John McGuire’s Double String Trios brings together three substantial works for paired string trios composed between 2012 and 2021 and conducted by Axel Lindner. The project originated when Walter Zimmermann invited Bernd Härpfer of Initiative Musik und Informatik Köln – GIMIK e.V. to arrange a concert premiere marking McGuire’s 80th birthday.

McGuire’s musical language was forged in the electronic studios of postwar Cologne, shaped by studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Krzysztof Penderecki, and grounded in European serial practice. His early work with high-speed pulse synthesis led to crystalline, seamlessly connected structures — a sense of flowing continuity that, when transferred to acoustic instruments, becomes richer and more intricate through the colour and physicality of live performance.

Written for two facing string trios in antiphonal dialogue, these works draw on both studio-born spatial thinking and older split-ensemble traditions. They unfold through Fibonacci proportions, rotating tempi, shifting meters, and continual harmonic transposition, creating a detailed, resonant world shaped by precision, acoustic nuance, and long-form design.