The Strings area at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music presents the Formosa Quartet as part of the new Mari and Ed Edelman String Quartet Residency. Che-Yen Chen, professor of viola at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and founding member of the Formosa Quartet, brings his quartet colleagues to perform with professor of cello Antonio Lysy and UCLA music students Tiffany Wee, Ji Eun Hwang, and Lu Walstad. They will present George Enescu’s monumental and rarely heard Octet, Op. 7 and Haydn's String Quartet Op. 76 No. 6.
The members of the Formosa Quartet –Jasmine Lin, Wayne Lee, Che-Yen Chen, and Deborah Pae – have established themselves as leading soloists, chamber musicians, and pedagogues. With degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, and New England Conservatory, they have performed in major venues throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, and have been top prizewinners in prestigious competitions such as the Paganini, Primrose, Fischoff, Naumburg, and Tertis competitions. As chamber musicians, they have appeared regularly at the Marlboro, Kingston, Santa Fe, Ottawa, Ravinia, Crans-Montana, and Schiermonnikoog festivals, as well as at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. Three members of the Formosa Quartet are currently faculty at the Eastern Michigan University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Roosevelt University, and have previously held positions at the Taos School of Music and the Juilliard School.
This series is made possible thanks to Mari Edelman and The Ed Edelman Endowment for Chamber Music which supports opportunities for our students to learn and perform chamber music, benefitting them and delighting our audiences. Additionally, we are proud to celebrate this program as part of the 2018-2019 Dobrow Series.