Of Visuals and Sounds
An Art and Music Performance
June 24 • 3 pm
at
William D. Davies Memorial Building
Farnsworth Park
568 E. Mount Curve Ave., Altadena, CA 91001
Sponsored by
Rotary Club of Altadena
Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation
Thank you to all who attended this free concert generously sponsored by the Rotary Club of Altadena and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
PROGRAM
Vivaldi: Summer
Violinist Brennan Wuchner
Bach: Concerto in D for two violins
Beethoven: String Quartet Op.18 No.4
Borodin: Nocturne from String Quartet No.2
Skoryk: Melody
FEATURED YOUNG ARTISTS
Brennan Wuchner
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.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Lisa Rasmussen MFA
www.HarmoniaInstitute.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.
Laurel Antur
www.laurelantur.com
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.
Lark Pilinsky
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)
FEATURED MUSICIANS
Shawn Mann, Viola
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.
Irina Voloshina, violin
Irina Voloshina is the Founder and Music Director for Melodia Mariposa, a 501(c)(3) non-profit music organization. A violinist known around the globe for exquisite playing, she has been a soloist and concertmaster for countless orchestras and has worked on over 600 film scores with John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Hans Zimmer, to name a few.
Music moves, soothes, and excites at the same time and, for just a while, the audience unplugs, deleting the stress of the day. “It is our goal to create appealing and accessible music for those who enjoy being closer to the musicians,” notes Irina.
She is passionate about bringing great music to every level of the citizenry. Irina produced small “driveway concerts” engaging other musicians to play weekly for her neighborhood. She did it for over two years during a time when formal events were not possible. This is when she learned how much the community wanted this type of up-close
delivery of beautiful music. She launched Melodia Mariposa with the support and encouragement of friends, family, and neighbors. The name, Melodia Mariposa, came from a contest where happy listeners submitted their ideas.
In 2021, she was named Volunteer of the Year and received the Congressional Leadership Awards: Hometown Heroes of the Pandemic in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the People of the 27th Congressional District from Congresswoman Judy Chu. On December 21, 2022, Kathryn Barger, Supervisor of the 5th District of the County of Los Angeles awarded Irina and Melodia Mariposa with a commendation certificate in recognition of their dedicated service to the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all the residents of Los Angeles County.
Evgeny Tonkha, cello
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.
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.
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.
Ina Veli, violin
A native of Albania, Ina Veli grew up in a musical family and began studying violin at the age of 5. She began touring throughout Europe at age 13 and won multiple competitions in Hungary, Italy, and Albania. In 1999, she moved to the United States where she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance from the University of Oklahoma and a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.
Ina is currently 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, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and Pasadena Pops. Ina is a highly active member of the film and TV recording industry and she has appeared in live performances with Michael Buble, Bjork, Barbra Streisand, Chris Botti, Gorillaz, Feist, Burt Bacharach, Jeff Beck, and Macy Gray. Live television appearances include American Music Awards, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Dr. Phil Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Academy Awards, The Grammys as well as television specials with Mariah Carey, Josh Groban, Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli, Joss Stone, Paul Anka, P. Diddy, and Jonas Brothers.
In her rare spare time, Ina enjoys gardening, spending time with her pets (including Erik), and exploring the wineries of California.
