Laurel Antur is based in the mountains of Southern California. Currently working in cold wax and oil, Laurel has used many different media like watercolor, inks, and mixed media. Inspired by expressive and intermodal arts, Laurel uses art as a mystical practice to access the collective unconscious. Fighting the emotional challenges of our times, she uses art to connect with nature and envisions new myths for a possibly post-human world.

laurelantur.com

Adam Bhatia is a freelance trumpet player based in the LA area. Born and raised in Long Beach, he attended UCLA and earned a Bachelor of the Arts in Music as well as a Master in Music, studying with Jens Lindemann.

Active in the Los Angeles music scene, Adam has performed with groups such as the LA Phil, LA Chamber Orchestra, LA Opera, Long Beach Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, and recorded many movie and tv sessions. He is a former winner of the National Trumpet Competition, International Trumpet Guild Solo, and Orchestral Competition, and was a Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award winner.

Adam resides in Long Beach with his wife and two kids, is an avid car aficionado, and scratch golfer.

Ishani is an acclaimed violinist, in demand as performer and educator in both the UK and the USA. Born and raised in Bristol, UK, Ishani studied at the Purcell School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music winning numerous prizes and awards, including first prize in the 5th Sascha Lasserson Competition. Ishani gave her debut solo recital at the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank.

Ishani has been a member of several international orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra in the UK, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera in the US. In 2011 Ishani established the Waverley Ensemble bringing Baroque Music to a wider audience.

Jason Lewis is Melodia Mariposa’s very own Rising Star. This young artist returns to open the concert by performing his own guitar arrangement  of J.S. Bach’s violin solo, Chaconne from Partita No. 2.  He graduated from USC with degrees in Neuroscience and Classical Guitar, studying under Brian Head, and Scott Tennant and Bill Kanengiser of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. He now lives in his hometown of Chicago working towards his mission of taking music beyond the concert hall.

A brief mini-artist spotlight documentary from NPR’s From The Top about Jason’s life as a skateboarder, musician, and budding neuroscientist. Zebracamp

WATCH AND LISTEN ON YOUTUBE

Larry Blank is one of the most prolific and sought after composers, conductors, and orchestrators in the entertainment business today. His work has been presented all over the world, including some of Broadway’s most successful musicals, Carnegie Hall, and top television and film projects.

He was the Music Director/Conductor and/or vocal arranger for many shows on Broadway and in Los Angeles including They’re Playing Our Song, Evita, Sugar Babies, La Cage Aux Folles, Phantom Of The Opera, Onward Victoria, Copperfield, Colette, A Chorus Line, and A Little Night Music. He has been nominated three times for both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for his orchestrations in The Drowsy Chaperone, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, and with Marc Shaiman for Catch Me If You Can. Larry received a Drama Desk Nomination for orchestrations for A Christmas Story and Honeymoon In Las Vegas.

Acclaimed throughout the music world as not just a performer, but an “artiste”, violinist Roberto Cani has continued to bring his art to the highest of levels, captivating and delighting audiences in the United States and abroad, since his solo debut at the Gaveau Hall in Paris.

Beginning his studies at the age of seven, Mr. Cani has been a first and grand prize winner of numerous competitions, including the Paganini International Competition in Genoa, the Courcillon International Competition, and the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, where he also captured a special award for the best performance of a contemporary work. In addition, he has been the winner of the Minetti Prize and received honors at the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Throughout his successful career as soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster, he has established himself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide.

Mr. Cani has performed throughout the United States as well as in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Belgium, Poland, Serbia, France, Taiwan, Japan and South Africa. He has appeared as soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony (Italy), the Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Soloists, Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano, the American Youth Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Missouri Chamber Orchestra and Symphony of the Americas.

Mr. Cani has performed as guest concertmaster for the La Scala Philharmonic in Milan under the baton of Riccardo Muti. He was also invited by Vladimir Jurowski to be a guest concertmaster for the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Cani has been appointed Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in May 2011. As concertmaster of Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Mr. Cani is closely working with Placido Domingo and James Conlon among others.

Mr. Cani has given master classes at many California Universities, among them those at the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),s as well as playing and teaching at Summer Music Festivals in Positano, Italy and Hvar, Croatia, Music Festival in Prague.

Mr. Cani is a graduate of the Milan Conservatory, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and the University of Southern California. He has studied with world-renowned violinists Viktor Tretiakov and Abrahm Shtern.

Alan Chapman is an educator, radio host (Classical KUSC, Los Angeles), composer/lyricist, and pianist. After receiving his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earned a Ph.D. in music theory from Yale University. He was a longtime faculty member at Occidental College and is currently a member of the music theory faculty of the Colburn Conservatory.

