Performer Bios
Time for Three

The Grammy- and Emmy-winning ensemble, Time For Three (TF3), defies conventions with genre-bending excellence. Their unique sound merges classical, Americana, and singer-songwriter styles—an aesthetic that is resonating globally … and leaving audiences worldwide captivated and clamoring for more.

The Grammy- and Emmy-winning ensemble, Time For Three (TF3), defies conventions with genre-bending excellence. As created by members Charlie Yang, Nick Kendall, and Ranaan Meyer, TF3’s unique sound merges classical, Americana, and singer-songwriter styles—an aesthetic that is resonating globally. With charismatic performance and remarkable achievements, TF3 continues to push creative boundaries, leaving audiences worldwide captivated … and clamoring for more.

Charlie Yang, violin

Grammy Award-winning artist and recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award, Charlie Yang has been described by The Boston Globe as a man who “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star.” The Juilliard graduate began his studies with his mother, Sha Zhu, in Austin, Texas, and has since studied with world-renowned pedagogues Kurt Sassmanshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis and Glenn Dicterow. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in concert throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil, Russia, China and Taiwan. On June 9th of 2005, the mayor of Austin presented him with his own “Charles Yang Day.” In 2016, he joined the Time for Three as violinist and lead singer.

Not one to be confined to classical styles, Charlie’s improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to performances at festivals such as The Aspen Music Festival, The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, Caramoor, Interlochen and appearances on TED, Google Zeitgeist and awards such as The YouTube Music Award. He has performed at some of the world’s most celebrated venues such as Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Rudolfinum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royal Danish Theatre, Joe’s Pub, ACL Live, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Forbidden City in Beijing. He has performed for two former US Presidents, the Queen of Denmark, and has shared the stage in collaborations with artists such as Peter Dugan, Michael Thurber and CDZA, Steve Miller, Jesse Colin Young, Joshua Bell, Jake Shimabukuro, Ray Benson, Savion Glover, Twyla Tharp, Misty Copeland and Jon Batiste.

An adventurous composer, arranger, songwriter and collaborator, his compositions have been featured in projects for Glamour and Pentagram. In 2021 he co-wrote the original score to Robin Wright’s 2021 feature film, Land. Time for Three’s album, “Letters for the Future” with Xian Zhang and The Philadelphia Orchestra featuring concertos written by Kevin Puts and Jennifer Higdon, won the 2023 Grammy award for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo.”

Charlie’s career has been followed by various news media including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Austin Chronicle and The Strad. He is also featured in Nick Romeo’s book, Driven as well as Discovery Channel’s Curiosity.

The Texas Observer wrote: “Yang is a true crossover artist, a pioneer who can hop between classical and popular music and bring fresh ideas to fans of both genres. Rather than maintaining an insular focus and assuming that an audience for classical music will always exist, he wants to actively create that audience, to persuade and seduce others into enjoying a type of music as passionately as he does.”

Charlie performs on the 1854 “ex-Soil” J.B. Vuillaume.

Nick Kendall, violin

Nick lights up concert halls across the U.S. and three continents as a solo performer, as a member of the Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning string band Time For Three (aka TF3), and as a member of the artist collective East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).

Over the course of his career, Nick has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the new David Geffen Hall and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and at Davies Hall in San Francisco. He has also appeared at Schleswig Holstein Festival outside Hamburg, BBC Proms in London, Ravinia Festival, Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Marlboro Music Festival, Sydney Opera House, Hyogo Performing Arts Center outside Osaka, Dvořák Hall at Prague’s Rudolfinum, and the Hong Kong Cultural Center. In addition to performing with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Series, Nick has performed in an array of sports arenas across Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg as one of the featured artists on the touring super-show “Night of the Proms.” In fall 2022, he and Joshua Bell joined the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields on their South American tour.

