Connections Chamber Music Series - Artists Bios and Photos



Matthew Tommasini The California Quartet				Paul Seiko Chihara Michael Daugherty Bridget Dolkas Larry Groupé		Lars Hoefs Pam Jacobson Benjamin Lulich Jeanne Skrocki

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE Matthew Tommasini
Matthew Tommasini is a nationally recognized composer of expressive and engaging music. He has been commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony, the Milwaukee Ballet, and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings. 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. He served as composer-in-residence for the 2008-9 season of the Chicago-based chamber music series Music in the Loft, which included performances of his work by the Parker Quartet, senior associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony, Gary Levinson, piano soloist, Adam Neiman, and the premiere of a commissioned work for Antares. 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.


ENSEMBLE-IN-RESIDENCE The California Quartet					Bridget Dolkas (Violin) - Jeanne Skrocki (Violin) - Pam Jacobson (Viola) - Lars Hoefs (Cello)

					Since 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, world-premiere performances, and designing an interactive chamber music series, “Connections."
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.


	Paul Seiko Chihara (composer) 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.


	Michael Daugherty (composer) is one of the most frequently commissioned, programmed, and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today. His music is rich with cultural allusions and bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring. Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear." Daugherty first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994. Since that time, Daugherty's music has entered the orchestral, band and chamber music repertoire and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most performed living American composers.


Bridget Dolkas, first violinist and founding member of the California Quartet, is the Principal Second Violinist of the Pacific Symphony, where she also performs on the orchestra’s chamber music series, Café Ludwig. Ms. Dolkas crosses into the realm of jazz performing regularly in the Peter Sprague Consort. Beginning in 1998, she performed for eight years in the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera Orchestra. She has been awarded numerous prizes and honors and has been greatly influenced by studying chamber music under such masters as Joseph Silverstein, Kim Kashkashian, Fred Sherry, Toby Appel, Ani and Ida Kavafian, as well as the Juilliard and Miro Quartets. As a student of Alice Schoenfeld, she earned her BM degree at the University of Southern California, continuing her studies with Isaac Malkin at the Manhattan School of Music, where she completed an MM degree. She is near completion of a DMA degree from UCLA, where she studied with Mark Kaplan. She performs on a cherished 1798 Lupot violin.


		Larry Groupé (composer), resident of Oceanside, is one of the most talented and versatile composers working today in the entertainment industry. With an impressive musical résumé in film and television as well as the concert stage, his achievements have received both critical praise and popular acclaim. His film credits include Resurrecting the Champ and The Contender. In 2004 Larry was nominated for a primetime Emmy as composer of best original score for ABC’s drama series, Line of Fire. He also wrote the music for Mike Binder's comedy series, The Mind of the Married Man, on HBO.
Larry has an Emmy award to his credit for best documentary score, Jonas Salk: Personally Speaking. He's also composed the music for a variety of features that have shown at the Sundance, Berlin and Toronto International Festivals. About Luminescence, Larry writes: “I have always been interested in light and shadow. There are many descriptive words in language to describe the quality of light as well as darkness. I wanted to respond to that with a piece of music that would reflect some of those traits.”


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. As cellist of the Los Angeles-based Blue Rose Trio, Lars has performed and taught in China, Israel, Brazil, and France. Lars also plays regularly with Camerata Pacifica, “the best chamber music reason to get out of the house” – LA Times. For the 2009 season, Lars was invited to be Assistant Principal Cellist with Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 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. Also a composer, his works and improvisations reveal an interest in music of the world, and are shaped by the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti.


Pam Jacobson, violist, is a member of the Pacific Symphony. Pam is also a tenured member of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, conducted by Marin Alsop. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from Chapman University in 1992, then began playing the viola after having an instrument made for her by Rena Weisshaar in late 2001. Pam plays with various chamber ensembles, covering a diverse assortment of musical styles, including jazz performances with the Peter Sprague String Consort. On Sundays, she enjoys playing with her church's worship band at Bethel Grace Baptist Church, where her husband Joe is Worship Pastor. Pam and Joe have been blessed with a beautiful little boy, Elijah.


Benjamin Lulich was appointed Principal Clarinet of Pacific Symphony in May of 2007, coming to Orange County after spending a year as associate principal, 2nd and Eb Clarinets with the Kansas City Symphony. 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 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, and the Colorado Music Festival. Lulich has also won concerto competitions at Music Academy of the West, Cleveland Institute of Music, Marrowstone Music Festival and was a Theodore Presser Scholar. 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.


Jeanne Skrocki is the Assistant Concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and served as Concertmaster of the Opera Pacific orchestra for the past twelve years. A native of Los Angeles, former teachers include Bonnie Bell, Manuel Compinsky, of the famed Compinsky Trio, and the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, with whom she studied on full scholarship in his master class at the University of Southern California. Jeanne made her solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 14 and is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors. Before joining the California Quartet, Ms. Skrocki was a founding member of Les Amis Musicalles, an award winning flute, violin, and viola trio. Jeanne has recorded over 100 motion picture soundtracks and is a first-call musician for film composer John Williams. Television appearances include the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards and the Jay Leno Show. Ms. Skrocki is an Artist Teacher of Violin at the University of Redlands and has a Bachelors Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
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