at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. (in Upper Ojai)
Ojai, CA 93023 Detailed map and directions
Program
String Quartet in F Major – Maurice Ravel "Un Souvenir d'hiver" – Luanne Homzy "Rain@5" – Anna Drubich String Quartet No. 2 in D Major – Alexander Borodin Variations on "Fiddler on the Roof" –Luanne Homzy
A reception was held immediately following the performance.
Project: CSQ Violinist Luanne Homzy, Violinist Kerenza Peacock, Violist Jonah Sirota, and Cellist
Evgeny Tonkha
Photo taken on our patio at the reception after the concert. (Photo by Christine Gregory)
This performance is underwritten, in part, by the Monimos Foundation.
About Project:CSQ
Project:CSQ Performs "Un Souvenir d'hiver" for string quartet, composed by Luanne Homzy
Project:CSQ is a rotating roster of musicians, composers, and musical creators, led by Luanne Homzy (violinist and composer) and Evgeny Tonkha (cellist). We have a wonderful repertoire ranging from classical to pop to original compositions and arrangements and works especially written for us. We also present unique musical works, with focus on local SoCal composers and artists. The musicians we work with are of the highest artistic, creative, and technical calibers, with the abilities to play a wide scope of genres and idioms, as well as improvisation. The artists are experienced with live performances, studio recordings, remote recordings, and collaborations.
Composers from the Motion Picture Industry have written pieces especially for this ensemble of players. Project:CSQ’s repertoire includes world premieres, as well as original works by living composers, such as Bruce Broughton, Anna Drubich (premieres), Jongnic Bontemps (premieres), Luanne Homzy (premieres), Philip Glass, Sujin Nam (premieres), and George S. Clinton.
This concert's formation includes Violinist Luanne Homzy, Violinist Kerenza Peacock, Violist
Jonah Sirota, and Cellist
Evgeny Tonkha.
BIOGRAPHIES
Luanne Homzy | Violin
Internationally acclaimed American/French-Canadian violinist Luanne Homzy is highly sought-after for her technical facility, sensitive musicality and expansive versatility. Based in Los Angeles, she works as a studio musician, an arranger/composer, and is the leader of the California String Quartet.
First Prize winner of the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009 (with the Saguaro Piano Trio), and of the Canadian Music Competition, she has performed concerti with orchestras such as the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Colburn Chamber Orchestra. Having served as concertmaster for the Colburn Orchestra, the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra, the American Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, she has worked closely with masters such as Sir Neville Mariner, Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, Kent Nagano, and John Williams.
Ms. Homzy has collaborated with renowned artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Franklin Cohen, Ani Kavafian, Paul Coletti, Ronald Leonard, Niklas Schmidt, Richard Lester, Steven Dann, Paul Neubauer, the Tokyo String Quartet, and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among the prestigious venues that have hosted her appearance are, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Banff Center and Izumi Hall. Ms. Homzy has performed in and taught at various festivals including the Bari International Music Festival in Italy, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Music By The Sea at Bamfield, The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Domaine Forget Festival.
Equally at home in many genres, whether it be classical, jazz, rock, gypsy or Eastern European folk music, Ms. Homzy performs world wide with crossover supergroup Trio Dinicu, hailed as “dazzling” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She has recently appeared with artists such as the John Jorgenson Quintet, Florin Niculescu, and Tcha Limberger.
In addition to her performing career, Ms. Homzy composes and arranges jazz, popular, classical, folk, and world music for diverse performing ensembles. Recent works include her composition "Un Souvenir d'hiver" commissioned by the California String Quartet, her string quartet arrangement of "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, and her orchestral arrangement can be heard on Kid Cudi's track "Kitchen".
She also works as a studio musician and string arranger. She can be heard (and occasionally seen) on movies and TV shows such as "The Ellen Degeneres Show", "A Star is Born", "Rogue One: A Starwars Story", "Lalaland", "Glee", "Rent: Live on Fox", "The Pirates of the Carribean" and on albums by Leonard Cohen, Seal, and Kud Cudi.
Luanne Homzy, originally from Montréal, studied with Robert Lipsett and Arnold Steinhardt on a full scholarship at the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, and later obtained her Masters from the Hamburg Hochschule in Germany with Niklas Schmidt.
