Our percussionist, Erica Hou, who features in the well known movement on FOSSILS, is one of our Rising Stars. She started playing percussion at age 4 in Taiwan and was awarded the title of California Art Scholar in 2019. Erica holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and is working on her Masters.
Saturday October 4th
4: 00 pm
Lions roared, and elephants really danced!
We were delighted to be joined by a bus party from the Downtown Value School – about 50 children, many of whom, like the rest of our young audience, had never attended a classical concert before.
Original Script – Larissa Starr Lewis
Videography and photography – Matt Tauro
Filming and technical direction – Robert Smith
Here is a short video of the concert by Matt Tauro of C3 Media
Biographies of the Musicians
David Cubek - Conductor
DAVID CUBEK is equally at home leading professional, youth, university, and community orchestras. He is a Professor of Music and the director of the Claremont Concert Orchestra of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. In addition, he is the music director and conductor of the Peninsula Symphony in Palos Verdes, California. Mr. Cubek served as assistant conductor of the Pasadena Symphony and conductor of the PYSO Philharmonic from 2016 until 2022.
In addition to being passionate about conducting and teaching, he is a firm believer in the power of music to foster social change. Mr. Cubek has conducted various ensembles from Venezuela’s admired program known as El Sistema, including the internationally recognized Teresa Carreño and Simón Bolívar symphony orchestras. He has collaborated with El Sistema inspired programs internationally and served as the conducting instructor of the MAT Program of the Longy School of Music of Bard College, which provided training for professional musicians aspiring to become agents of social change. He currently serves as conducting advisor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA program.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Mr. Cubek began private piano and composition lessons at the age of 7 before entering the Simón Bolívar Conservatory. In 1999, he moved to Montreal to continue his music education at McGill University and the Conservatory of Montreal. At the latter institution, he was awarded First Prize with Great Distinction in orchestral conducting. Mr. Cubek completed his doctoral studies in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, where he served as assistant and guest conductor of the opera program, and the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. He was music director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra and a lecturer in music theory at both Northwestern and McGill. In addition, Mr. Cubek has led ensembles in Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, and Ukraine. In California, previous engagements include appearances with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Sierra Symphony, and the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra.
A double recipient of Scripps College’s Mary W. Johnson Award for excellence in teaching, Mr. Cubek is an enthusiastic advocate of new music. At the Claremont Colleges, he has taught classes based on 20th- and 21st-century repertoires. As conductor of Fonema Consort, he maintains an international concert schedule focused on premiering new compositions.
Stephanie Matthews - Violin
Stephanie is the Co-Founder of the Re-Collective Orchestra, an all-black orchestra dedicated to raising the visibility and profile of black musicians and to present culturally relevant work to engage diverse audiences. Ms. Matthews is the former Director of Artist Development for the Sphinx Organization, cultivating the careers of some of the nation's top Black and Latino artists through professional development initiatives, including the Sphinx Competition, Sphinx Soloist Program and the Sphinx Virtuosi tour. She has served as the Assistant Dean and violin faculty with the Sphinx Performance Academy and served as Artist in Residence at the National Academy of Performing Arts in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2022, Ms. Matthews became the first Black Concertmaster of the Academy Awards Orchestra, under the musical direction of Adam Blackstone. She made history again that year with the Re-Collective Orchestra as the first all-Black orchestra to perform at the Hollywood Bowl for their Juneteenth celebration, live broadcast by CNN. Ms. Matthews has written, recorded and contributed to various music, television and film soundtracks. As the Owner and Executive Creative Director of StringCandy, she has engaged musicians throughout the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia for various tours, music festivals, and for live and recorded television shows. Most recently, Ms. Matthews contracted and recorded for Beyoncé’s “Be Alive” performance at the 2022 Academy Awards and for Adele’s Emmy-nominated “One Night Only” television special in Los Angeles.
Dorian Harewood - Actor
Dorian Harewood holds the unique distinction of having portrayed the two largest roles in the most widely seen network AND non-network mini-series in the history of television: the role of Simon Haley (father of author Alex Haley) in Roots: The Next Generations, and the role of Jesse Owens, 1936 Olympic champion and American hero, in The Jesse Owens Story.
