Saturday April 4th

Internationally acclaimed French-Canadian violinist Luanne Homzy is highly sought-after for her technical facility, sensitive musicality and expansive versatility. She has brought home First Prizes in international and national competitions and has performed concerti with orchestras such as the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Colburn Chamber Orchestra. She has served as concertmaster for the Colburn Orchestra, the American Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and has worked closely with masters such as Sir Neville Mariner, Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, Kent Nagano and John Williams.

Artists Ms. Homzy has collaborated with include Arnold Steinhardt, Franklin Cohen, Ani Kavafian, Paul Coletti, Ronald Leonard, Niklas Schmidt, Richard Lester, Paul Neubauer and the Tokyo String Quartet. She has appeared in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Banff Center and Place-Des-Arts. While a student, she has played in masterclasses for Midori Goto, Wu Han, David Finckel, Pierre Amoyal, Pamela and Claud Frank, Anne Akiko Meyers, members of the Takacs Quartet and of the Ebène Quartet.

Festivals Ms. Homzy has performed in and taught at include the Bari International Music Festival in Italy, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Music By The Sea at Bamfield, The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Domaine Forget Festival. Ms. Homzy has collaborated with musical activists such as Street Symphony —a non-profit run by members of the L.A. Philharmonic and TED members that delivers on-site concerts for greatly underserved members of the community. She has also organized and presented community engagement performances and workshops in the U.S, Canada, Japan and New-Zealand.

As a founding member of the Saguaro Piano Trio —First Prize winner of the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009 — she has toured Germany, New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Canada and Japan. She has recorded a full-length album with the Saguaro Trio, live solo recitals and studio sessions for Radio-Canada.

A brilliant improviser and equally at home in many genres, whether it be jazz, classical, gypsy or Eastern European folk music, Ms. Homzy performs world wide with crossover group Trio Dinicu, hailed as “dazzling” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Ms. Homzy composes and arranges classical, jazz, popular and world music for diverse ensembles. Recent premieres include her arrangement of “Caprice No. 24 With A Swing” premiered in Italy in June 2012, and her arrangement of “Honeysuckle Rose” by Fats Waller, premiered in Canada in July 2013, bothaudience favorites.

Ms. Homzy is based in Los Angeles. She studied with Robert Lipsett on a full scholarship at the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles and later obtained her Masters from the Hamburg Hochschule in Germany.

Nikolay Sivchuk - Bayan

Nikolay Sivchuk is a brilliant bayan (button accordion) player from Russia, talented teacher, arranger and composer, who continues the best traditions of Russian bayan school of performers. He was born in 1981 in Surgut (Russia), where he started his musical education. In his childhood Nikolay being very talented and virtuoso player is already winner of several competitions of International caliber. In 1996 Sivchuk gets the scholarship and becomes the member of the International Programme «New Names», the Charitable Foundation which helps the most gifted young musicians of Russia. Through the «New Names» Programme Nikolay meets the legendary Russian Professor Viacheslav Semionov and some years later continues the education as a student of Semionov’s class in Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. During his studies with prominent Teacher Nikolay Sivchuk becomes the laureate of the most prestigious All-Russian and International competitions. Nowadays besides his solo recitals, Nikolay collaborates with many recognised and famous performers, such as cellist Boris Andrianov, guitarist Yamandu Costa, guitarist Dimitri Illarionov, violinist Elena Revich, pianists
Vadym Kholodenko, Andrey Gugnin and others, constantly increasing the geography of his concerts.
Through intensively colourful and bright performances Nikolay Sivchuk always shows amazing capacities of bayan. Audiences enjoy Nikolay’s versatile and profound musicality with courageous and brave interpretations of modern and classical pieces, thereby discovering the young instrument in the history of classical/art music – bayan.

Luca Pino is a Los Angeles-based guitarist whose hot jazz stylings are cut from the cloth of Django Reinhardt, Oscar Aleman, and Freddie Green. He leads his own quartet entitled "Pino Noir," in which he reimagines the 1930s Paris swing sound with exciting arrangements, electric fashion sense, and original compositions. He's headlined various gypsy jazz festivals such as Djangofest Northwest in Seattle, and Djangojazz Festival in Mexico, not to mention a teaching stint at Django In June in Massachusetts.

His penchant for early 20th-century swing guitar has also led him to world tours with Postmodern Jukebox, as well as performing with local acts such as Lizzy & The Triggermen and Jonathan Stout's Boulevardiers.

Born into a musical family in Weimar, Germany, Felix Kochendörfer's early musical journey began with the violin and trombone before he found his true calling in the upright bass. His passion for jazz truly ignited when he joined a collective of young musicians dedicated to the legacy of Django Reinhardt, touring with them across Germany and Italy.

After moving to the United States he quickly became an established bassist in the Los Angeles Gypsy jazz scene, performing at prestigious festivals across the West Coast. His resume includes collaborations with renowned artists such as Trio Dinicu, Yorgui Loeffler, Stephane Wrembel, Jimmy Grant, and Brad Brose among others.

Felix has studied Acoustic Engineering in Germany and Denmark and now works primarily as an audio engineer in Los Angeles following his passion to develop high quality loudspeakers and audio systems.