstream at times in this industry. So this was a nice way of saying, finally: What we're doing is right, and we went with our heart."

In this episode of the Classical Post podcast, the members of Time for Three and I talk more about the album and the Olympic training mindset that helped them thrive while recording Letters for the Future in Philly. Plus, they share how therapy sessions can often serve as creative sessions and their picks for the best Thai and Japanese food in Manhattan.

Listen to Letters for the Future on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you stream and download music

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