UCLA Philharmonia Fall Concert

UCLA PHILHARMONIA

Neal Stulberg, conductor

Gemalene Acupan and Jakub Rompczyk, assistant conductors

Jacob Freiman, orchestra manager

Joce Wang and Janice Hu, orchestra librarians

VIOLIN I

Sean Takada, concertmaster

Rebecca Beerstein

David Chang

Janice Hu

Alisa Khodos

Ela Kodzas

Kayla Lee

Alisa Luera

Kayla Phan

Srijan Satpathy

Arya Shapouri

Sophia Shih

Sean Takada

VIOLIN II

Michelle Sheehy, principal

Christian Byun

Alexander Han

Anika Hirai

Raina Markham

Angel Sun

Emily Taylor

Jocelyn Wang

Mingye Wang

Marina Wong

VIOLA

Damon Zavala, principal

Lorenna Garcia

Charlotte Goode

Ian Lee

Subin Lee

Ellen Lozada

Daniel Oviedo

Jocelyn Pon

Layla Shapouri

Amy Takagi

Larry Joe Williams

CELLO

Kaya Ralls, principal

Abraham Bonilla

Benji Fleischaker

Isabelle Fromme

Alvin Liu

Minnie Seo

Aerie Walker

Peter Walsh

DOUBLE BASS

Lee Skyler, principal

Zachary Hauser

Luca Lesko

Atticus Simmons

FLUTE

Will Adams

Matthew Origel*

John Robert Santiago

*Piccolo

OBOE

Gianna Colombo*

Adam Frary

Andrew Pahadi

*English horn

CLARINET

Jacob Freiman*

Nicholas Kim

Aria McCauley

Yijin Wang

*bass clarinet

BASSOON

Abby Brendza

Zane Marquez

Matthew Rasmussen

Daniela Santana*

*contrabassoon

HORN

Abby Higgins

Emma Lumsden

Vasili Magaziotis

Esther Myers

TRUMPET

Kenneth Brown

Remy Ohara

Andrew Smith

TROMBONE

Nathan Culcasi

Reuben Molina

BASS TROMBONE

Ethan Holmes

TUBA

Osi Atikpoh

PERCUSSION

Cash Langi, principal

Jesus Flores

Robby Good

Erica Hou

Xavier Paul

Viraj Sonawala

HARP

Ginger Rose Brucker

Alaina Stark

PIANO AND CELESTA

Austin Ho

UCLA Philharmonia is the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Founded in 1936, Philharmonia’s music directors have included Lukas Foss, Richard Dufallo, Mehli Mehta, Samuel Krachmalnick, Alexander Treger and Jon Robertson. 2022-23 marks the 17th season of Philharmonia’s music director and UCLA director of orchestral studies, Neal Stulberg.

Philharmonia’s programming focuses on both the core symphonic and operatic repertoire, and the best in contemporary and rarely-performed works.

2022-2023 highlights include three performances at Royce Hall — the 17th annual All-Star Concert in January 2023; a March 2023 choral/orchestral concert featuring Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” and the May 2023 West Coast premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Symphony No. 6 (“Vessels of Light”) for concerto for cello, chorus and orchestra celebrating the courage and heroism of World War II-era Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara. Soloists will include UCLA Professor of Viola Che-Yen Chen performing the monumental 1919 Suite for Viola and Orchestra by Ernest Bloch.

UCLA Philharmonia’s CDs are available on iTunes, amazon.com, Naxos Music Library and other retail outlets.

If you wish to receive information about Philharmonia’s activities, please contact us by email at uclaorch@gmail.com, or visit us at www.uclaorchestras.com.

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active recitalist, chamber musician, recording artist, and educator. He is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet, recipient of the First-Prize and the Amadeus Prize winner of the 10th London International String Quartet Competition. Since winning First-Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and the “President Prize” of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, he has been described by the Dallas Morning News as a musician who “played with silken finesse, and with elegant singers’ feelings for timing, shape, color and articulation” and by San Diego Union Tribune as an artist whose “most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.”

Having served as principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Chen has appeared as guest principal with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. A former member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two and participant of the Marlboro Festival, he is also a member of Camera Lucida and The Myriad Trio. Performing in chamber music festivals across North America and Asia, Chen appears frequently at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival,Chamber Music International, La Jolla Summerfest, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival, and National Youth Orchestra of Canada where the Formosa Quartet serves as faculty quartet-in-residence. In August 2013, Formosa Quartet inaugurated Taiwan’s very first chamber music festival. Modeled after Ravinia, Taos, Marlboro, and Kneisel Hall, Formosa Chamber Music Festival is the product of a long-held aspiration and represents one of Chen’s primary missions: to bring high-level chamber music training to talented young musicians, and to bring first-rate chamber music to Taiwanese audiences.

