La Sierra University’s Department of Music is heading into a new school year and performance season with a newly-named chamber series that features some of the best professional artists in classical music.
On Sunday, Oct. 7, the Hanson-Koobs Chamber Music Series will present a performance by noted pianist Julio Elizalde who tours with world-renowned violinists Sarah Chang and Ray Chen. A quartet of top classical musicians will also perform -- violinist Kristin Lee, violinist Jason Uyeyama, violist Ben Ullery and cellist Eric Byers.
The performance will be held in the university’s state-of-the-art Troesh Conference Center at 7 p.m. The musicians will present Ernst von Dohnányi’s “Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Op. 10,” Sergei Prokofiev’s “String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92,” and Johannes Brahms’ “Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.”
The Hanson-Koobs series, which previously functioned as an unnamed department chamber music series, is the namesake of university donor and alumna Ardyce Hanson Koobs, a 1949 La Sierra music graduate, regional concert violinist and violin teacher.
Koobs, who became a founding member of La Sierra’s board of trustees, and her husband, Dick Koobs, lived in Loma Linda where Ardyce served as a councilmember and the city’s first female mayor. Dick pursued a career as a pathology professor at Loma Linda University. The couple had no children of their own, but provided a home for many foster children and students during their 51-year marriage.
Ardyce Koobs passed away in 2008 following Dick Koobs’ death in 2006. The couple left an estate gift to the La Sierra University music department of over $300,000 to pay for a Steinway grand piano and to fund an endowment that covers costs for professional musicians to perform in a chamber music series. The Dick and Ardyce Koobs Chamber Music Endowment was established by the university Board of Trustees in 2009.
“We are thrilled to be honoring Ardyce and Dick Koobs through this chamber series, remembering their tireless and generous support to La Sierra University and to the highest musical standards,” said David Kendall, La Sierra’s music department chair. “It is fitting that their endowment is being used to bring top-tier musical talent to the institution they served and loved.”
The musicians performing on Oct. 7 have played around the world with renowned groups and in famed concert halls.
San Francisco Bay Area native Elizalde is artistic director of the Olympic Music Festival near Seattle, Wash. He is also a founding member of the top prize-winning New Trio which has performed for politicians President Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and others. He has also collaborated with a roster of high-profile artists including violinist Pamela Frank, conductor Itzhak Perlman, as well as members of the acclaimed Juilliard, Cleveland, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets. His accomplishments include serving as a featured performer on a film soundtrack by Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore. Elizalde holds master’s and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School in New York City.
Violinist Lee, winner of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has performed as a soloist with a roster of top orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and many others. Earlier this month she debuted with the San Francisco Symphony with Perlman. She has appeared on such prestigious concert stages as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. Artistic positions include serving as principal artist with Camerata Pacifica, sitting as The Bernard Gondos Chair. She has also appeared on a variety of media programs including PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center.” Lee holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Perlman and Donald Weilerstein.
Uyeyama is founder and director of the Orange County String Studio. He is also associate professor of music and director of string studies at La Sierra University where he teaches violin and chamber music. Uyeyama continues to lead an active career as recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. He has performed regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2005, and has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Pacific Symphony. Uyeyama holds a master's degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Masao Kawasaki.
Ullery has been the assistant principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2012. He spent three seasons as a member of the Minnesota Orchestra and has performed as a guest principal viola with the Detroit Symphony, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony. He has also been featured in performances on NPR’s “Performance Today” as well as local broadcasts on Classical KUSC 91.5. After graduating with numerous honors from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Ullery is a faculty member at the Colburn School where he teaches orchestral repertoire and coaches the Colburn Orchestra’s viola section.
A soloist, chamber musician and composer, Byers made his solo debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 18. This year he debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a last-minute substitution, giving a critically-acclaimed performance. As a founding member of the Calder Quartet, Byers has performed in venues such as New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. He has also collaborated with such high-profile artists as Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer, Claude Frank and others. In addition to performing, he is a self-taught composer whose work has been performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and other famed venues. Byers received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music and an artist diploma from The Juilliard School.