Well-known as a pre-concert lecturer, Dr. Chapman has been a regular speaker on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Upbeat Live series since its inception in 1984 and developed the popular series of “Music 101” multimedia evenings at Walt Disney Concert Hall. He also works closely with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Pacific Symphony.

Dr. Chapman’s songs have been performed and recorded by many artists around the world. His children’s opera Les Moose: The Operatic Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was commissioned by Los Angeles Opera. Peter and Mr. Wolf is the story of an eighth grader’s tribulations in finding a science project, which was premiered by Chamber Music Palisades with Dr. Chapman as narrator. He is much in demand as a creator of original musical material for special events.

Mr. Chipman’s performance interests range from art song to Baroque music, to musical theatre to contemporary opera. He recently sang Schubert’s masterpiece, Winterreise with pianist Kimi Kawashima on the NOVA Chamber Music Series, recorded the role of Roderick Usher in Gordon Getty’s new opera Usher House with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and sang the baritone solo in Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with Utah Chamber Artists. In November 2005, he made his Carnegie Hall debut singing the baritone solo in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with the New England Symphonic Ensemble.

Mr. Chipman has performed twice as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, and he has sung with Hawaii Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Utah Opera, Lyric Opera of New York, Oberlin Opera Theater, Utah Festival Opera, and the Brevard Music Festival Opera. He has performed as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra, Oberlin Musical Union, and on seven international television and radio broadcasts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He was a regional finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and made his New York operatic debut in 2002–2003 performing the roles of Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera of New York.

Michele is thrilled to be playing a gorgeous music by Ennlo Morrlcone with her wonderfuI colleagues.
She is ordinarily found working around town in orchestras such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, New West Symphony, LA Opera Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recently, she has had the pleasure of playing shows at the Pantages such as Wicked, Les Misérables, and Miss Saigon.

Michele grew up in a small town in upstate New York, the great granddaughter of a bootlegger named Emma. She got a thrill from watching Ken Burns documentary special about prohibition and always feels as if she must have lived another life in New York City in the very early part of the twentieth century riding trolley cars and chasing ice trucks.

Her Covid project was learning about native plants and their often crucial role in protecting endangered insects such as our thousands of species of native bees. As a bonus this year, she has a swallowtail chrysalis in her yard waiting to become a butterfly.

Now she rescues all kinds of little critters mostly mixed breed mutts by fostering them until they can find forever homes. She lives in Altadena with her pup Mallie and her kitties Bobo and Smudge.

Two-time Emmy Award winner, Grammy nominee and named 2023 Hispanic Opera Legend by Los Angeles Opera, Suzanna Guzmán is an international soloist with orchestras and opera houses around the world. She rose to acclaim for her portrayal of Bizet’s Carmen (HGO, Kennedy Center, Opera de Nice: (“Fire-breathing, singing actress”..TIME ) and is dedicated to new opera works: notably the Duchess of Alba in Menotti’s GOYA, Paula in Catan’s FLORENCIA, Lucha in Yuval Sharon’s, HOPSCOTCH, Sheila in Eric Whitacre’s Gift of the Magi, The Banker in Nyman’s FACING GOYA, Luz in Benavides’ CARAVANA. A lifetime gem was as Marcellina in Ragnar Kjartansson’s epic12 hour performance of BLISS (3 minutes from Marriage of Figaro repeated in a loop for TWELVE hours straight) for the 2020 Fluxus Festival with LA Phil at Redcat. Also belting out Abuela Claudia in the 2022 production of In The Heights with The Rubicon. A national finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Competition, Guzmán is also a celebrated radio and PBS TV host, an arts education activist, garnering Mentor of the Year Award with Hispanic Scholarship Foundation and a Lifetime Achievement Award with the Nederlander Association for service to the arts and community. A member of the Los Angeles Music Center Education Division, she has performed her one-woman show, Don’t Be Afraid; It’s Just Opera! across the United States for over 500,000 inner-city students. More info? Visit www.suzannaguzman.com

MORE INFO

You may not know Dylan Skye Hart by name, but you have heard him play the horn. Proud Latino and Los Angeles native, Dylan is a busy freelance musician. Depending on the day, he can be found recording video games, motion pictures, theme parks, or television shows.

He has recorded films with many great composers including John Williams, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Randy Newman, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, and Alan Silvestri. Some movie titles on which Dylan can be heard playing the principal horn include Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Jungle Cruise, Onward, Call of the Wild, Ready Player One, Deadpool 2, Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, and The Jungle Book. Dylan has also recorded albums and appeared on television with music legends Lady Gaga, John Legend, Michael Bublé, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Wu-Tang Clan, M83, Gladys Night, Yo-Yo Ma, and The Beatles. His solos can also be heard on his namesake Bob Dylan’s albums Shadows in the Night and Fallen Angel.