Mr. Harewood has starred in several television series, including Viper for NBC, The Trials of Rosie O’Neill with Sharon Gless (CBS), Strike Force with Robert Stack (ABC), Trauma Center (ABC) and the highly acclaimed NBC series I’ll Fly Away, for which he won the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series. He had a recurring role in the long-running fan favorite, 7th Heaven, as next-door-neighbor Reverend Hamilton, and appeared in both the NBC series, Las Vegas, starring James Caan, and the ABC series, Private Practice, a spinoff of the hit series, Grey’s Anatomy. He has starred in numerous television movies and guest-starred on several television series, including The Christmas Shoes, starring Rob Lowe, Showtime’s Walter & Henry, directed by Daniel Petrie and produced by Norman Jewison, The Triangle for TBS, The Last Debate, directed by John Badham, The Jimi Hendrix Story, Siege, Foster and Laurie, China Beach, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, the Disney musicals Polly and Polly: One More Time, and ABC’s The Practice. He also starred in the prestigious remake of the 1957 Academy Award nominated MGM classic Twelve Angry Men, directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin and starring Academy Award winners George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon.
Mr. Harewood’s feature film credits include Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war film Full Metal Jacket, Sudden Death, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Against All Odds, Sparkle, The Falcon and the Snowman, Levity, starring Morgan Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Holly Hunter and Kirsten Dunst, Gothika, starring Halle Berry and Robert Downey, Jr., and Assault On Precinct 13, starring Laurence Fishburne and Ethan Hawke.
An accomplished singer, Dorian Harewood has had the privilege of touring Europe with the legendary Four Tops, singing live onstage with the incomparable Stevie Wonder, and performing at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City as well as the Las Vegas Hilton with the great Gladys Knight. He has performed on Broadway and in theaters across the country, starring in Kiss of the Spider Woman with Chita Rivera, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Jesus Christ Superstar, Over Here with John Travolta, The Pajama Game, Purlie, and Crumbs From The Table Of Joy, for which he won an NAACP Theatre Award. Mr. Harewood also starred in the Broadway plays Streamers, directed by Mike Nichols, Don’t Call Back, and The Mighty Gents with Morgan Freeman. But his most fateful job was his starring role in the musical Miss Moffat, opposite the late great Bette Davis, the woman responsible for his decision to become an actor.
Mr. Harewood has also enjoyed a prolific career as a voiceover artist, lending his distinctive sound to roles ranging from a purple “Monstar” in Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan, to the iconic theme song of Warner Brother’s Pinky and the Brain, to a myriad of superheroes, Saturday morning cartoons, and video game characters, to his current position as an announcer for NBC.
Bernadene Blaha, piano
Bernadene Blaha's “brilliant command of the piano”, whether featured as recitalist, concerto soloist or chamber musician, has been heralded in performances throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Mexico. Piano and Keyboard magazine has reviewed her as, “a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.” Highlights of this season include return engagements at the Piatigorsky Cello Festival, Newport Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Worcester Chamber Music Society as well as performances in Canada, France and Italy.
Originally from Canada, Ms. Blaha first came to international attention as a prizewinner in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition; the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Masterplayers International Competition, Lugano, Switzerland; and the 11th Annual International Piano Competition, New York City. This latter award resulted in two highly acclaimed recital appearances, at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. Soon afterward, Ms. Blaha was featured in the opening orchestra concert and a solo recital at the XXIX International Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Czechoslovakia, followed by performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
Ms. Blaha is a founding member of the piano trio Latitude 41, formed in 2009 with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano. Their debut CD of Schubert's monumental "Trio in E flat Major" and "Notturno" was released in 2011 on the Eloquentia label to rave reviews. The group followed this success with a recording of the Saint-Saëns Trios and has a forthcoming CD featuring the Brahms Trios. Ms. Blaha’s discography also includes recordings for the CBC, Centaur and Analekta labels.
Also in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and clinician, Ms. Blaha has received the National Arts Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Award. She has been invited to serve on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Artist Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Competition and the 2015 International E-Competition.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, Ms. Blaha has been a member of the Keyboard Faculty at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California since 1993 where she is a Professor.
Kevin Fitz-Gerald - Piano
Canadian pianist, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, enjoys a versatile performing career as recitalist, orchestra soloist and chamber musician. His performances have garnered international acclaim and he has been recognized for his “hypnotically powerful and precise” pianism and “dynamic and distinguished” interpretations. His concert tours and performances have taken place in major concert halls, universities and concert organizations throughout the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Mexico, South America, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Notable venues include Carnegie Recital Hall (New York), The Mormon Tabernacle (Utah), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Roy Thompson Hall (Toronto), Place des Arts (Montreal), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Suntori Hall (Tokyo), National Gallery (Kingston) and Town Hall (Melbourne). He has appeared with several Canadian and American orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Canadian Chamber Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Los Angeles Camerata, Utah Chamber Orchestra and more.