Time For Three: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Pigeonholing the classically trained string trio Time for Three isn’t easy, but that’s also a blessing. The musicians — violinists Zachary De Pue and Nick Kendall with double bassist Ranaan Meyer — say they love a kaleidoscopic spectrum of music. “If we like it, we play it“ is their motto. That’s why you’ll find them riffing on Daft Punk and Kanye West in their popular anti-bullying video or blending Bach and Bon Iver at a Macy’s. Their own compositions tend to swing wildly among pop, bluegrass and jazz. Meyer, De Pue and Kendall don’t act like your average classical conservatory grads (they met at the esteemed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia). They come off as just three high-spirited dudes in a band — a “classically trained garage band,“ as they like to say. But they certainly don’t play like it. Watching them weave together the colorful strands of their music, as they huddle behind Bob Boilen’s desk, it’s hard not to be swept up in the force of their staggering technique and contagious energy.