Dylan has toured with John Williams’ Star Wars in Concert, Eden Espinosa of Wicked, and The Who, doubling on horn, trumpet, trombone, Wagner tuba, and mellophone. In the orchestral world, Dylan is the principal horn of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony. Dylan is also a member of the Los Angeles Horn Quartet and Modern Brass Quintet.

As an alumnus of the University of Southern California, he studied with Vincent DeRosa, James Thatcher, and Richard Todd. Dylan currently teaches horn at California State University, Long Beach. When not performing, Dylan, a “foodie”, enjoys cooking, playing ice hockey and soccer, golfing, and hanging out with his wife and fellow hornist Annie Bosler.

Tom Hynes is a guitarist, composer, and educator based in Southern California. He is an Assistant Professor of Music at Azusa Pacific University and is the Director of Jazz in the Pines Students Clinic summer camp at Idyllwild Arts. Performance credits range from a tour of the Middle East and eastern Africa for the US State Department in 1996 to his long tenure with Kim Richmond’s Concert Jazz Orchestra. Tom’s compositions include numerous large jazz ensemble compositions, film music for the Smithsonian Museum, and chamber music for the Orange County Museum of Art.

Alex Iles is principal trombonist of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

In addition, he has toured as lead and solo jazz trombonist with Maynard Ferguson and the Woody Herman Orchestra and performs in many of the top LA-based big bands and jazz groups including Bob Florence’s Limited Edition, The Seth McFarlane Orchestra, The Tom Kubis Big Band, and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. Alex can often be found playing in the pit orchestras of numerous Los Angeles productions of Broadway shows and has performed on hundreds of
television and motion picture soundtracks.

He has also appeared on numerous recordings with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, John Williams, Paul McCartney, and Prince. Alex has been a faculty trombone and jazz instructor at the California Institute of the Arts, Azusa Pacific College, and California State University, Northridge. He has appeared numerous times as a featured soloist at the International Trombone Workshop.

Currently, principal 2nd violin of the Los Ageless Opera Orchestra, Ana Landauer has been with the company since 2001. At age six, she began her violin studies at the Tchaikovsky Academy of Music and was a winner of several national violin competitions in her native Armenia. Ana made her debut with the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia at 14 and has performed since then in major halls throughout Armenia. In the United States, she attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, completing her Artist Diploma program and later studied with renowned violin professor Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California earning her Advanced Studies Diploma. Winner of the Elizabeth Harper Vaughn International Competition in Tennessee Ana has also appeared in the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Shady Side Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and served as Concermistress and Guest Soloist for the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado. She has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Mozart Camerata, and has been often heard on Classical 105.1 FM. Ana Landauer is an active chamber musician in the greater Los Angeles area.

Violinist Songa Lee has established herself as one of the most prolific and sought after studio musicians in Los Angeles. She has contributed to the soundtracks and musical scores of hundreds of movies, television shows and albums, and has performed multiple times on the Academy Awards, Grammy and Emmy telecasts. 

Born in Korea, Songa’s family moved to England when she was just three months old. She began playing the violin at the age of six and the following year was awarded a full scholarship to attend Chetham’s School of Music, a prestigious boarding school for gifted young musicians, where she remained until she was sixteen. After a successful recital debut at the South Bank Centre in London, Songa signed with Encore Concerts Limited, and came to the United States as part of the British Virtuosi. A scholarship to USC brought Songa to Los Angeles, where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett. 

Ms. Lee was involved in various music festivals such as Sarasota, the Schleswig-Holstein Masterclass Series, and a residency at the Banff Centre, and also toured England and Canada with the late Canadian pianist Guy Lalime.  After receiving numerous awards and grants for performances in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, in 1998 Songa returned to Korea for the first time as part of a festival honoring Korean musicians living abroad. There she performed live on national television and radio as soloist with the KBS Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center.  Ms. Lee was also part of an esteemed commission to perform at Carnegie Hall with her sister, cellist Su-a Lee and pianist Louise Thomas.

Ms. Lee currently resides in the Los Angeles area where she enjoys the diversity of regular recording session work, live solo and chamber music performances on California’s central coast, and varied orchestral engagements.  

Timothy Loo, moved to Los Angeles in 1992 to study cello performance at California State University at Northridge and the University of Southern California. Timothy is a member of the Lyris Quartet, founded in 2008.  This quartet is the resident ensemble at both Jacaranda and Hear Now Festivals and has been featured numerous times on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella and Noon 2 Midnight series at The Walt Disney Concert Hall.
In January 2018, Mr. Loo made his concerto debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Walt Disney Concert Hall performing the fiendishly difficult Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Bernt Zimmermann, under the direction of conductor Susanna Mälkki.

