The Three B’s: Beethoven, Bartók and Billy
Join us for a pre-concert talk starting at 7:15pm.
Four top-notch string players are drawn from one of L.A.’s favorite conductor-less chamber orchestras to play a program of seminal string quartets by the Big Three: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Bela Bartók and Billy Childs.
THE PROGRAM
Unrequited…………………………………………………………………………………..Billy Childs
String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74, “Harp”…………………Ludwig Van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 4……………………………………………………………………Bela Bartok
FEATURED ARTISTS
Benjamin Hoffman, violinist, has been heard across Asia, Europe, and the US, performing alongside artists such as Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, Peter Frankl, Wolfram Christ, Jorja Fleezanis, and Gary Hoffman among others, in various chamber music formations at festivals such as Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, and Music Academy of the West. In his Carnegie Hall debut, he performed Aaron Jay Kernis’s “Mozart en Route” and Hindemith’s “Kammermusik Nr. 1.” Recently, he had the honor of performing before UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon as a member of Sejong Soloists at the United Nations in New York.
Mr. Hoffman served as concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia under the baton of John Adams at Avery Fisher Hall in New York to critical acclaim. He has also appeared as guest concertmaster with the New Haven Symphony, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, the Szechuan Orchestra of China, Symphony Song in Seoul, Korea, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. In a recent performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, he was praised for his “virtuosity and deep feeling…impeccable intonation [and] a stirring, inspired performance.” Other appearances as a soloist have included works ranging from solo Bach to Brahms’s Double Concerto to contemporary premieres.
Chiai Tajima is an avid orchestral and chamber musician, performing frequently in coveted venues across the globe. Most recently, she served as concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra in Germany, some of the world’s most prestigious orchestral academies. Throughout the year, she performs with the San Diego Symphony and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble that premiers new works alongside standard repertoire. In addition to her orchestral collaborations, she is an artist at Le Salon De Musique, a chamber music series based at The Music Center in Los Angeles. She recently collaborated with members of the Calder Quartet in their 2017-2018 season.
Chiai holds a Bachelor and Masters degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied under the tutelage of Masao Kawasaki as a recipient of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship. While at Juilliard, she participated in an interactive outreach program as a GLUCK fellow, bringing music to various metropolitan hospitals, nursing homes, and care facilities. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at USC Thornton School of Music, studying with Bing Wang. Chiai plays on a 1688 Antonio Casini, generously on loan from an anonymous donor.
Alex Granger, heralded as “superb” by the San Francisco Classical Voice, violinist/violist Alex Granger enjoys a wide variety of performance opportunities from studio recordings to solo recital appearances, and collaborations with some of Los Angeles’ most exciting ensembles. An experienced performer of music by living composers, Alex has premiered nearly 50 works in the past 5 years as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician, working directly with some of the world’s foremost composers.
Recent festival appearances include the Breckenridge Music Festival, the Eastern Sierra Summer Festival, the Carlsbad Music Festival, and a world premiere of Lucas Floyd’s Violin Concerto at the Hot Air Festival in San Francisco. Alex is a faculty member of Porterville Strings, serves on the artistic team of the award winning Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and is a founding member of the Mikado String Quartet.
Juliette Herlin is recognized as one of the most promising French cellists of her generation and has performed throughout Europe, the U.S and Asia. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has appeared in such prestigious venues as the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Cité de la Musique, the Musée du Louvre, and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Alice Tully Hall in New York as well as at the Minsk Philharmony, in Belarus.
Born in Paris in 1991, Juliette was admitted at the age of sixteen to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) where she obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees studying with Jérôme Pernoo. She pursued her studies at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Richard Aaron. Currently, Juliette is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California where she studies with Ralph Kirschbaum. She is the grateful recipient of support from the French Ministry of Culture, from the Balas Company, and from the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF).
