Season Soloists

 

2009-2010 Season Soloists


 

February 27, 2010:  Strings Spectacular

 

 
    Along with her work as a violinist and violist in the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra, Nancy Roth is currently concertmaster of the Carson Symphony and Westchester Symphony, principal second violinist of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, and a member of the Pasadena Symphony. She has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, was co-principal violist of the Graz Philharmonic in Austria, and has played concertmaster for many years with the San Fernando Valley Symphony.  She has been a featured soloist with numerous other Southern California orchestras including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Carson Symphony, Valley Symphony and Rio Hondo Symphony.  Her solo and chamber music recitals have been performed in the United States, Mexico and Austria, and she has recorded for radio broadcasts by KUSC, KFAC and the Austrian Rundfunk.   She is a member of the String Family Players and the Blackbird Trio.  
    Dr. Roth’s demanding schedule includes recording for films and television.  Recent film projects are A Beautiful Mind, Death to Smoochy, The Affair of the Necklace, Windtalkers, Bandits, Dr. Dolittle 2, Swordfish, Exit Wounds and The Glass House. Her TV work can be heard in “King of the Hill,” “Family Guy,” and “West Wing.” She has played baroque violin and viols with Los Angeles Musica Viva and the London Early Music Group.  Dr. Roth is featured playing the treble viol with Musica Viva on their CD, "The Leaves Be Green."

 

Living the life of a true valley girl, Ruth Bruegger spent her youth in LAUSD schools, graduating from Pacoima Junior High to Polytechnic High and then to UCLA (at the same time, unknowingly, as our esteemed conductor!  Boy do we have stories to tell...please ask!).  In between all that schooling she got a housekeeping diploma from a boarding school in Switzerland (a family tradition that couldn't be ignored until she had her own three daughters).  Thanks to this experience Ruth discovered she'd much rather play violin.  Forty years later, you can still hear her play in all corners of this great city...traffic allowing, of course.  Ruth has played and been let go of some of the finest orchestras in L.A. and Santa Barbara, as well as toured with a variety of artists including Eric Clapton and Boccelli.  She has sperformed in so many weddings that she will not only never eat another piece of wedding cake, but would like to start a tradition of playing the divorces, too.  Chamber music is a favorite outlet and Ruth was thrilled to have performed at Sainte Chapelle in Paris and many of her relatives' farms in Switzerland.  If you listen very closely, you can hear her beautiful strands gracing countless LPs and movie soundtracks (her specialty being horror films).  Her greatest achievement to date, besides having soloed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the San Fernando Valley Symphony, is her new grandson, a future violinist...or maybe a rock guitarist, if not a doctor.

 

April 24, 2010:  A Spring Retreat

 

Agnes Szekely was born in Budapest, Hungary to a musician-artist family. Her father was a conductor, organist and music professor and her mother a painter.  She began her formal musical studies at age 6, learning to play the violin, recorder and piano. Her first public appearance as a violinist was at age 11 at the Slovakian Radio in Bratislava. At 14 she entered the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest where she studied viola, composition and piano. She has earned her BM in viola performance and her MM in string teaching, both at the Ferenc Liszt Academy-University of Music in Budapest. Her teachers included Pal Lukacs, Denes Kovacs, Laszlo Barsony, Gyorgy Kurtag, Dr.Laszlo Somfai and members of the Bartok String Quartet. She also studied early music performance and has been active as a baroque violinist. On a 3 year fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado she studied with John Graham and Atar Arad. She also performed for a number of master classes, including Sandor Vegh, Dorothy Delay, Schlomo Mintz and Bruno Giuranna. She has made recordings on the Hungaroton label, as well as for the Hungarian Radio, Hungarian TV, Radio France Paris and the Icelandic Radio. She has served as principal viola in Parma, Italy (Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna), Oslo (Norwegian National Opera), co-principal viola in Reykjavik (Iceland Symphony) as well as in Israel (Jerusalem Symphony). She has served as full time concertmaster for 12 years in Germany, at Theater Greifswald, Theater Vorpommern, Theater Wittenberg and the Lauffener Chamber Orchestra. During her stay in Germany she has worked as leader of various string quartets and gave many solo and chamber music recitals. She has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in Hungary and Germany. In 2005 she has returned to Santa Clarita, California to her husband's family. Currently she is concertmaster of the Rio Hondo Symphony and the CSUN Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant concertmaster of the San Fernando Valley Symphony and the Cypress Pops Orchestra, principal 2nd violin of the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic as well as concertmaster of several church orchestras. She has appeared as violin soloist with the CSUN orchestra and as viola soloist with the San Fernando Valley Symphony. She is leader of the Valencia String Quartet, soloist of a Klezmer group and active performer as a recitalist and chamber musician. She is on the string faculty of the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita and also teaching private violin, viola, piano and music theory. She is working on a 2nd MM program at CSUN (Northridge) in violin performance with Michael Ferril and studying orchestral conducting. She is the winner of the 2009 CSUN Concerto Competition and will perform the Violin Concerto No.2 by Bela Bartok in spring 2010.