Timothy has also performed on over 1000 motion pictures, TV shows, albums, commercials, award shows, including yearly at the Academy Award

Timothy is also one of the foremost music contractors in Los Angeles.  Most recently he assembled the orchestra for composer John Williams for the scoring of Indiana Jones 5: The Dial of Destiny, ESPN College Football Playoffs, The Fablemans and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Mr. Loo is also the music contractor for James Newton Howard, Mike Post, Jeff Russo, Branford Marsalis, Disney’s Launchpad streaming series, The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, just to name a few.

In 2019, Timothy and his husband Tommy Johnson purchased Sabron Payroll Services and act as CFO and CEO respectively. Sabron is a leading payroll company in the entertainment industry that has built strong relationships with major production companies such as Disney, Netflix, MGM, Paramount, LucasFilm, and Apple.
Sabron has a 30-year legacy as a boutique payroll company that helps production companies or composers to navigate the complex music contracts of the American Federation of Musicians, SAG-AFTRA, and IATSE.

A native of Texas, Shawn Mann is a long-standing member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and can be seen around town playing with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Pasadena Symphony and Pops, and was recently a featured soloist with Pasadena-based chamber orchestra MUSE/IQUE. He is also an active studio musician, having played on hundreds of motion picture soundtrack scores for composers such as John Williams, James Horner and Danny Elfman, and recordings with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban.

Shawn has traveled the length and breadth of Japan as Principal Viola of the Percy Faith Orchestra, and performed with the Pacific Symphony on their critically acclaimed tour of Germany and Austria. He has performed at Festival Mozaic, the Aspen Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, Colorado Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West.

Shawn holds degrees from the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California. His teachers have included Yizhak Schotten, David Holland, John Graham and Donald McInnes.

When not playing the viola, Shawn can often be found restoring his 1970 TriumphTR6 or deciding which house project to tackle next.

Bevan Manson is a musical jack-of-all trades as a classical composer, arranger, and jazz pianist.

He has received composing commissions from Sierra Chamber Music, the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Philharmonic Foundation, the San Francisco Symphony, clarinetist Gary Gray, and L.A. Chamber Orchestra violist Victoria Miskolczy, among others.

His ‘California Concertino’ was premiered by Katherine Fink of the Brooklyn Philharmonic with Paul Dunkel conducting, and also performed by L.A. Chamber Orchestra flutist David Shostac with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony. It has been recorded on Albany Records with soloist Sara Andon.

He has performed with George Garzone, Cecil McBee, Gunther Schuller, Bob Sheppard, Ron Jones L.A. Big Band, Ira Sullivan, and Jimmy Guiffre, among others, as a jazz pianist, with recordings on Iris Records and Meistero Music. 

Bevan has written and conducted string charts for saxophonist Gary Smulyan at New York’s Blue Note jazz club, and  wrote string arrangements for Manhattan Transfer singer Cheryl Bentyne’s new Sondheim album, of which JazzTimes Magazine commented that “ a kaleidoscopic, edge-of-sanity Comedy Tonight that, courtesy of arranger Bevan Manson, blends Baroque courtliness with Big Top buffoonery.”

“Manson’s composing is brilliant, inventive, witty but never self-consciously clever.”
-RafaelMusicNotes. com (Cincinnati)

Violist Luke Maurer, a native of Santa Barbara, California, has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a chamber and orchestral musician. Maurer was a member of the Pacific Symphony for over a decade and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also served as guest principal violist with Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan.
Maurer is the violist of the Lyris Quartet, resident ensemble of the critically acclaimed series Jacaranda: Music at the Edge. Lyris is also the founding resident ensemble of the Hear Now Music Festival, which focuses on the music of living Los Angeles composers. The quartet has recorded for Toccata Classics, ARS and Naxos.

Alyssa Park established an enviable international reputation at age sixteen for being the youngest prizewinner in the history of the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Ms. Park has made numerous recital and orchestral appearances since her professional debut at age eleven with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Her New York City debut recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall was critically acclaimed by The New York Times for “an unusually strong technique and a youthful sense of music making.” Other notable credits include the Ravinia Festival Series, Kennedy Center Recital Series, Oregon Bach Festival, and Rockefeller University in New York City.

As a soloist, Ms. Park has concertized extensively throughout Europe. She has performed with Sir Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as appearances with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Czech Philharmonic. Her performance with the Austrian Radio Symphony at Vienna’s Musikverein was featured in a live radio and television broadcast throughout Europe. Ms.Park has toured Germany with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Barcelona Orchestra, Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Hamburg Philharmonic, and to Spain, Switzerland, and Austria with the Cincinnati Symphony. She also appeared as a soloist with the orchestras of Sydney, Adelaide, and Tasmania, Australia.

