Montecito festival brings renowned artists to La Sierra University

The festival will be held July 8-27 with free performances and master classes offered most afternoons and evenings at various campus venues to showcase the talents of noted guest artists along with festival faculty and students. 

This will be the fourth year that La Sierra hosts the three-week festival which attracts international participants to study voice, string, piano, and wind instruments. Nearly 200 festival students from approximately 15 countries will have access this summer to private lessons and mentoring in addition to special lectures, seminars, and group and master classes. Founder Chan Ho Yun co-directs the festival with La Sierra’s Martin Glicklich, director of the university’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and an adjunct flute professor.

Noted festival guest artists include:

• Andrés Cárdenes, Grammy-nominated, Cuban-born violinist, violist and conductor who has appeared on four continents with more than 100 top orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfónica Nacional de Caracas. He has collaborated with many of the world’s famed conductors including Charles Dutoit, Sir André Previn and Leonard Slatkin.

• Cho-Liang Lin, Grammy-nominated violinist and soloist with major orchestras around the globe, as well as music director of the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest with which he celebrates his final season this year, and the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. His performance instruments include a1715 Stradivari named “Titian.”

• Jean-Yves Thibaudet, a Grammy-nominated pianist who has recorded more than 50 albums and amassed numerous credits including featured soloist for Dario Marianelli’s Oscar-winning score for the 2007 film “Atonement,” as well as his Oscar-nominated 2005 film “Pride and Prejudice.”

• Lynn Harrell, Grammy-winning cellist and frequent guest with leading major orchestras of the United States and Europe, collaborator with famed artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

• Margaret Batjer, noted violinist throughout the United States and Europe and concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1998. She developed the chamber orchestra’s acclaimed series, Westside Connections and has collaborated with such noted artists as cellist David Finckel and pianists Wu Han and Peter Serkin.

• Paul Coletti, Grammy-nominated violist, composer and recording artist has performed in every major European capital as a soloist and on the BBC, Classical Arts and NPR, and is a frequent guest with leading orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

• Shmuel Ashkenasi, world-renowned, top award-winning Israeli violinist, a soloist with many leading orchestras around the world and organizer of the famed Vermeer Quartet in 1969, remaining its first violinist throughout the quartet’s 39-year career.

• John Perry, internationally acclaimed pianist and a Fulbright Scholarship recipient who has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America, founder and artistic director of the Southern California Music Institute in Los Angeles. He is a professor at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and piano professor at California State University, Northridge.

Festival founder Yun described it as “a global event. We’re very pleased with the wide variety of talented and interesting students who are seeking a meaningful experience,” he said. Additionally, the festival faculty and guest artists “are of the highest caliber within their fields. We’re just so fortunate to have these amazing artists at La Sierra University.” 

Community outreach is an important aspect of the festival’s educational focus, Yun stated, and as such student groups are available for free performances at hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, community centers and elsewhere. “We underline the importance of civic duty,” he said. “It’s very important for the students to share their talents.”On July 14, the festival’s orchestra together with violinists Linda Wang and Ken Aiso will perform Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” in a special benefit concert with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra at the Sturges Center for the Fine Arts.

For community outreach performance requests contact Dr. Chan Ho Yun at 213-500-6846. A downloadable concert and masterclass calendar for the Montecito International Music Festival will be available at http://www.montecitomusicfestival.comor by calling 213-925-2400. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A campus map is available at https://lasierra.edu/campus-map/.