He has shared the stage with Joshua Bell, Branford Marsalis, Christoph Eschenbach, Joshua Radin, Keith Lockhart, Alisa Weilerstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jake Shimabukuro, Aoife O’Donovan, Marin Alsop, Chris Thile, Xian Zhang, James Gaffigan, Krzysztof Urbański, Chris Brubeck (who composed a jazz-inspired improvised violin concerto for him), Swiss pop/soul star Stefanie Heinzmann, the legendary Scottish rock band Simple Minds, the Late Show Band leader Louis Cato and singer-songwriter Danielle Ponder. In 2023, Nick and TF3 appeared in a new entertainment format event JammJam alongside Recoding Academy nominees Big Freedia, Tank and the Bangas, Cimafunk, and Ibrahim Maalouf.

Emblematic of Nick’s diverse artistic expressions are special projects that range from original film scoring and recording new music by living composers, to writing, producing, and performing on pop albums. In addition to co-composing the soundtrack to Land, and releasing the Grammy-winning recording Letters for the Future, Nick also performed on R&B superstar Summer Walker’s hit record “Still Over It.”

Ranaan Meyer, double bass

Multi Grammy Nominated, Emmy Award winning, and Gold record Double Bassist Ranaan Meyer is best known as a founding member and performer with the string trio Time for Three, as Founder and Artistic Director of Honeywell Arts Academy, and as a solo performing artist, composer, and educator.

In June 2022, Time for Three (TF3) released Letters for the Future, an album recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The project included two concertos titled “Concerto 4-3” by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Higdon and “Contact” by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Kevin Puts. Alongside Time for Three, Ranaan recorded and composed the film scoring for Robin Wright’s film, Land, and co-produced and recorded on Love Renaissance, Summer Walker’s second album. TF3 has additionally performed around the world including appearances with Musik Verein, Czech Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and show at prestigious venue such as Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, the Night of the Proms Tour. In North America Time for Three has performed with almost every professional symphony, as well as on NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. The trio has also performed the national anthem at events such as NFL, NASCAR, NBA, MLB, and PGA sporting events.

As Founder and Artistic Director of Honeywell Arts Academy, Meyer has empowered the next generation of emerging artists through a philosophy called “sharing of knowledge,” in which ideas and free flowing from teacher to student, and from student to teacher. Ranaan and his colleagues at the Wabass Institute for the Double Bass, expanded the institute’s programs during the pandemic, forming what is now known as the Honeywell Arts Academy. Wabass was already well established as a premier summer program; Academy alumni have gone on to win important positions in the Royal Concertgebouw, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, and other esteemed organizations. Many of the Academy’s graduates have also developed small ensembles and entrepreneurial initiatives like-minded to Time for Three, a group that Ranaan often refers to as “misfits of music.”

Held annually in Wabash, Indiana, the three divisions of the summer music institute are “Resonance-Innovative Musicians,” “Soundboard: Pianists,” and the “Wabass Institute for Double Bassists.” All three programs are fueled by the same mission—to foster an inclusive, supportive environment where ideas are free flowing and the relationship between students and teachers is more collaborative than top-down. Participants learn what it takes to thrive as a musician and values such as “sharing of knowledge” are coupled with “spreading the joy of music to positively impact the human spirit.” As a recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, students accepted into programs at the Honeywell Arts Academy are offered full scholarships for their time on campus.

Ranaan is in demand around the world presenting workshops in entrepreneurship, improvisation, memorization, performance preparation, teamwork, and overall, outside-the-box learning. He can be heard on Michael Jackson’s final album and he has made multiple recordings with NFL films. He is an alumnus of The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Temple Prep, Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He co-founded Time for Three while at Curtis, but prior to TF3’s touring, he spent several weeks per year performing and touring in the double bass section of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Ranann’s curiosity led him from Classical music into jazz, and more recently, into still other genres of music. He recently composed his first concerto for double bass and orchestra, Concerto for My Family (2021), which is an homage to the people who have lifted him up along his way through life. The work showcases his background in various fields of music and reflects his vision to empower the universe to “share knowledge” and “keep the listening valve turned on” so that we, as individuals as well as collectively, might fully realize our potential.