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Kay Pech, violinist and violist, is the founder/director of the Chamber Music Institute/Southern California. Continuing to study and perform the great chamber works, Ms. Pech recently participated Debussy String Quartet in Paris as a performer in the study of "Debussy in Paris" in 2012 (150 years since birth of Debussy), as well as "Bartok in Budapest" in 2009 (Bartok 6th String Quartet) with the Manhattan String Quartet. She retired in 2005 as the music director of the Cal Poly - Pomona University Chamber Players. She performed throughout the '90s as the violinist with Trio Sirena, a piano trio dedicated to the performance of chamber music written by women composers. Currently the Principal Violist of the Disneyland Orchestra, she has been the Principal Violist of the Downey Symphony and the Assistant Principal Violist of the Pacific Symphony. She has performed as a violinist and violist with the Long Beach Symphony, San Gabriel Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Oklahoma City Symphony, Sioux City Symphony and was the Concertmaster of the Wichita Falls, TX, Symphony Orchestra. She received the Bachelor of Music Education degree in violin performance from Morningside College and the Master of Arts degree in viola performance from the University of Iowa, following graduate studies in violin with Eudice Shapiro at the University of Southern California. She taught chamber music for 21 years at Saddleback College, 10 years for the ASTA-Summer Institute of Chamber Music, and 8 years for California State Polytechnic University, Pomona chamber music groups.
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Charles Baker, cellist, was honored as ASTA Teacher of the Year 2010 for the Greater Los Angeles Area. He is currently a member of the Roselle and the Palo Verde Trios. He has performed solo recitals in the United States and in Western Europe and with Community Concerts of Columbia Artists Management.
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Donald Ambroson, violinist, has had an extensive career as a performer, giving recitals throughout Southern California, the Midwest, and in Norway, where he performed at the home of the eminent 19th century Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull. He has performed in many symphony orchestras, including the Pacific Symphony for many years, and has been active as a freelance musician in Southern California. Dr. Ambroson received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in violin performance at USC, where he studied violin with Eudice Shapiro and conducting with Daniel Lewis. At the Claremont Graduate School, he earned the Master of Arts degree in performance, studying violin with Israel Baker. His undergraduate studies were with Leo Kucinski and Lauren Jakey at Morningside College. He has been Artist in Residence at California State University, Fullerton, and has taught at other colleges and universities in the Midwest and California. For many years he has been a professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is currently teaching chamber music at Saddleback College. In addition to his work as a violinist, he has undertaken self-directed studies in ethnomusicology, focusing on musics of Norway, India, and Norwegian-Americans. He studied the hardingfele (a folk fiddle from Norway) and Karnatic (south Indian) classical music.
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Sarah Wallin Huff, violinist & composer, has been playing the violin since 1989, having studied under several different teachers, including Kay Pech. Additionally, she has studied Baroque violin technique with Los Angeles Musica Angelica violinist, M. Anne Rardin, and has performed on both Baroque violin and Baroque viola with the Claremont Graduate University Early Music ensemble Collegium Musicum. She has also been a regular performer on four-, five-, and six-string electric violins with the Cal Poly Pomona MIDI Band since 2003, and she toured with the Continental Ministries from 1999 to 2002, performing as a singer, dancer, and violinist/fiddler across the continental U.S. and throughout eleven European countries. She has performed as a member of the Orange County Symphony, as well as other orchestras and ensembles throughout California, and regularly performs as a soloist for a variety of events and concerts, as well as participating on violin and viola on various recording projects. Some performance highlights include performing with pianist/composer Denise Young, accompanying Michael Card and Twila Paris in concert, collaborating with classical/hip-hop/rock artist Jake “ONO” Bhattacharya on his latest album, laying down violin tracks for Thomas Graff’s debut album, and playing both her acoustic and 6-string electric violins as a member of Clan DRAGONAS. Currently, she’s had the great pleasure of creating and performing with the innovative, acoustic quartet, String Theory. Sarah Wallin Huff has been teaching music and violin technique privately throughout Southern California since 1998, offering personalized instruction at every level. As of September 2005, she is currently a violin teacher at the Claremont Community School of Music, as well as teaching from her own home studio. Wallin Huff was awarded her Bachelor in Arts in Music Education from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona in 2006, and her Master’s degree in Music Composition from Claremont Graduate University in 2008. Sarah Wallin Huff has studied composition privately with Dr. Peter Yates, Dr. Mark Carlson, and Dr. Edward David Zeliff, and she has had her compositions performed in concerts throughout Southern California and across several states. She has also arranged a wide variety of pieces for the MIDI Band at Cal Poly Pomona since its inception in 2003, as well as offering a wide variety of arrangements and transcriptions for students and professional colleagues. Her compositions range from solo works to chamber ensembles, to orchestral concert pieces and film and theater works. Her general style draws from such diverse sound-worlds as early and modern Classical (encompassing such composers as Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Bernstein, and Glass), new age and electronica, world, and folk. Read more about Sarah at sarahwallinhuff.com/ |