Between the Brandenburgs

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active performer and educator. Since winning First Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and the “President Prize” of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, he was described as a musician whose “most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.” As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, founded the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and has released recordings on EMI, Delos, New World, and Bridge Records. Chen was the principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra for eight years and has appeared as guest principal with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. A former Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two member, Chen frequently performs and teaches at music festivals across North America and Asia. Professor of Viola Performance and Chamber Music at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Chen has previously served on the faculty of USC Thornton School of Music, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, California State University Fullerton, and McGill University. A native of Taipei, Chen began his viola study with Ben Lin and became a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. As a fourteen-year-old, he came to the U.S.A. to matriculate at The Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Michael Tree and Joseph de Pasquale and later at The Juilliard School studying viola performance and string quartet under Paul Neubauer and The Juilliard Quartet. Chen joined the renowned Ehnes Quartet in 2023.

Ally Cho is a doctoral student of Violin Performance at UCLA under the guidance of Movses Pogossian and Varty Manouelian. Her musical journey began in Gold Coast, Australia, where she first picked up the violin at the age of 5. Her path has been a remarkable adventure, taking her across the seas in pursuit of her dream. In 2018, Ally crossed continents to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in classical violin under the tutelage of Lucie Robert at Manhattan School of Music in New York City, broadening her horizons with chamber music opportunities. Since 2023, Ally has been a part of the VEM Quartet, the resident ensemble of the UCLA Armenian Music Program. She aspires to be a virtuoso violinist, captivating global audiences and inspiring future musicians. Her musical journey continues, with many more chapters and achievements yet to be composed.

Johannes Eberhart, is a music education major at UCLA currently studying violin under Movses Pogossian and Varty Manouelian. Johannes comes from Rancho Palos Verdes and began studying violin in the 4th grade through his elementary school’s music program. Since then, he has been assistant principal second violin in the Interlochen World Youth Symphony Orchestra under the batons of Christian Măcelaru and Roderick Cox, has participated in the SCSBOA Honor Orchestra, and has studied chamber music in the Colburn Community School of the Performing Arts under the coaching of violist Katherine Vincent.

In addition to the violin, he has a passion for conducting, currently studying with Dean Anderson and receiving guidance from Professor Neal Stulberg. Johannes has conducted the Palos Verdes High School Chamber Orchestra in several concerts, was music director for shows such as “Something Rotten” and “Peter and the Starcatcher”, and has conducted the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic Orchestra in a recent orchestral conducting symposium.

In additional areas, Johannes has studied jazz piano for several years and is very passionate about teaching, having taught violin and piano to several young students as well as working as a teaching assistant for the Amuse String Chamber Orchestra. He is very happy to be refining his understanding of music pedagogy and improving as a teacher under Dr. Lily Chen- Hafteck.

Australian flutist Catherine Gregory, winner of the Pro Musicis International Award, enjoys a dynamic career as a soloist, ensemble player, and teaching artist. Her performances of music old and new have taken her across the globe from Alice Tully Hall in New York, to London’s Milton Court, Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie, and the Sydney Opera House.

Catherine, who first came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, is a sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, with performances at Carnegie Hall, with the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center and Philadelphia, Camerata Pacifica, Caramoor, Bay Chamber Festival, Við Djúpið Festival in Iceland and the Southern Cross Soloists. She has toured internationally with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and has played numerous cycles as guest principal flute with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.  Catherine is a core-artist of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, serving as co-artistic director of the group from 2017-2020.

Catherine is deeply passionate about the power of music to forge direct and impactful connections with all communities. Catherine’s current project, Just Breathe, embodies her creative spirit as a commissioner of new music and artist citizen: it is both a performance of new commissions from leading composers such as Clarice Assad, Viet Cuong, Timo Andres and Juhi Bansal, as well as a series of interactive performance workshops for cancer patients, providers and caregivers that explore the intersection of breath and music.

Committed to nurturing the next generation of young artists, Catherine has established herself as an accomplished pedagogue, having served as visiting Flute Lecturer at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and as the flute faculty member for the Decoda Chamber Music Festival and the Emerging Composers Intensive.

Catherine is a faculty member of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a lecturer in music, music industry (artistic citizenship and community engagement), and is also the newly appointed director of the Gluck Fellowship Program, leading the UCLA Gluck Fellows in their music ensembles to engage, connect and share live chamber music performances at non-traditional venues all around the city of Los Angeles. Catherine also serves on the faculty of The Colburn School and has given masterclasses and led residencies at leading music schools internationally, from The Tianjin Juilliard School, to Curtis, to the Guildhall School in London. Catherine’s recent album together with pianist David Kaplan, entitled Vent, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in September 2023.

Cellist Ben Hong joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1993 at age 24 as a section player and six months later, he won the assistant principal cello position. He currently serves as associate principal cello, appointed by LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel in 2015. Hong also performs frequently as a soloist and as a member of chamber music ensembles. He has collaborated with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Janine Jansen, Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sir Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Concerto appearances with the LA Phil have included the U.S. premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s cello concerto Kai, with Rattle conducting at the Ojai Music Festival; the LA Phil premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto, conducted by Long Yu at the Hollywood Bowl; and the U.S premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s concerto for cello and orchestra, en forme de pas de trois, conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

DreamWorks Pictures hired Hong to train Jamie Foxx and several other cast members of the 2009 film The Soloist. In addition, he was the featured soloist on the soundtrack, which was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label. In 2020, Hong was asked by the Los Angeles Lakers to perform a rendition of “Hallelujah” at the Staples Center as part of a pre-game tribute in memory of Kobe Bryant.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Hong won his native country’s national cello competition three years in a row before leaving home at age 13 for the Juilliard School. Later, he studied with Lynn Harrell at the USC School of Music before joining the LA Phil.

