Hanson-Koobs series returns with world-class artists in free performance

The performance, which is free admission, will be held at 7 p.m. in Hole Memorial Auditorium and will feature violinists Kristin Lee and Jason Uyeyama , with violist Caitlin Lynch and cellist Ani Aznavoorian .

The quartet of musicians will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s “String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135,” and Antonín Dvorák’s “String Quartet Op. 96, ‘American.’”

The Hanson-Koobs Chamber Music Series is organized by Uyeyama, La Sierra’s director of string studies and a regular performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2005. Uyeyama also serves as an associate professor of music and leads an active career as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. In addition to the L.A. Phil, he has performed with Camerata Pacifica, and has played with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Pacific Symphony. He is also founder and director of the Orange County String Studio in Irvine. Uyeyama holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Masao Kawasaki. 

Lee, a native of Seoul, South Korea, holds the distinction as the 2015 winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant among many other major prizes and honors. She was recently appointed as assistant professor of violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and is also the artistic director of Emerald City Music, a chamber music series she co-founded in Seattle. She has soloed with the top orchestras among them the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and in its major venues including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, and the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Lee’s performances have been broadcast on PBS’s “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Kennedy Center Honors, WFMT Chicago’s “Rising Stars” series, WRTI in Philadelphia, and on WQXR in New York. She also appeared on Perlman in Shanghai, a nationally broadcast PBS documentary.

Lynch us a Grammy award-winning violist whose performances have spanned the globe in collaboration with star artists across musical genre, from renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet, and a member and co-artistic director of the conductor-less chamber orchestra, A Far Cry. She has appeared in 14 countries across five continents, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House and performed with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Guarneri String quartets. She is also the founder and artistic director of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley, a nonprofit organization that supports public school music programs and provides funds for private instrumental lessons for students in need.

Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster, and thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.

Aznavoorian, who serves as principal cellist with Camerata Pacifica, performs with some of the most recognized ensembles and the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Finnish Radio Symphony, among others. High-profile recognitions  include the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award and first prize in the Illinois Young Performers Competition televised live on PBS with the Chicago Symphony.

She has been a member of the renowned string ensemble the International Sejong Soloists, performs frequently on the Jupiter Chamber Music series in New York, and has been a member of the music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. A proponent of new music, Aznavoorian has presented world premiers of many important cello pieces including Ezra Laderman’s Concerto No. 2 with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records and performs on a cello made by her father, Peter Aznavoorian, in Chicago.

For further information on the Hansen-Koobs Chamber Music Series, call 951-785-2036 or email music@lasierra.edu . La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, Calif., 92505.