Ms. Park’s recent seasons included performances in Asia with the Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, and the Singapore Symphony. She was also featured with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Lisbon Symphony, Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie, and Munich Philharmonic. She also made her debut at Italy’s Ravello Festival and Holland’s Royal Concertgebouw.

An avid chamber musician as well, Ms. Park has been a frequent guest at major festivals including Ludwisburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Weilburg, Passau, Frankfurt, Montpellier, France, Brahms festival in Madrid, Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Prague Summer Festival, and Oregon Festival of American Music. She has been on tours with Martha Argerich, Boris Pergamenchikov, Billy Childs, Louis Lortie, and Soovin Kim just to name a few.
Ms. Park is also a founding member of the Lyris Quartet which is based in Los Angeles. Lyris curates the “Hear Now” new music festival which is dedicated to performing the works of living Southern California composers. The quartet is also the resident quartet for the highly acclaimed Jacaranda music series in Santa Monica.

Lyris has collaborated closely with composers Krystof Penderecki, Andrew Norman, Oliver Knussen, Steven Mackey, John Adams, Bruce Broughton, Peter Knell, Kurt Rohde, Paquito D’Rivera, Wadada Leo Smith, Gerard Schurmann, and James Newton. They’ve performed as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series, been featured at the Hollywood Bowl, and will make their debut with the Los Angeles Master Chorale this season.

Ms. Park’s recordings can be found on Albany Records, Toccata Classics, ARS, and Naxos.

Stephanie Payne, Double Bass, was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Hawaii, studied at USC, and has made her way back to Los Angeles after a brief six years in the Bay Area to enjoy everything that freelancing has to offer up north. She started playing the bass at 16 after discovering her love of low notes, and quickly went on to pursue a career in music.

Stephanie has performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera, the San Diego Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Sarasota Opera, and is an active recording musician, playing on various TV and film soundtracks.

Tina Soule, Cello

Rising star, Alistair Picken received his High School diploma in June 2023 from the Pacific Academy in Irvine and a diploma from the Colburn Academy in June 2023.

Larisa Pilinsky, the Russian-born, Los Angeles-based artist and writer, began her visual art activities as a collagist. Actually, she began her professional involvement with art as a journalist advocating for other artists, specifically the ArmenianRussian Bunker group; but as her connection deepened to the adventurous and open-spirited Bunker artists, she found herself moved to make art herself, with their encouragement. Lark’s painting clearly derives from Bunker aesthetics in its reliance on texture, gesture, and flow. Her color sensibility, however, comes from somewhere entirely different, from artistic impulses that emerged a century and a half (or more) earlier. Focused on representational, usually landscape. subjects – albeit ones that often disappear into a painterly scumble (only to reappear on second or third glance) – Lark describes those subjects with sweeping, almost sculpted brushstrokes and clots of paint, as well as a glowing palette that descends from the French Impressionists, luminous and mysterious atmospherics reminiscent of J.M.W. Turner, and a granular embrace of nature – a comprehension of space itself as part of the natural order – that brings to mind Gustave Courbet and the Barbizon painters.

(By Peter Frank) - Llarkgallery.com

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with the liminal —- the neither here nor there, the betwixt or the in-between. The ancient Celts called this state Caol-ait or “thin places” where the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds merge.

When I paint, I penetrate a threshold that allows me to enter this realm of consciousness, where one can explore the interflow between soul and matter, and between time and eternity. It is a realm of pure possibility.

My art is a recorded event of my deep interest in mysticism and the natural world, as well as a passageway into my own mythical inversion of reality. I see my paintings as portals; visual archives that tap into my unconscious. My surfaces are painted over layers of symbols and forms, recalling cave walls and ritual chambers. Many of my paintings are inspired by my study of ancient cultures and travel to sacred sites around the globe where animistic worldviews encompassed a belief in a magical Other World.

I believe that art is intrinsic to the nurturance of the human spirit and that artists’ true essence is transformative. In all my work I seek to honor that state of the soul when the artist experiences the ultimate liberation, which is the personal act of creation itself.

www.HarmoniaInstitute.com

Dan Rosenboom is an internationally recognized trumpet player, composer, and producer. He is known as a prolific member of the Los Angeles creative music scene, having released more than 25 albums of original music as a solo artist and bandleader, and has supported over 60 artists across over 100 releases on his label, Orenda Records. Rosenboom is a proud member of the Hollywood Studio Symphony and has recorded for over 200 major film and television soundtracks with such notable composers as John Williams, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Desplat, and many more. He has also performed with such elite ensembles as the LA Philharmonic, the LA Chamber Orchestra, and the LA Opera. His own music eschews genre distinctions and draws from such disparate influences as Black American Music, metal and experimental rock, contemporary classical music, folk music from the Balkans, and a broad range of progressive music from the avant-garde. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, CalArts, and UCLA, where he earned advanced degrees in music. The Los Angeles Times has called Dan Rosenboom “a musician dedicated to exploration and expression, regardless of anyone’s imagined boundaries,” and “a phenomenon.”

