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-- Timothy Mangan, OC Register
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Home • Concerts • Artists • Media • Connect
The California Quartet
William Bolcom
Kitty Brown
Paul Chihara
Bridget Dolkas
Timothy Durkovic
Pam Jacobson
Benjamin Lulich
Vicki Ray
James Martin Schaefer
Jon Szanto
Chinary Ung
Matthew Tommasini
Matthew Tommasini (b. 1978) is an internationally recognized composer of expressive and engaging music and is the co-founder and composer-in-residence of the Connections Chamber Music Series. His compositions have been performed by principal members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Awards for his work include the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, and grants from the ASCAP Foundation's Leonard Bernstein Fund, the American Music Center's Composer Assistance Program, and the Subito program of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Composers Forum. In 2006 he participated in the American Composers Orchestra's Underwood New Music Reading Sessions. During the 2008-9 season, he served as composer-in-residence for the Chicago-based chamber music series Music in the Loft. Mr. Tommasini has also been active as a performer of his own music. In 2010, he premiered his Homage a Kazuo Ohno commissioned by the international Italian dance festival, danz.fest, in memory of the Japanese Butoh pioneer. His performance accompanied the choreography of noted Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo. Mr. Tommasini received his BA degree in composition from UCLA, studying with Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse. He received his MA and DMA degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, Leslie Bassett, and Evan Chambers. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he is Composer-in-Residence and Adjunct Associate Professor of Music at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.The California Quartet
"The California Quartet – Bridget Dolkas and Jeanne Skrocki, violins; Pam Jacobson, viola; Lars Hoefs, cello – is a terrific group. It played everything with proficient technique, sound intonation and a unified outlook. It also mustered a considerable amount of steam." – Timothy Mangan, OC RegisterSince its formation in the year 2000, the California Quartet has grown to become a beloved member of the chamber music community. In particular, the quartet is noted for their spirited interpretations, lyric style, and charisma on-stage and off.
Passionate and personable, the members of the California Quartet create a living connection between performer, composer, and audience through thoughtfully rendered musical interpretations and audience interaction. While the CQ embraces traditional quartet repertoire, they also seek to build audience appreciation and understanding of more modern works as well. This commitment to bringing new and interesting ideas to audiences has led to commissions of new works, and world-premiere performances.
The quartet has performed to great acclaim at numerous festivals including the Great Lakes Music Festival, the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival, the Lake Tahoe Music Festival, the Juilliard, Muir, and Chilingirian Quartet Seminars, the Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Seminar, and the Banff Career Residency Program. In addition, the California Quartet has been awarded finalist or semi-finalist positions in the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music Competition in Italy, the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
The artists of the California Quartet perform in numerous professional ensembles, often in principal positions, including the Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony, and their individual musical experiences have been interesting and diverse. Comprised of artists of great individuality and dynamic artistic backgrounds, the members of the California Quartet have joined musical forces and found a single point of inspiration in which to blend their talents. With energetic intensity and musical sincerity, the California Quartet continues to delight audiences everywhere they perform.
Named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies, and much more. He was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano.After he earned his B.A. from Washington University in 1958, he studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in California, and with Milhaud and Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique in France. He returned to America to hold various university teaching positions and to develop his own interpretation of ragtime. He joined the teaching staff of the University of Michigan in 1973. After earlier use of serialism, he developed his own particular musical idiom, influenced in good part by his interest in and performance of popular music-hall and parlour songs.
William Bolcom has received commissions from the Vienna Philharmonic (Salzburg Mozarteum), Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Domaine Musical, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, American Composers Orchestra, Saint Louis, National, Pacific and Boston Symphonies, The MET Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mendelssohn Quartet, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, and many others.
Kitty Brown is a one-woman revolution who has been working as a freelance illustrator and designer in the greater So Cal area since 2004. A native of Orange County, Kitty now resides in Pasadena with her beloved chinchilla, Narbles. She has been artistically active since the tender age of 5, and shows no signs of slowing down. Kitty can usually be found chugging a cup coffee and working diligently on her latest commission. Known for her unique fashion sense, she projects her idiosyncratic view of the world onto her art, ensuring that each piece she creates is as much a reflection of her, as it is the perfect solution to her client’s artistic needs.
One of the most versatile composers working today, Bruce Broughton writes in every medium, from theatrical releases and TV feature films to the concert stage and computer games.His first major film score, for the Lawrence Kasdan western Silverado, brought him an Oscar nomination. His very next project, a classically styled score for Barry Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes, earned a Grammy nomination for the soundtrack album. With over 20 Emmy nominations, Broughton has received a record 10, most recently for HBO's Warm Springs.
