ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Academy of St Martin in the Fields

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras, renowned for fresh, brilliant interpretations of the world’s greatest orchestral music. Formed by Sir Neville Marriner in 1958 from a group of leading London musicians, the Academy gave its first performance in its namesake church in November 1959. Through unrivalled live performances and a vast recording output, the Academy quickly gained an enviable international reputation for its distinctive, polished, and refined sound. With more than 500 releases in a much-vaunted discography and a comprehensive international touring program, the sound of the Academy is known by classical audiences throughout the world. Today, the Academy is led by Music Director and virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, retaining the collegiate spirit and flexibility of the original small, conductor-less ensemble, which has become an Academy hallmark.

Joshua Bell, violin

With a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, conductor, and director, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. Having performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, Bell continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. A Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums garnering GRAMMY®, Mercury, Gramophone, and OPUS KLASSIK awards. Named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011, he is the only person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

Arod Quartet

With all four members only in their early twenties, the Paris-based Arod Quartet has already dazzled chamber music lovers in concerts at such prestigious venues as the Auditorium of the Louvre in Paris and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. The Arod quickly came to international attention when they won the coveted First Prize of the 2016 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, having already taken First Prize at the Carl Nielsen Chamber Music Competition in Copenhagen. Teachers of the Arod include Mathieu Herzog and Jean Sulem, and the group currently serves as the artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels, along with the Artemis Quartet. The group takes its name from Legolas’s horse in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy; in Tolkien’s mythic Rohirric language, Arod means ‘Ú swift.’

Chris Botti

Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD When I Fall In Love, Chris Botti has become the largest-selling American instrumental artist. His success has crossed over to audiences usually reserved for pop music and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four #1 jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and GRAMMY® Awards. Over the past three decades, Botti has recorded and performed with the best in music, including Sting, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Bublé, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli, Joshua Bell, and even Frank Sinatra.

With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho has made his mark as a thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colorful pianist, combining panache with purity and exhibiting an impressive natural sense of balance. Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won the First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. An active recitalist very much in demand, Seong-Jin Cho performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the main stage of Carnegie Hall as part of the Keyboard Virtuoso Series, Concertgebouw Amsterdam in the Master Pianists series, Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, and more.

Matthias Goerne, baritone

Matthias Goerne is one of the most versatile and internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at renowned festivals and concert halls. Goerne has appeared on the world’s principal opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Paris National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. His roles range from Wolfram, Amfortas, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Goerne’s artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, many of which have received prestigious awards, including four GRAMMY® nominations, an ICMA Award, a Gramophone Award, and the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017.

Robert John Hughes, lecturer

Journalist, broadcaster, musician, author, record producer. Hughes has interviewed hundreds of musical artists in classical, jazz, pop, rock, R&B, and blues, including Sting, Wynton Marsalis, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, B.B. King, Adele, and Peter Gabriel. As a record producer and member of the GRAMMY® Academy, Hughes has released five albums of live performances by artists heard on San Diego FM station 102.1 KPRi. Hughes has hosted La Jolla Music Society Preludes since 2018.

Lang Lang, piano

Lang Lang is a leading figure in classical music today–as a pianist, educator, and philanthropist he has become one of the world’s most influential and committed ambassadors for the arts in the 21st century. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, he is a master of communicating through music. Lang Lang’s boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition: he was presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and was picked as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. In December 2011 he was honored with the highest prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and received the highest civilian honors in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters).

Chair of the Music History Department at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, Kristi Brown Montesano is an enthusiastic “public musicologist.” She is an active lecturer for the LA Philharmonic, the Opera League of Los Angeles, the Salon de Musiques series, and Mason House Concerts. Her book, The Women of Mozart’s Operas (UC Press, 2007), off ers a detailed study of these fascinating roles; more recent scholarly interests include classical music in fi lm, women in classical music, and opera for children.

Beatrice Rana, piano

Beatrice Rana has been shaking the international classical music world, arousing admiration and interest from concert presenters, conductors, critics, and audiences internationally. Rana performs at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals including Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein; Berlin Philharmonie; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall; London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Royal Festival Hall; Philharmonie de Paris; Verbier Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center; Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Hall and Hollywood Bowl; Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center; and many more.

