La Sierra music alum wins prestigious LA Phil fellowship

  Arts+Culture  

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- At first it sounded like a rejection message. The representative from the Los Angeles Philharmonic thanked Pablo Sanchez for his audition in a phone call on Feb. 21 and the young violinist assumed the worst, until the rep congratulated him.

<p>Violinist Pablo Sanchez performing his first graduate recital on Feb. 1 at the Cleveland Institute of Music.</p>

Violinist Pablo Sanchez performing his first graduate recital on Feb. 1 at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

<p>Jason Uyeyama, left, La Sierra University's director of string studies and his former student, violinist Pablo Sanchez.</p>

Jason Uyeyama, left, La Sierra University's director of string studies and his former student, violinist Pablo Sanchez.

“That’s when it clicked,” said the 2019 La Sierra University Performer’s Certificate alum. “Then I was very, very excited.” Sanchez, now a 26-year-old graduate student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, was informed that he was one of two performers selected as LA Phil Resident Fellows. The prestigious award involves up to a three-year fellowship with a salary and benefits package that includes a stipend for housing and lessons. The fellowship is open to outstanding string players and percussionists from underserved populations and those who have a demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion in the arts, according to information from the philharmonic.

LA Phil fellows will perform regularly with the famed orchestra including its October season opener at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Sanchez will also assist with teaching the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles inspired by acclaimed Los Angeles Philharmonic Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. 

After he received the good news, Sanchez next texted his former professor, Jason Uyeyama, La Sierra University’s director of string studies and a player with the L.A. Phil since 2005. 

“It couldn’t have happened to a more dedicated student. It was well deserved,” Uyeyama said. “This experience, performing with one of the greatest orchestras in the world, is going to prepare him well for other auditions.  I don’t know that there is a better position to be in as a student.”  

Sanchez credits Uyeyama with helping him learn the art of meticulous preparation and technique, as well as the time management skills essential to a professional musician. “He really helped me learn how these things work,” Sanchez said.

“His trust,” Uyeyama answered when asked about the qualities that set Sanchez apart. “He trusted my approach, my suggestions, and I always gave him room for his own creativity.”

"I think it’s very important to work hard and leave the rest to God.”
-- Pablo Sanchez, violinist

Sanchez was busy with additional performance activities in the weeks leading up to his audition, which first required the submission of a preliminary audition video. Sanchez performed his first master’s recital on Feb. 1 and that week participated in another audition in Detroit. “For the last two weeks [before the fellowship audition] I was really prepared for Los Angeles,” he said. Also, he works in two orchestras and has performances every weekend. “It helped me to be busy. I tried my best, but I was also trying not to overthink it.”

For the L.A. Phil fellowship audition, participants were asked to be prepared to play excerpts from works by Mozart, Mahler, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven. The process involved a semifinal round in which a judging panel listened from behind a curtain and participants communicated through a proxy toward maintaining complete objectivity. “The semifinals were more nerve-wracking,” Sanchez said. The final round involved performing excerpts in full view of a panel comprised of several individuals including Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour, and Principal Second Violin Lyndon Taylor, a former instructor at La Sierra University and with whom Sanchez studied for a summer.

The final round proved more comfortable for Sanchez. “I was studying excerpts a lot with Jason so I already knew some of them before I left for Cleveland,” he said. 

Sanchez, a native of Mexico, earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2015 from Andrews University in Michigan. Upon Taylor’s recommendation, Sanchez enrolled in 2017 in La Sierra’s Performer’s Certificate program to study with Uyeyama. The program focuses exclusively on preparation for employment as a chamber, orchestral or solo musician.

The prized L.A. Phil fellowship is the latest of Sanchez’s achievements. In April 2019 he was chosen from a field of 15 musicians as La Sierra’s winner of the $3,500 Marcia Specht-Guy Prize in the university’s annual concerto competition. Among his awards are previous fellowships to the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and Rocky Ridge Summer Festival. Last year he landed a position as a substitute violinist with the New World Symphony Orchestra co-founded by eminent conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

Sanchez was raised in Mexico in a musical family. His parents are both musicians and teach at the Seventh-day Adventist University of Montemorelos in Nuevo León, Mexico. His two older sisters play piano and cello. 

“My greatest influences have always been both my family and parents with their example and support, also the community where I grew up,” he said.

Sanchez’ upward trajectory has not been without its setbacks and challenges. In 2018 he suffered a hand injury resulting from a bicycle accident a couple of days before last year’s concerto competition. And before enrolling in graduate school at the Cleveland Institute, he was involved in a car accident which impacted his auditions. Through it all he has been grateful for the many individuals who have supported his goals and for the guiding hand that has helped him navigate life’s obstacles.

“I always trusted that there was a good plan for me,” he said. “It all somehow sorted itself out in the end. I like to plan ahead a lot regarding my career, but I’ve learned to be calm and trust that things will eventually work out. I think it’s very important to work hard and leave the rest to God.”

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