Major motion picture credits include Lost in Space; Tombstone; Miracle on 34th Street; Carried Away; Baby's Day Out, and The Presidio; Narrow Margin. He conducted and supervised the recording of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" for Fantasia 2000. Numerous TV credits include the main titles for JAG, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Dinosaurs, as well as scores for Amazing Stories, Quincy, and How The West Was Won. His score for Heart Of Darkness was the first orchestral score composed for a video game.
An accomplished composer of concert music, Broughton has conducted and recorded numerous original works, including "Mixed Elements," commissioned by and premiered at the Sunflower Music Festival.
Broughton is a board member of ASCAP, a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a former governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and past president of The Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has taught film composition in the Advanced Film Music Studies program at USC and is a frequent lecturer at UCLA.
Paul Seiko Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. His numerous commissions and awards include those from The Lili Boulanger Memorial Award, the Naumberg Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Fund, and National Endowment for the Arts, as well as from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Active in the ballet world, Mr. Chihara was composer-in-residence at the San Francisco Ballet from 1973-1986. While there, he wrote many trailblazing works, including Shin-ju (based on the "lovers' suicide" plays by the great Japanese dramatist Chikamatsu), as well as the first full-length American ballet, The Tempest. In addition to his many concert works, Mr. Chihara has composed scores for over 100 motion pictures and television series. He has worked with such luminaries as directors Sidney Lumet, Louis Malle, Michael Ritchie, John Turturro, and Arthur Penn. His movie credits include Prince of the City (featured on today’s performance), The Morning After, Crossing Delancey, and Romance and Cigarettes. His works for television include China Beach, Noble House, Brave New World, An American Family, and 100 Centre Street. Paul Chihara is Professor of Music at UCLA.
Bridget Dolkas, first violinist of the California Quartet, is a vibrant member of the musical community in Southern California. She is the Principal Second Violinist of the Pacific Symphony, and frequently performs on the orchestra’s popular chamber music series, Café Ludwig. In addition, she performed for eight years as a member of the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera Orchestra. With the California Quartet, Ms. Dolkas has been invited to perform in Europe and across the United States. She has won First Place in the La Jolla Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition and the Meadowmount Mozart Concerto Competition, as well as Finalist in the UCLA Concerto Competition. Her varied musical background has led to interesting and diverse performance opportunities, including concerts with fiddler Mark O’Connor, chamber performances at La Jolla Summerfest, electric fiddle solos with the Pacific Symphony, and an appearance in an MTV video. As a student of Alice Schoenfeld, she earned her BM degree at the University of Southern California and also received the award for Chamber Musician of the Year. Ms. Dolkas continued her studies with Isaac Malkin and completed an MM degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She is currently a Doctoral candidate at UCLA where she studied with Mark Kaplan. Ms. Dolkas performs on a 1798 Lupot violin that is on loan through the Pacific Symphony.
Pianist TIMOTHY DURKOVIC was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He received his musical education at the National Conservatory of Guatemala, the Juilliard School, Salem College, and the Thornton School of Music (USC), where his major teachers were Barbara Lister-Sink, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Daniel Pollack, Jacob Lateiner and Consuelo Medinilla. He holds two Bachelor degrees and one Masters degree in piano performance. He is the winner of several competitions, both nationally and internationally, and performs in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music collaborations throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Specializing in teaching the Lister-Sink Method of well-coordinated, injury-preventive piano technique, he will be opening the West Coast Institute for the Lister-Sink Method in the fall of 2011. Director of Keyboard Studies at Long Beach City College, he has also served on the teaching faculties at the University of La Verne, Orange County High School for the Arts, and Thornton School of Music (USC). His performances have been broadcast on NPR, the International Voice of America and TGNA, and his commercial recordings are available on iTunes and CD Baby. He serves on the Executive Board of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, maintains a private teaching studio and is the Director of Music/Organist at Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia, California. He is also a founding member of the Los Angeles based Piano Quartet CENTRAL4. For more information as to Timothy Durkovic’s activities and availability, please visit his website at www.timothydurkovic.com.