San Diego Youth Symphony

For 75 years, San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS) has served as a catalyst for investing in the future of thousands of young San Diegans through the study and performance of music. Through SDYS’ fl agship ensemble program in historic Balboa Park, its neighborhood engagement collaborations across San Diego County, and its early childhood music curriculum, SDYS is San Diego’s most comprehensive provider of cradle-to-college music education programming and a national leader in innovative community outreach, serving thousands of young musicians and their families every year. We respect every young person who takes part in our programs and celebrate their accomplishments as musicians, as community members, and as future leaders.

Silkroad Ensemble

Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998, recognizing the historical Silk Road as a model for radical cultural collaboration–for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders. In an innovative experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a musical language founded in diff erence, thus creating the foundation of Silkroad: both a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe and a social impact organization working to make a positive impact across borders through the arts. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad leads social impact initiatives and educational programming alongside the creation of new music by the GRAMMY® Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble.

Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998, he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic magazine. Skerry is an 11-time Wildlife Photographer of the Year award winner. In 2010, National Geographic magazine named one of Skerry’s images among their 50 Greatest Photographs Of All Time. Skerry’s work has also been featured in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, BBC Wildlife, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian among others. He is the author of 10 books and frequently lectures on photography, exploration, and conservation issues, having presented at venues such as the United Nations General Assembly, The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, TED Talks, The National Press Club in Washington, DC, The Royal Geographical Society in London, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. He also serves as a Marine Fellow with Conservation International, serves on the World Wildlife Fund’s National Council and Marine Leadership Council, as well as on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain was formed in 1985 as a bit of fun, but the first gig was an instant sell-out, and they’ve been performing ever since. The Orchestra has given thousands of sold-out concerts across the world, including Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Poland, France, America, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan. Over the last 37 years, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has spawned hundreds of imitators, and you can now find ukulele groups in nearly every major city, indeed, the Orchestra is often blamed for the current ukulele revival which is sweeping the globe. Collaborators have included Madness, David Arnold, The British Film Institute, The Ministry of Sound, Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens), and The Kaiser Chiefs.

Photo Credits: Cover: Academy of St Martin in the Fields © Benjamin Ealovega; Pg. 17:T. Schultz © David Pollar; Pg. 18: B. Rana © Simon Fowler; Pg. 22: Academy of St Martin in the Fields © Benjamin Ealovega; Pg. 26: L. Lang © Olaf Heine; Pg. 29: Arod Quartet © Julien Benhamou; Pg. 33: Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain © Allison Burke; Pg. 34: Fish in Can © Brian Skerry; Pg. 35: Home Within courtesy of artist; Pg. 36: S.J. Cho © Holger Hage, M. Goerne © Marrie Staggat; Pg. 43: C. Botti © Fabrizio Ferri; Pg. 44: C. Botti © Fabrizio Ferri; Pg. 45: C. Botti © Fabrizio Ferri; Pg. 46: B. Skonberg © Dario Acosta, Dreamers’ Circus © Goran Petersson; Pg. 47: Goitse courtesy of artists, G. Carling courtesy of artist, R. Fonseca © Alejandro Azcuy; Pg. 48: Jazzy Ash courtesy of artist, 123Andres © David Rugeles, The Okee Dokee Brothers courtesy of artists; Pg. 49: J. Bell courtesy of artist, C. Botti © Leanne Mueller, Joffrey Ballet © Cheryl Mann; Pg. 50: Academy of St Martin in the Fields © Benjamin Ealovega, J. Bell courtesy of artist, Arod Quartet © Julien Benhamou, C. Botti © Fabrizio Ferri; Pg. 51: S.J. Cho © Holger Hag, M. Goerne © Marrie Staggat, R. J. Hughes courtesy of artist, L. Lang © Olaf Heine; Pg. 52: K. Brown Montesano courtesy of artist, B. Rana © Simon Fowler, Silkroad ensemble courtesy of artist, B. Skerry © Mauricio Handler; Pg. 53: Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain © Allison Burke; Pg. 54: T. McLaughlin © Megan Bean, C. Tao © Shervin Lainez, C. Teicher © David Needleman: Pg. 55: T. McLaughlin © Megan Bean, B. Skonberg © Dario Acosta, Arod Quartet © Julien Benhamou, Alonzo King LINES Ballet © RJ Muna, J. Bell © Benjamin Ealovega; Back Cover: A. Sandoval © Lonnie Timmons.