Our purpose is to transform the string student into an independent young colleague. Our strength lies in our unique holistic pedagogical approach and the multitude of diverse learning and performance opportunities available to them. We seek for each student to explore the power of musical communication and to help them acquire the tools to express themselves at their highest potential. The String Area’s strength is in its dedication to communication through the art of mastering the instrument to the best of one’s ability – as a philosophy, and compass that everyone can benefit from. Whether by virtue of in-depth studio lessons and classes, or performing opportunities, experimentation and research, students learn how to focus, contemplate, share, lead, follow, and ultimately equip themselves with the tools to express themselves confidently.

Strings Faculty

Ji Young An
Lecturer - Violin Performance
Che-Yen Chen
Professor - Viola Performance
Chris Hanulik
Adjunct Professor - String Bass Performance; Principal Bass LA Phil
Ben Hong
Lecturer - Cello Performance
Ela Kodžas
VEM Ensemble, Violin
Sarah Koo Freeman
Visiting Professor - Cello Performance
Varty Manouelian
Lecturer - Violin Performance, Violin LA Philharmonic
Lou Anne Neill
Lecturer - Harp Performance, Harp LA Philharmonic
Movses Pogossian
Distinguished Professor of Violin; Founder and Advisor, Armenian Music Program - Music Performance
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner

“One of the most memorable musical student/teacher interactions I have ever witnessed occurred during a concert I attended in Tuscany last summer near Montepulciano. A group of exceptionally gifted young students from the UCLA string department performed an array of classical and contemporary works together with their distinguished professors – Movses Pogossian, Guillaume Sutre, and Antonio Lysy. The results were breathtaking and brilliant.”

Apr 5 Sat
5:00pm
Free
contemporary
uclaFLUX
This quarter, uclaFLUX has explored text scores and graphic scores for unspecified (“open”) instrumentation with violist Dr. Wendy Richman. The concert will include works by Leah Asher, Christine Burke, Eva-Maria
May 2 Fri
8:00pm
Free
classical, contemporary
Spring Wind Ensemble Concert
Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for the first Wind Ensemble concert of the Spring 2025 term.   The UCLA Wind Ensemble is the premier wind band at
Schoenberg Hall
May 4 Sun
4:00pm
Free
classical, contemporary
From Vienna to LA: UCLA Philharmonia Celebrates the Milken Archive
Distinguished faculty and alumni soloists with UCLA Philharmonia will perform works by an exciting range of composers in this concert, part of the worldwide Schoenberg 150 celebrations. Works performed will
Royce Hall
Annual Vivaldi Concert to Feature First-Year Soloists
First-year music students rarely get to solo with a chamber orchestra. But at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, it happens every year for the string students. On Friday,
67th GRAMMY Award Winners
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is proud to share that faculty and alumni were well represented at the 67th GRAMMY Awards. In all, thirteen faculty and six alums
Louisville Orchestra Remembers its Concertmaster with an Opera He Played in a Nazi Concentration Camp
Adam Millstein, doctoral student in violin performance at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, was the producer for Der Kaiser von Atlantis for the Louisville Orchestra.

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