Dr. Lars Hoefs, cellist, hails from Appleton, WI. He attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, received a B.M. from Northwestern University, and a M.M. from the University of Southern California. Recently Lars finished his D.M.A., also at USC, majoring in cello performance with secondary fields of musicology, chamber music, and conducting. At USC, Lars was teaching assistant for the Contemporary Music Ensemble, winner of LA Weekly’s “Ensemble of the Year.” As cellist of the Los Angeles-based Blue Rose Trio, Lars has performed and taught in China, Israel, Brazil, and France. Each summer he returns to festivals in Alaska and to the International Cello Encounters in Rio de Janeiro. With pianist Marek Zebrowski, Director of the USC Polish Music Center and improvisation-partner to filmmaker David Lynch, Lars has championed rare Polish works in New York, London, and Southern California. Lars also plays regularly with Camerata Pacifica, “the best chamber music reason to get out of the house” – LA Times. He has performed quartets with Midori at Disney Hall and for USC’s CME, toured with Chamber Music America Founder Peter Marsh, and collaborated with members of the Ysaÿe Quartet. Honors and accolades include top prizes in the Fischoff, MTNA, Coleman, and Peninsula Chamber Music Competitions. Lars plays a Thomas Kennedy cello, London, 1820’s, on loan from the Peter Mandell Collection. In demand as a writer, Lars is the program annotator for the Pasadena Symphony's 2007-08 season. Also a composer, his works and improvisations reveal an interest in musics of the world, and are shaped by the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Benjamin Lulich has been Principal Clarinet of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony since 2007. He is an active freelancer in Southern California, where he has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Riverside County Philharmonic, and Hollywood studio orchestras. Lulich attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he was a student of Richard Hawkins and won the annual concerto competition and both the Fine Arts and Young Artist awards. He then received his B.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Frank Cohen and continued his studies at Yale University with David Shifrin. While in Cleveland, Lulich was an active freelancer, and performed with The Cleveland Orchestra on several occasions, including two tours. He has also performed with the Kansas City Symphony, Opera Pacific, New World Symphony, and has spent summers at Marrowstone Music Festival, the National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Colorado Music Festival, and the Sunriver Music Festival. Lulich has also performed as soloist at Music Academy of the West, Cleveland Institute of Music, Marrowstone Music Festival, Battle Creek Symphony, and the Central Oregon Symphony. Additional clarinet teachers include Laura DeLuca, Alain Desgagne and Fred Ormand. A native of Oregon, Lulich started playing the clarinet at age 11, taking lessons with Ted Burton in his hometown of Bend.
Audrey's art career started at a very young age. Her passion for bringing the impossible to life has helped shape and refine her skills to become the animator and illustrator she is today. Audrey is currently a senior attending Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna Beach. California, studying all forms of animation and illustration. Along with her love of art, music has been equally important throughout Audrey's life. Being versed in many different instruments, she one day hopes to combine her love of art and music into a career of endless possibilities. For more information, visit www.audreymillerart.com.
Pianist Vicki Ray performs internationally as a soloist and collaborative artist. She is a member of the award-winning California E.A.R. Unit and Xtet. As a founding member of Piano Spheres, her playing has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “displaying that kind of musical thoroughness and technical panache that puts a composer’s thoughts directly before the listener.” A long-time champion of new music, Ray has worked with György Ligeti, John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Morton Subotnick, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stephen Hartke, Oliver Knussen, and many others. Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the German ensemble Compania, and the Blue Rider Ensemble of Toronto, with whom she made the first Canadian recording of Pierrot Lunaire. As a pianist who excels in a wide range of styles, Ray has made numerous recordings covering everything from the premiere release of Steve Reich’s riveting You Are Variations to the semi-improvised structures of Wadada Leo Smith, from the elegant serialism of Mel Powell to the austere beauty of Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetries. During the past two summers, Ray has served as the pianist for the Bang on a Can Summer Festival at Mass MOCA. She also appears with the Partch ensemble playing harmonic canon and kithara — a mind and ear altering experience she enjoys immensely. Vicki Ray has been a member of the piano faculty at the California Institute of the Arts since 1991.
Baritone JAMES MARTIN SCHAEFER (Jailer) has an active performing career throughout California. His recent performances include Belcore in Opera Pacific's "Opera in the Raw" production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. Schaefer's operatic credits include The Mandarin in Puccini's Turandot, the Jailer in Puccini's Tosca, and Commissionaire in Verdi's La traviata, and he is a member of Opera Pacific's O.P.E.R.A. artist program. Schaefer has appeared as a frequent soloist with the Pacific Chorale under the direction of John Alexander, in such works as Schubert's Mass in G, Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore, Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Herbert Howells' Requiem, Arvo Pärt's St. John Passion, Luis Bacalov's Misa Tango, and Fauré's Requiem under the baton of Bobby McFerrin. Schaefer has also appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and the Long Beach Symphony.
