UCLA Violin Students and Professors - 2009/10
Welcome to the violin studios of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music! Here, you can find out more about us, learn about upcoming events such as concerts and masterclasses, and also make inquiries in case you are interested about joining our community.
We usually stay busy, and the biggest problem the students have is to discover that elusive 25th hour in a day… A typical week includes solo, chamber music and orchestra rehearsals, and a weekly studio class, on top of special projects such as baroque music ensemble, Contempoflux, our new music ensemble, and masterclasses by distinguished guests. Among the most recent past and future guests are such renowned musicians as Ani and Ida Kavafian, Kim Kashkashian, Mark O’Connor, Anne Akiko Myers, Stuart Canin, Albert Markov, Madeline Mitchell, Endre Granat, Martin Chalifour, and others.
Please mark your calendars and consider attending some of these exciting upcoming concerts:
February 12, 2010: Vivaldi Plus concert at the spectacular Rotunda of the Powell Library, where all freshmen violinists will perform solo in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other Concerti, joined by Professors Movses Pogossian and Guillaume Sutre (link)
March 5, 2010: Camarades Concert, in a unique chamber music program dedicated exclusively to the music of LA composers, including A. Schoenberg, I. Stravinsky, D. Milhaud, E. Zeisl, J. Cage, L. Harrison and others.
April 22, 2010: chambermusic@ucla concert at Schoenberg Hall, featuring UCLA Virtuosi, conductorless string orchestra of faculty and students and the demanding program of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven’s towering Grosse Fugue (link)
April 25, 2010: Zipper Hall debut of the UCLA Virtuosi at the season finale of the acclaimed Dilijan Chamber Music Series, performing Beethoven’s Cavatina and Grosse Fugue, and also music by Komitas and Altunyan (link)
Movses Pogossian, Professor of Violin.
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Native of Armenia, violinist Movses POGOSSIAN made his American debut performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Boston Pops in 1990, about which R. Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote: “There is freedom in his playing, but also taste and discipline. It was a fiery, centered, and highly musical performance…” Movses Pogossian has since performed with orchestras such as the Brandenburger Symphoniker and the Halle Philharmonic in Germany, the Sudety Philharmonic in Poland, the Tucson Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York, and the Toronto Sinfonia. He is a prizewinner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition, and the youngest-ever First Prize winner of the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition, previous winners of which included David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer. An active chamber musician, Mr. Pogossian has performed with members of the Tokyo, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets, and frequently collaborates with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, touring worldwide and teaching annually at their summer music festival in New Hampshire. A committed propagate of new music, he has premiered over 30 works, and worked closely with composers such as G. Kurtag, A. R. Thomas, T. Mansurian, and V. Sharafyan. His latest releases include a solo violin CD of World Premiere recordings and “Thoughts and Dreams” with the Baird Trio, both on Albany label, as well as upcoming release of G. Kurtag’s “Kafka Fragments” for soprano and violin on Bridge label. Since earning his advanced degrees from the Komitas Conservatory in Armenia and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow, Mr. Pogossian has held teaching positions at Duquesne, Bowling Green, Wayne State, and SUNY Buffalo Universities. His principal teachers were L. Zorian, V. Mokatsian, V. Klimov, and Louis Krasner. Movses Pogossian is a Founder and Artistic Director of the Dilijan Chamber Music Series in Los Angeles (http://dilijan.larkmusicalsociety.com), a member of the new music group XTET, and a regular participant at several music festivals. He resides in Glendale, California with his wife, Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Varty Manouelian, and their three young children.
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Guillaume SUTRE began his studies in Douai, France ; he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age 14. As a student of Gérard Poulet and Jean-Claude Pennetier, he was awarded first prize in both violin and in chamber music. After finishing his studies in France, he attended Indiana University at Bloomington to study with Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Menahem Pressler, and Janos Starker. He then studied in Cologne with the Amadeus Quartet.
He was only 18 years old when he won first prize in the International Violin Competition, A. Curci, in Napoli; the International Piano-Trio ARD Competition in Munich; and the International Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana. Subsequently, he was invited to play in numerous festivals, including : Stresa, la Roque d’Anthéron, Wigmore Hall, Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein, Vienna, Hong-Kong Festival, Beijing Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, University of California at Los Angeles, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. His motivation to meet musicians from all continents led him to travel to more unusual destinations such as, Addis Ababa Conservatory, Ethiopia, Opéra of Manaus, Brazil, le Grand Théatre d’Hanoï, Vietnam, and Fondation Bolipata, Philippines.
Very early in his career, he was attracted to chamber music. With the great influence of Jean-Claude Pennetier, he became impassioned by the deep work of chamber music. In 1986, he founded the Trio Wanderer; ten years later he joined the Ysaye Quartet. His vast repertoire, over 400 works performed, featured all the chamber music works of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Ravel, and all 68 Haydn quartets. His collaborators are: his wife Kyung-Hee Kim, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Michaela Martin, Pascal Rogé, Michel Portal, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Roland Pidoux, Antonio Lysy, Gauthier Capuçon, and Paul Meyer. In addition to performing chamber music, Guillaume SUTRE has also been engaged as a soloist by the Orchestra of Montpellier, l’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Berlin-Radio Orchestra, the Göttingen Symphonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Bretagne, l’Orchestre d’Auvergne, the Franz Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, and perfomed with conductors such as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Louis Langrée, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Stefan Sanderling, David Robertson, and Sheldon Morgenstern.
His recordings for Sony Classical, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Aeon, and Ysaÿe Records received the highest distinctions in France and internationally. These recordings include: the complete quartets and quintets of Gabriel Fauré, with pianist Pascal Rogé; André Boucourechliev’s string quartet, Haydn’s Last Seven words of Christ, with Michel Serres’s unpublished texts ; Bruch’s double concerto with the Orchestre de Bretagne. The live recording of the complete duets of Haydn and Mozart was met with critical acclaim and are considered definitive.
With his wife Kyung-Hee KIM, it continues to explore the repertory for violin and Harp, giving again life with a form in more intimate concert and with works whose charm points ut the creative and merry atmosphere of the “Belle époque”. In addition, he is a passionate defender of the music of his time, regularly performing premieres of such composers as Michele Reverdy, Isabelle Fraisse, Regis Campo, Marc Monnet, and Paul Chihara. His life as a musician could not find its full bloom without transmitting his knowledge and sharing his concert experience with musicians of the younger generation. During ten years, he has been a professor of violin, specializing in the practice of the string quartet, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris. As a visiting professor at the Academies of Villecroze, Nice, Flaine, Aldeburgh, Eastern Music Festival, University of Southern California, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he has given master classes in both chamber music as well as solo violin.
In 1994, the SACEM awarded him the prestigious George Enesco prize. In 1999 he was named byb the French Government Chevalier of the Order of Arts and the Letters.
Actual First Violin of the Ysaÿe String Quartet, he’s also Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, where he resides with his family.
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Movses Pogossian & Guillaume Sutre at the UCLA Powell Library Rotunda - Vivaldi Concert, Feb 2009.