As a promotor for music of our time, Chen’s active commissioning with Formosa Quartet and The Myriad Trio has contributed significantly to the 21st century’s chamber music literature. Most recently the Quartet premiered Lei Liang’s Song Recollections; based on music indigenous to aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Chen’s recordings with the Formosa Quartet can be found on EMI, Delos, and New World Records, and the Quartet’s project, From Hungary to Taiwan, was released by Bridge Records in the 2018-19 season.

Professor of Viola at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Chen has previously served on the faculty of USC Thornton School of Music, Indiana University South Bend, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, California State University Fullerton, and McGill University. He has given master-classes across North America and Asia, including schools such as Taipei National University of the Arts, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, Rice University, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and The Juilliard School. As a laureate, Chen was invited to serve on the jury of the 2011 Primrose International Viola Competition.

A native of Taipei, Chen began his viola study with Ben Lin and went on to be a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. He came to the U.S. in his teens to matriculate at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, studying with such luminaries as Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, Karen Tuttle and Paul Neubauer.

Heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “. . .a shining example of podium authority and musical enlightenment,” NEAL STULBERG has garnered consistent international acclaim for performances of clarity, insight and conviction. Since 2005, he has served as Director of Orchestral Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Chair of the UCLA Department of Music.

In North America, Mr. Stulberg has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Mexico City, National, New Jersey, New World, Oregon, Pacific, Phoenix, Saint Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Utah and Vancouver symphonies, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. A former assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini and music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, he is a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award. Mr. Stulberg’s European appearances have included performances in Germany with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and the orchestras of Augsburg, Bochum, Dortmund, Freiburg, Herford, Jena, Münster, Nürnberg, Oldenburg and Rostock. In Holland, he has conducted the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and led the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, North Holland Philharmonic, Gelders Orchestra and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway), Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra (Lithuania), Athens State Orchestra, London Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Barcelona Liceu Orchestra and Norwegian National Opera Orchestra. International engagements have also included the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Korea Philharmonic (KBS), Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian symphonies, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta and Ra’anana Symphonette.

An acclaimed pianist, Stulberg has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician and with major orchestras and at international festivals as pianist/conductor. His performances of Mozart concertos conducted from the keyboard are uniformly praised for their buoyant virtuosity and interpretive vigor. In 2011-12, he performed the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano with violinist Guillaume Sutre at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and at the Grandes Heures de Saint Emilion festival in France. He recently performed throughout South Africa on a recital tour with saxophonist Douglas Masek.

Mr. Stulberg has conducted premieres of works by Paul Chihara, Mohammed Fairouz, Jan Friedlin, William Kraft, Alexander Krein, Betty Olivero, Steve Reich, Peter Schat, Lalo Schifrin, Dmitri Smirnov, Earl Stewart, Morton Subotnick, Joan Tower and Peter van Onna, among others, and has also led works by UCLA composers Münir Beken, Bruce Broughton, Kenny Burrell, Mark Carlson, Ian Krouse, David Lefkowitz and James Newton. He conducted the period-instrument orchestra Philharmonia Baroque in a festival of Mozart orchestral and operatic works, and has brought to life several silent movies from the early 1900s, including the Russian classic New Babylon, Shostakovich’s first film score. Collaborators have included John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Dee Dee Bridgewater, John Clayton, Mercer Ellington, Michael Feinstein, Philip Glass, Morton Gould, David Krakauer, Lar Lubovitch, Peter Martins, Mark Morris, Angel Romero, and Christopher Wheeldon. He has conducted Philip Glass’ opera Akhnaten at the Rotterdam Festival and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face with Long Beach Opera in Los Angeles. He has recorded for Naxos, West German Radio, Donemus, Yarlung Records, Sono Luminus and the Composers Voice label.

Mr. Stulberg has maintained a career-long passion for the training of young musicians. He has conducted and taught at the New World Symphony, Indiana University Summer Institute, Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, New Zealand School of Music, Henry Mancini Institute, Los Angeles Philharmonic Summer Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy, American-Russian Youth Orchestra, Turkish Music State Conservatory (Istanbul), National Conservatory of Belarus (Minsk), Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing) and Capitol Normal University (Beijing). In November 2017, he conducted, lectured and taught at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and at National Taiwan Normal University.

A native of Detroit, Mr. Stulberg is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Michigan, and the Juilliard School. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, piano with Leonard Shure, Theodore Lettvin, William Masselos and Mischa Kottler, and viola with Ara Zerounian.