As a composer, Rosenboom has been recognized with grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, the Meet the Composer Foundation, and the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music. As a bandleader, he has brought his music to such renowned stages as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival, Jazzfestival Saalfelden, and Jazz em Agosto. Rosenboom has solidified his place as a pillar in LA’s creative music community through his work with multiple generations of LA icons and rising talents, through his label Orenda Records, with his Balkan-inspired instrumental rock band PLOTZ! and improv group DR. MiNT, and across nearly two decades of noteworthy interdisciplinary performances at most of Los Angeles’s premiere venues.

Rosenboom’s iconoclastic protest band Burning Ghosts has drawn international attention for their rousing blend of experimental jazz, punk, and metal as a response to modern socio-political ills. To date, they have released four albums, including one on John Zorn’s legendary Tzadik label, and have toured in the US and Europe. In a review of their self-titled debut, Something Else Reviews dubbed them “The Rage Against the Machine of Jazz.”

Rosenboom is an advocate for progressive music education. He currently teaches at UCLA and California Institute of the Arts, and his trumpet pedagogy book, The Boom Method: Universal Fundamentals for Trumpet and Other Instruments, Vol. 1, was published by Balqhuidder Music in 2019. His writing has also been published in John Zorn’s Arcana IX: Musicians on Music on Tzadik.

Dan Rosenboom is proud to be an endorsing artist for Yamaha Trumpets, Bob Reeves Brass Mouthpieces, AEA Microphones, Horn FX, and Kirlin Cables.

Native of Los Angeles, Erik Rynearson has been performing music since the age of three.  Now at age forty-three he enjoys leading the viola sections of the Los Angeles Opera Company, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Pacific Jazz Orchestra, and the Santa Barbara Symphony. Erik is in great demand as a freelance recording artist, working with among others Aretha Franklin, John Williams and the Blue Man Group. Occasionally, Erik is featured as a solo horn player in his car.

Musically, Rynearson devoured Haydn, Beethoven and Brubeck in childhood and currently hungers for the sounds of Zemlinsky, Korngold and Charlie Parker.  He owes his musical preparedness to his teachers including his father Paul, Miwako Watanabe, Franco Gulli, Ilya Kaler and Henryk Kowalski. 

Highlights so far of the ’23-24 season include recording for Barbra Streisand and performing with Rufus Wainwright.

Off-stage, Erik enjoys spending time reading, swimming, and learning more about the alto Sax. He plays a Danish viola made by Carl Mettus Weis in 1845. 

Violist Colleen Sugata is a member of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, the New West Symphony, and is an active Hollywood studio musician.

Prior to moving to Southern California, Colleen performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony for three seasons. She has been on numerous tours with the Pittsburgh Symphony, including performances at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and 2009, and their extensive European tour in 2010 which resulted in the recording of the Brahms Symphonies. She has attended such prestigious music festivals as Music at Menlo and the Aspen Music Festival.

Colleen received both her BM and MM degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a scholarship student of Professor Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey. She has studied French and Chinese, and uses both languages in her musical travels. Colleen and her husband live with their two kids and rescue dog. Her family loves to travel and spent time in Sweden during 2022 and will be visiting Japan in 2023. Colleen is also an avid seamstress and makes most of her clothes.

Steven Suminski regularly performs with professional orchestras  throughout the state of California as well as working as an active freelance trombonist in the greater Los Angeles area. He is currently the principal trombonist with Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose, The Riverside County Philharmonic, Ballet San Jose, and the Santa Monica  Symphony. In addition, Suminski has appeared with many other groups including the San Francisco Opera, Santa Barbara Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, and the San Bernardino, and Redlands Symphonies.

Steve is also a founding member of the award-winning chamber music group, Brass Pacifica. Brass Pacifica currently performs in over 50 venues a year working as performing artists for The Music Center of Los Angeles and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Steve has performed with his group all over the country including a nine-month residency in Bar Harbor, Maine that was sponsored by Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts. With such an eventful career playing the trombone, in his free time, Steve is content to just slide through life.

