Faculty Artist Series: Schubertiade

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.

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.

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.

Jory Herman joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic double bass section in 2017 and is professor of music at California State University Northridge. A four-time GRAMMY Award-winning collaborator, Herman regularly performs on recitals in Los Angeles.

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.

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.

Violist Wendy Richman has been celebrated internationally for her compelling sound and “absorbing,” “fresh and idiomatic” interpretations with “a brawny vitality” (The New York Times, The Washington Post). As soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mostly Mozart Festival, and international festivals in Berlin, Darmstadt, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Karlsruhe, Morelia, and Vienna.

Richman is a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), with whom she performs regularly in New York City and around the world. She collaborates with a wide range of composers, including commissions of works in which she sings and plays simultaneously. Her debut solo album, vox/viola, was released on New Focus Recordings (2020). She frequently performs with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and she has been a regular guest with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the orchestral viola sections of Atlanta, Minnesota, and St. Louis.

Also a distinguished educator, Dr. Richman serves as an academic lecturer at UCLA and as the viola instructor at California State University at Northridge (CSUN). She is a sought-after clinician at universities and conservatories across the country, offering classes on viola repertoire and technique, lectures on string instrument notation, and workshops on contemporary string techniques. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM), New England Conservatory (MM), and Eastman School of Music (DMA with Diploma in Ethnomusicology).

Dr. Richman’s research interests address musicians’ communities, stemming from her own experiences with composer-performer relationships, gender-based discrimination, and disability. Her own compositions link her love of unconventional string sounds with reflections on nature, physical trauma, and invisible disability.