Jeanne Skrocki, second violinist of the California Quartet, is Concertmaster of the Opera Pacific orchestra and the Assistant Concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. A native of Los Angeles, she began her musical training with her mother, Bonnie Bell, and then studied with Manuel Compinsky of the famed Compinsky Trio. Her first solo appearance with an orchestra was at age ten, and as a young soloist she received numerous first place honors and awards. At seventeen, Jeanne was awarded a full scholarship to study with the legendary Jascha Heifetz in his Master Class at the University of Southern California. Jeanne is a busy chamber musician and has the distinction of having won first prize in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition as a violinist and as a pianist. In addition to the California Quartet, she is a founding member of Les Amis Musicalles, an award-winning flute, violin and viola trio. Their debut CD, “Beyond Beethoven; 20th Century Chamber Music”, has received outstanding reviews worldwide. Jeanne has also recorded with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and on numerous motion picture soundtracks. Recent highlights include working with Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma on John Williams’ score for the movie Memoirs of a Geisha and with Hilary Hahn on James Newton Howard’s score for The Village. She has also appeared on television during the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and the Jay Leno Show. As a teacher, Jeanne particularly enjoys working with young musicians and has been on the faculty of the Redlands Community School of Music’s Summer Music Workshop since 2001. She also keeps busy home-schooling and practicing with her daughter, Laura, an aspiring young violinist.
Jon Szanto is primarily a performing percussionist and has engaged in a broad selection of musics, including classical symphonic percussion, klezmer bands, microtonal ensembles, percussion groups and recording work. He has performed regularly with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Opera, and California Ballet since 1976, and was a founding member of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Bend, Mainly Mozart, and Berlin New Music festivals. In addition to large ensembles, Mr. Szanto has presented a wide variety of recitals – as a solo performer, with chamber groups, with the percussion group The Balboa All-Stars, and one of his favorite things ever, sitting in with Pearl Jam during their Fall 2009 U.S. Tour.As a composer, Mr. Szanto has produced an array of dance works. In 2001, he was the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant for the dance/theatre work Mavericks with Keith Glassman. Recently scoring the dance Tidal Falls for Teri Shipman and the company Forward to Breath, he has also collaborated with the dance companies of Pat Sandback, San Diego Dance Theatre, Malashock Dance, and Three’s Company. Additionally, he has created broadcast and film library music for Network Music, Inc. and composed commissioned scores for percussion performance. Mr. Szanto is represented by BMI.
A long-time associate of Harry Partch and the Harry Partch Foundation, he recently coordinated the reissue of historic recordings of the music of Partch for CRI, New World Records, and the Innova label (American Composers Forum) “Enclosures” series. Other Partch activities include an ongoing web resource, “Corporeal Meadows” (www.corporeal.com); co-producer of the retrospective exhibition “Harry Partch: I Was A Bum Once Myself -- Rare Photographs from the Life of the American Composer” at the OmniCircus (San Francisco), UCLA, and San Jose State; and conducting seminars on Partch’s work with Dr. Bob Gilmore, Dartington College of Arts in Totnes, England.
Chinary Ung was the first American composer to win the highly coveted and international Grawemeyer Award (1989), sometimes called the Nobel prize for music composition. Among other honors, Ung has received awards from The Kennedy Center (Friedheim award), The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Asia Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts.His SPIRAL XII: "Space Between Heaven and Earth" was recently premiered by The Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall in November, 2008. Ung has been a featured composer/master composer at prominent festivals/conferences, including: Asia Society, The World Music Institute's Interpretations Series - Four Generations of Asian Composers; 2007 Asian Composers League in Seoul, Korea: The 3Oth ACL Forum in Seoul, Korea; 2008 AURORA Festival, Sidney, Australia; Panel/Concert at The Library of Congress; Thailand International Composition Festival at Burapha University, Thailand; and in 2009, Other Minds: OM 14 Festival, San Francisco.
Chinary Ung has received many commissions including those from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Meet the Composer, Koussevitzky Foundation, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and La Jolla Summerfest and Santa Fe Summer Music Festivals. Ung's music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation and is a member of Broadcast Music Incorporated.
In August 2010, Mr. Ung's new chamber piece for Real Quiet will premiere at the Santa Fe and Summerfest La Jolla festivals. Afer that, he will go to work on two more new commissions: a chamber work for Zeitgeist funded by Meet the Composer and Chamber Music America, and a viola concerto for S.M.E. Ensemble funded by Jebediah Foundation New Music Commission.
His music is recorded on New World Records, Bridge Records, Cambria, London Records, Other Minds, Oodiscs, Nami Records, Kojima Records, Albany Records, Norton Recordings, Composers Recording Incorporated, Folkways Records, and Koch International.