Ashlee Sung is a 16-year-old violinist who studies with Sharon Harman at Pasadena Conservatory of Music and is a junior at Arcadia High School. She has been playing the violin for 13 years, having won multiple competitions in 2021, including the first round of the 2021 Pasadena Rotary Club Dan Stover Rotary Music Competition. She is currently the concertmistress of the Pasadena Youth Philharmonic. Aside from playing the violin, Ashlee also enjoys tutoring younger violin students and composing music. She sees music as a comforting outlet where people can release their emotions in a positive way; in other words, music and mental health have a strong correlation that can be further explored at Ashlee’s website.

Ignazio Terrasi, after completing his musical studies in composition and music conducting at the Conservatory of Music “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, embarked on a prolific concert career in Milan as the conductor of the “Pierluigi da Palestrina” orchestra and the Symphonic Orchestra “Milano Classica.” He acquired an extensive repertoire spanning from the Baroque period to the historical and contemporary works of the 20th century.

His conducting education continued under the guidance of Maestro Julius Kalmar and Maestro Sandro Gorli with the “Divertimento Ensemble,” an orchestra specializing in contemporary music, with whom he participated in numerous concerts as a guest conductor. Additionally, he began his collaboration as a musical assistant to Maestro James Conlon at the Opéra National de Paris, marking the start of many experiences as an assistant conductor.

Over the years, he worked with various orchestras and opera houses, including the Communal Theatre of Florence with the Orchestra of the Musical May of Florence, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Cincinnati May Festival. He also collaborated as an associate conductor with Maestro David Golub during the 25th and 26th Festivals of the Itria Valley in Martina Franca.

In September 2000, he settled in Paris, where he secured a position as a permanent musical assistant at the Opéra National de Paris. During this time, he had the privilege of working with renowned artists such as Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Angela Gheorghiu, Carol Vaness, Joseph Van Dam, and Natalie Dessay. Concurrently, he conducted chamber orchestra concerts in Paris.

In 2004, he became the principal conductor for various contemporary opera productions, including the interactive opera “Alma Sola” produced in Paris in collaboration with IRCAM – Centre Pompidou, which had several performances in Paris and Ile-de-France. Since 2005, he has served as the principal conductor of the Paris Classique Orchestra.

Since August 2006, he has been a permanent resident in the US, serving as the principal music assistant to Maestro James Conlon at the Los Angeles Opera. In 2008, he contributed to the LA Opera production of “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” which won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album and Great Performances. He also contributed to another Grammy Award-winning production, “Ghosts of Versailles,” in 2017.

Ignazio Terrasi is the Music Director of “LA Grand Ensemble,” comprised of musicians from prestigious orchestras and music institutions in Los Angeles, including the LA Philharmonic, LA Opera, and the Colburn School. In January 2019, he conducted the world premiere of a new opera by Composer Juan Colomer, “Dulcinea XL.”

Evgeny Tonkha was born in 1981, into a musical family and studied at the Gnessin Music School (class of Professor Vladimir Tonkha.) In 1998, he entered the Russian Academy of Music (classes of Professor Natalia Shakhovskaya and Professor Valentin Berlinsky.) After graduating from the Russian Academy of Music, Evgeny was invited by Professor David Geringas to post-graduate studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.
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Since 2006, Evgeny has been collaborating with the Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra. Since the age of 10, he has toured Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the USA. Conductors he has worked with include Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, and Daniel Barenboim. Among his achievements are the 1st Prize and the Golden Medal at the 12th International Cello Competition in the Czech Republic, the Special Jury Prize at the 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition, and prizes for the best performance of contemporary music.
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He participated in many prestigious festivals including “Marlboro” festival Evgeny teaches at MiMoDa studio. In 2014 In collaboration with Nathan Frankel he founded a new “K17” concert series in LA and was proud to represent such a world favors artists as David Geringas, Gilles Apap, Giovanni Sollima, and many others.

“A player of astonishing flamboyance” (Los Angeles Times) and “impressive dash” (Orange County Register), Doug Tornquist grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley. He came to Los Angeles for his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Jim Self and Tommy Johnson. He earned his master’s degree from Wichita State University, where he played the WSU faculty brass quintet, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and toured with the Saint Louis Symphony, under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.

He returned to Los Angeles in 1987 to earn his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from USC and soon became a busy freelance performer, playing everywhere from amusement parks to the ballet, opera, and symphony (sometimes on the same day). He has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and all the regional orchestras. He has recorded with Diana Krall, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Randy Newman, Meatloaf, and Beck, among others.

The first time he was invited to play on a film score was in 1989 for "Edward Scissorhands." Since then he has played on the soundtracks of over 800 films, TV shows, and video games. He was the (tuba) voice of "Wreck-It Ralph," played on John Williams’ most recent scores, and was a featured soloist with John Lithgow on "I’m a Manatee." He regularly records for Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, James Newton Howard, Randy Newman, Christophe Beck, and many other composers.

