Hanson-Koobs series to feature LA Phil’s Chalifour, noted artists

Concertmaster and violinist Martin Chalifour with violinist Jason Uyeyama, violist Caitlin Lynch, and cellist Michael Kaufman will perform works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Schubert. The concert will be held Sunday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Troesh Conference Center in the university’s Zapara School of Business.

The musicians will perform in various groupings and play a repertoire consisting of Franz Schubert's “String Quartet in D Minor, ‘Death and the Maiden,’” Ludwig van Beethoven’s “String Trio Op. 9, No. 3 in C minor,” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Two Violins Op. 56.”

On Oct. 5, the day before the Hanson-Koobs recital, Chalifour and Uyeyama will perform the Prokofiev work at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Chalifour began his tenure as L.A. Phil concertmaster in 1995. He is a native of Canada and the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Certificate of Honor from the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and an honoree of the Montreal International Competition. With a wide-ranging repertoire of more than 60 concertos, Chalifour maintains an active solo career. He has appeared with such renowned conductors as Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Neville Marriner, and Esa-Pekka Salonen and soloed internationally with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Montreal Symphony, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic among others.

Chalifour is a frequent guest at summer music festivals. In December 2014 he was featured at the Reno Chamber Music Festival with friend and colleague Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmoniker. Chalifour has recorded solo and chamber music for the Telarc, Northstar and Yarlung labels. He returns often to his native Canada to teach and perform as soloist with various Canadian orchestras, most recently in Vancouver with Bramwell Tovey and in Hamilton with Gemma New. He teaches at the University of Southern California and California Institute of Technology. Chalifour graduated with honors from the Montreal Conservatory at the age of 18 and pursued studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Uyeyama is associate professor of music and director of string studies at La Sierra University where he teaches violin and chamber music and organizes the Hanson-Koobs series. In additional to teaching, he leads an active career as a 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. He is also founder and director of the Orange County String Studio. Uyeyama holds a master's degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Masao Kawasaki. 

Lynch’s performance career has garnered critical acclaim and taken her to 14 countries on five continents. She has soloed with numerous orchestras and in collaboration with famed artists across musical genre from renowned classical violinist Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood and Bjork.

She has performed at major venues around the globe including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing among many others. An advocate of musical outreach and education, Lynch is the artistic director and founder of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley which brings chamber concerts to the community and free workshops for orchestral students. She is a faculty member at Third Street Music School, the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, and has taught as a Morse Fellow at The Juilliard School in New York.

She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. She performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster.

Kaufman, a cellist with the Los Angeles Opera and former associate principal cello for the Redlands Symphony has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland. His playing has inspired positive reviews from renowned Mozart scholar and piano virtuoso Robert Levin and Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed.

An avid chamber musician, Kaufman is a founding member of Sakura, a cello quintet that is the Young Ensemble in Residence at the De Camera Society. He has also collaborated with such renowned musicians as Leon Fleisher, Midori, Steven Tenenbom and the Calder Quartet. He is the founder and artistic director of Sunset ChamberFest which held its sixth season in June.

An advocate of new music, Kaufman has premiered works written for him by such notable composers as BMI competition winner Justin Hoke, Daniel Silliman and others. He earned a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Southern California.

The Hanson-Koobs series is the namesake of university donor and alumna, the late 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 funded an endowment that covers costs for a professoianl chamber music series. The Dick and Ardyce Koobs Chamber Music Endowment was established by the university Board of Trustees in 2009.

Tickets to the Hanson-Koobs Chamber Music Series are $15 general admission, $10 seniors (55+), $5 students. Seating is general. Further information is available at music@lasierra.edu or by calling 951-785-2036. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, Calif., 92505.