David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Britten Sinfonia and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Known for diverse and creative recital programs, he has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington’s National Gallery, Strathmore, and Bargemusic. Kaplan’s New Dances of the League of David, mixing Schumann with 16 new works, was cited in the “Best Classical Music of 2015” by The New York Times.

Kaplan has collaborated with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets, and is a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. He has appeared at the Bard, Seattle Chamber Music, Mostly Mozart, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals, and is an alumnus of Tanglewood, Ravinia-Steans Institute, and the Perlman Music Program. Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as with Timo Andres in the acclaimed disc, Shy and Mighty (2010), for Nonesuch. For 2021, he commissions renowned composers Anthony Cheung and Christopher Cerrone for two works based on music written by one another, to be programmed with fantasy-form works from L. Couperin to Elliott Carter.

Passionate about teaching, Kaplan was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2020. Kaplan’s distinguished mentors over the years include the late Claude Frank, Walter Ponce, Miyoko Lotto, and Richard Goode. With a Fulbright Fellowship, he studied conducting at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Lutz Köhler, and received his DMA from Yale University in 2014. Preferring Yamaha and Bösendorfer pianos, David is proud to be a Yamaha Artist. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.

Varty Manouelian made her American Debut in 1993 with the North Carolina Symphony as First Prize winner of the Bryan International Competition. Shehas also been a prize winner at anumber of other competitions in Europe, including the Kotzian International Competition and the Wieniawski International Violin Competition. Manouelian has recorded and appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras in the United States, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Poland, Spain and Italy. Her chamber music performances include Marlboro Music Festival, Apple Hill Festival, Sebago Festival, El Paso Festival, Olympic Music Festival, among others. She has collaborated as a chamber musician with such artists as Joshua Bell, Yuja Wang, Kim Kashkashian, Rohan de Saram, Garrick Ohlsson, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Adès, and members of the Juilliard, Guarner, Tokyo, Brentano, Borromeo, and Mendelssohn string quartets.

Dedicated teacher and educator, Varty Manouelian is a Lecturer of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, teaches violin and chamber music at the Colburn Academy and CSPA, and spends summers coaching chamber music at the Apple Hill Festival in New Hampshire. She has been an active participant at LA Philharmonic’s Music Outreach programs, having taught at YOLA since its inception, as well as at the Renaissance Arts Academy.

Prior to joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2004, Manouelian was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In Los Angeles, she frequently performs at the Los Angels Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella new-music series, as well as at Camerata Pacifica, Monday Evening Concerts, and the Dilijan Series. Her recording credits include archival radio recordings for the Bulgarian State Radio, and CDs on Albany and Bridge Records labels. Her recent CD of Complete Violin Works of Stefan Wolpe (jointly with Movses Pogossian) made the 2015 Top Ten list in Sunday Times (UK). Varty Manouelian holds degrees from the State Music Academy in Bulgaria and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Boyan Letchev and Donald Weilerstein.

Adam Millstein is a violinist pursuing his DMA studies at UCLA with Varty Manouelian and Movses Pogossian. He is the recipient of a scholarship from the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience. He holds an Artist Diploma and Masters of Music degree from the Colburn School where he studied with Robert Lipsett, and a BMA from the University of Michigan. He is the Program Director of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School. He acted as curator for the Initiative’s 2021 Schulhoff and More project where he organized and performed on filmed recordings of composer Erwin Schulhoff’s music, some of which is on the album “Shapeshifter: Music of Erwin Schulhoff” for the Delos Label.

He recently recorded Mieczysław Weinberg’s Concertino as soloist with Maestro James Conlon. He has also recorded music of Franz Schreker, Pál Hermann, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Mr. Millstein actively curates and produces concerts including a filmed Recovered Voices performance for the Library of Congress. He has guest lectured at UCLA, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University.

As an orchestral musician, Mr. Millstein has acted as concertmaster of the Sequoia Symphony and Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra. He has played as guest associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony and Louisville Orchestra. He has performed as a substitute with the LA Opera and LA Chamber Orchestra and appeared as soloist with US and international orchestras.

Movses Pogossian is a celebrated prize-winning violinist, Distinguished Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and Founder/Advisor of the UCLA Armenian Music Program. He participates in the Music for Food project, which fights hunger in local communities and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music plays as a catalyst for change. His recent CD releases include Con Anima, Hommage à Kurtág, Modulation Necklace, and Serenade with a Dandelion: Armenian Chamber Music, Old and New.

Gabriella Smith is a composer whose work invites listeners to find joy in climate action. Her music comes from a love of play, exploring new instrumental sounds, and creating musical arcs that transport audiences into sonic landscapes inspired by the natural world. An “outright sensation” (LA Times), her music “exudes inventiveness with a welcoming personality, rousing energy and torrents of joy” (NY Times).

Lost Coast, a concerto for cello and orchestra, written for her longtime collaborator Gabriel Cabezas, received its world premiere in May 2023 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. This work joins her organ concerto, Breathing Forests, written for James McVinnie also premiered by the LA Phil, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Other current projects include a large-scale work for Kronos Quartet, commissioned in celebration of their 50th anniversary season, and an album-length work for yMusic featuring underwater field recordings. In December 2023, her work Tumblebird Contrails was performed on the Nobel Prize Concert by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Her first full-length album, titled Lost Coast, was recorded with Gabriel Cabezas and producer Nadia Sirota at Greenhouse Studios in Iceland and named one of NPR Music’s “26 Favorite Albums Of 2021” and a “Classical Album to Hear Right Now” by The New York Times. Gabriel and Gabriella, as a cello-violin-voice-electronics duo, have performed together around the world, including in Reykjavík, New York City, and Paris.

Gabriella grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area playing and writing music, hiking, backpacking, and volunteering on a songbird research project.