 

Michael Kibbe was born and raised in the San Diego area, where he received his earliest musical education, which included lessons on the snare drum, accordion, saxophone, and tap dancing.  His first composition was composed in junior high school, and his first completed "real" work, a FUGUE (after Bach) was performed by his high school concert band in 1963.  As of this writing, Kibbe's total creative output is over 170 concert works, including pieces for band and orchestra, as well as concertos and a large variety of chamber music for strings, winds, piano, and percussion.  His works have been commissioned by the City of Los Angeles, the Pacific Serenades concert series, and Quatrocelli, to name a few.  His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Israel, and China.  Information about the composer and his music can be found at www.michaelkibbe.com

Mythos, opus 160

I.  Arachne Weaving

    What?  Challenge Athena to a weaving contest?  Rash girl!  Although even in skill, a goddess ALWAYS has the final word;

    Arachne now accomplishes her art as a spider.

 

II.  Synrinx

    Virginal tree nymph, beloved by Pan, and by him pursued.  Becoming a cluster of reeds did not save her.  She is his forever now;

    panpipes

 

III.  Phaethon's Ride

    Son of Apollo, (whose solar chariot blazed across the sky each day).  Impetuous boy!  The horses would not be guided by his young,

    unknowing hands.  So much damage done, 'til at last the hand of Zeus made tragic end to the reckless boy's journey.

 

IV.  Charon's Ferry

    Come one, come all!  The voyage of a lifetime!  A single silver piece, the price to cross the fabled river Styx. (Sorry; one way only!)

 

V.  Bacchus

    Riotous debaucher; jovial god of wine and revelry.  Oblivion, by grape; let's drink to that!

 

 

May 22, 2010:  Season Finale

 

Carolyn Osborn, violinist, has performed throughout the United States and Europe.  From 1982-1985 Miss Osborn's performances as part of La Duo Musica took her to the International Competition of the Bayerisch Rundfunk in Munich, where the Duo was selected into the semi-final round.  Carolyn has been a member of both the Capriccio Chamber Players and the Vista Piano Trio, performing in numerous venues around the Southland and Arizona.   She played on the Stotsenberg Chamber Music Series at Pepperdine University in a Horn, Violin & Piano Trio.  In March 1997 she performed a violin-piano recital in which she premiered Fantasy Sonata; The Birthday of the Infanta by Maria Newman.  She has also been a member of the Cuarteto Ysa˙e de Los Angeles, the Ariel Ensemble and a guest artist with the Westlake Chamber Ensemble. She performed with the Westlake Chamber Ensemble at the 1998 annual Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC) Convention, which was held in Los Angeles during the 4th of July weekend. Most recently, Carolyn made a CD of Violin/Viola Duos with her group LuminArias, featuring works by mostly living composers.

            Miss Osborn has been a member of the San Diego Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, LA Mozart Orchestra and the LA Opera Orchestra. She is presently a member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, with whom she has been on tour and made several recordings.  Carolyn was involved in several engagements of Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages Theater where she played Concertmaster several times, and she was Concertmaster of the Civic Light Opera of South Bay for many years.  Carolyn has also been Concertmaster for Michael Crawford when he has performed in the southland. She is Assistant Principal Second of the Long Beach Symphony and Concertmaster of the Downey Symphony. Carolyn has performed as soloist with the Downey Symphony and the San Fernando Valley Symphony. Most recently, Carolyn traveled to Vienna, Austria where she was Concertmaster of the International Haydn Festival Orchestra. She has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival, Cabrillo Festival, the Seal Beach Festival, KUSC Sunday’s at Four live broadcasts from the Bing Theater, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. She was in the 1996 Grammy Award Show on national television, and again as a member of the orchestra of The Three Sopranos, which was televised from Century City in 1996. She was also part of "The Three Tenors Live" Concert in Las Vegas in April 2000. She has performed on many of KCET specials including Monica Mancini, Vicki Carr. She was a member of the violin faculty at Pepperdine University in Malibu until 2002. Currently Carolyn is active in the Los Angeles recording studios.

            Outside of violin performance, Carolyn was President in 1994-96 of the Dominant Club, a Professional Women's Music Club in the Los Angeles area, and has served on the board of the San Fernando West Valley Branch of the Music Teachers Association of California. Carolyn was also chosen as a 1997 Los Angeles Music Week honoree for a Certificate of Commendation from the Los Angeles City Council (awarded in the Council Chambers) for her contribution to society in the field of Music.