Among his more notable recordings are the Grammy-winning premiere of the Penderecki Credo (with the Oregon Bach Festival), and two recordings with Quintadillac, a German brass quintet. He recently released a solo CD, Feels Like Far, and produced a CD of holiday brass music, Fiat Lux.

He teaches at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of the Arts.

Ina Veli was born and raised in Albania in a family of musicians. At 5 years old, Ina began studying violin in her hometown of Fier. By age 13, Ina began touring throughout Europe, winning multiple competitions and performing recitals in Hungary, Italy and Albania. In 1999, she moved to the United States where she completed her undergraduate degree in Violin Performance from the University of Oklahoma. She later received her Masters degree from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

Ina is based in Los Angeles and serves as Assistant Concertmaster for the Santa Barbara Symphony, Principal Second for the New West Symphony and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Opera. Ina is also active in the recording industry and has recorded with the likes of John Williams, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Barbara Streisand, Beyoncé and Barry Manilow. 

Outside of the music world, Ina enjoys hiking, dining, gardening with her partner Erik and visiting her relatives in Europe any chance she gets. 

John Walz is a celebrated soloist and chamber music artist, known for his dazzling virtuosity and elegant musicianship.

A student of the legendary French cellist Pierre Fournier, he has appeared as soloist with more than 200 symphony orchestras on five continents. His performances of 25 different concertos include both standard showcases and rarities like Martinu’s Concerto #1 and William Schuman’s Song of Orfeus. In addition, he has had the honor of premiering works by many noted composers, including John Williams. In 1979, Mr. Walz, along with pianist Edith Orloff, founded the Pacific Trio. Now performing with violinist Roger Wilkie, this renowned ensemble has played more than 900 concerts throughout North America and Europe.

In addition to his solo and chamber music duties, he is currently the principal cellist with LA Opera, a position he previously held for 20 years with the Long Beach Symphony.

His ever-expanding discography includes recordings of the concertos by Dvorak, Haydn, Shostakovich, Bloch, Martinu and Vivaldi. Pacific Trio recordings include Brahms, Shostakovich, Dvorak, Smetana, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Archduke Trio, an all-American CD, and the most recent, trios of Korngold, Zemlinsky and Bloch.

He is on the faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program and Academy

A native of Los Angeles, violinist Roger Wilkie began his violin studies at age 13. Eight years later, he joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as one of its youngest members, eventually being appointed principal second violin. In 1990, Roger was appointed concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, a position he holds to this day. He is also currently concertmaster of the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra. A frequent soloist with the Long Beach Symphony, he has been featured in performances of the majority of the standard violin concerto repertoire.

Roger is a much sought after soloist and chamber musician. He was a founding member of the Angeles String Quartet, performing and touring from 1988-1993. He was solo violinist with the Santa Barbara based Camerata Pacifica, on whose series he played hundreds of concerts as recitalist and chamber musician. Roger has recorded and toured extensively as a member of the critically acclaimed Pacific Trio, including a performance at the Silver Lire International Festival of Chamber Music in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has participated in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, and the Mainly Mozart Festival. He is a frequent performer with the Music Guild of Los Angeles, the South Bay Chamber Music Society, and many others. In January 2023, Roger was invited by L. A. Opera Music Director James Conlon to serve as guest associate concertmaster with the Baltimore Symphony for performances
of the Verdi Requiem.

In great demand as a concertmaster for the Hollywood studio orchestras, Roger has served in that capacity for many of Hollywood’s leading composers. Since 2005, he has had the honor of serving as concertmaster for the motion picture scores of legendary composer John Williams, including the last three episodes of the Star Wars franchise, The Fabelmans, and the soon to be released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

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Brennan Wuchner started playing the violin at the age of five. In 2019 he began studying with Aimee Kreston, and since then, he has enjoyed performing in a variety of recitals and concerts at the Colburn Community School. A favorite violin experience occurred in 2021 when he was chosen to perform Vivaldi’s Spring Concerto with the Pacific Academy Foundation Orchestra (PAFO).

In 2022, he had the opportunity to develop further through participation in the Colburn Chamber Music Intensive. Last year he also received his first paid “gig,” playing in the pit orchestra for the Fine Arts Network Theater Company. Additionally, he was the first-place winner in the Southern California Bach Festival Complete Works Audition 2022. He is currently Assistant Concert Master in both PAFO and the Temecula Valley Youth Symphony.

Upcoming plans include performing the Vivaldi “Summer” Concerto with the Eastern Sierra Symphony and the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto with PAFO later this summer. His summer plans also include attending the Pasadena Conservatory Intensive and the Idyllwild Arts Chamber Music Intensive, for which he received a full scholarship. His other hobbies include playing chess, fishing, and flying his RC planes.