A renowned classical violinist, Kerenza’s album as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra reached the top of the UK Classical Charts. Her recording of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', directed by herself from the violin, was picked as Album of the Week on Classic FM, and she has recorded a disc of concertos written especially for her by Oliver Davis, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Kerenza led the Pavao String Quartet on five albums and 15 years of tours throughout the world. She was a regular concerto soloist in London’s St. Martin in the Fields, and is now resident in Los Angeles.
Kerenza’s latest release is a piece she composed for solo violin and string orchestra, called “Rainbow”. It was inspired by the rainbow which appeared in the middle of a storm, when her family scattered her mother’s ashes on the Cornish cliffs. She wrote it as a surprise for her father’s 70th birthday, and it was first performed in St. Martin in the Fields, London as an encore after Kerenza had performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
Kerenza has performed with a huge number of artists including Paul McCartney and KanYe West. At one point she was playing on all Top 3 albums in the Pop Charts, as well as on the Classical no. 1. She is playing on the latest albums by Madonna, Celine Dion, Harry Styles, Bon Jovi and Barbra Streisand. In 2016 she completed a year long global tour with Adele, as concertmaster.
Kerenza studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with First Class Honors and was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship for 2 years. Her solo and chamber discs have all received 5-star reviews.
Kerenza also enjoys playing bluegrass and singing, and wrote two songs on the latest album by the Coal Porters. Kerenza has played on many television and film soundtracks, including Downton Abbey.
Kerenza has recently been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for making a “significant contribution to the music industry".
Composer, producer, and violist Jonah Sirota is a new breed of multi-talented musician. Equally at home scoring and recording music for TV, film, and video games, writing concert music, and performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Jonah creates and recreates vivid music for a wide variety of audiences. He has performed and/or arranged music for numerous projects including the 2021 Oscar-nominated animated short If Anything Happens I Love You…, the 2021 Sundance film Wild Hearts, and major cinematic releases from Mulan to the Mandalorian. His recent EP Storylander brings his unique string voice to life in cinematic cues made for visual media. His debut solo recording STRONG SAD features premiere recordings of new elegies for the viola by Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Arthur Joseph McCaffrey, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Robert Sirota, Kurt Knecht, and Jonah himself. Recent concert compositions include Entangled—a flute and viola d’amore duo for Christina Jennings and Matthew Dane, and the string quartet Socially Distant, commissioned by the Hartt School of Music.
Jonah was the violist of the recently-disbanded Chiara String Quartet for all of its 18 years. With the Chiara Quartet, he toured internationally, recorded seven albums and played in numerous major venues worldwide. The Chiara Quartet performed much of the string quartet repertoire from memory ("By Heart"), including the complete string quartets of Béla Bartók, a recording of which was released in 2016 on Azica Records. The group was honored with a Grammy nomination (2011, Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Jefferson Friedman's 3rd String Quartet on the New Amsterdam label), the ASCAP/CMA Adventurous Programming Award, the Guarneri Quartet Award, and top prizes at the Paolo Borciani, Astral, and Fischoff competitions. Their albums have been featured on N.P.R., and in "Best of the Year" lists from the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. In the 2015-2016 season, the group was in residence at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, a venue to which the group returned for their farewell New York concert in May of 2018.
As a concert violist, Jonah performs with pianist Molly Morkoski, with organist Kurt Knecht as the improv duo Mondegreen, and as a member of the revived California String Quartet. He is sought after as a session player and regularly plays with major orchestras, including the Long Beach Symphony, where he is Assistant Principal Viola. He coaches chamber music at the Colburn School, teaches viola at Cal State University Fullerton and the Greenwood Music Camp, and gives viola and composition masterclasses and residencies across the country. He resides in South Pasadena, CA.
Evgeny Tonkha was born in 1981 into a musical family, and studied at the Gnessin Music School (class of Professor Vladimir Tonkha.) In 1998 he entered the Russian Academy of Music (classes of Professor Natalia Shakhovskaya and Professor Valentin Berlinsky.) After graduating from the Russian Academy of Music, Evgeny was invited by Professor David Geringas to post-graduate studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.
Since 2006, Evgeny has been collaborating with the Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra. Since the age of 10, he has toured Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the USA. Conductors he has worked with include Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, and Daniel Barenboim. Among his achievements are the 1st Prize and the Golden Medal at the 12th International Cello Competition in the Czech Republic, the Special Jury Prize at the 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition, and prizes for the best performance of contemporary music.
He participated in many prestigious festivals including "Marlboro" festival. Evgeny teaches at MiMoDa studio. In 2014, in collaboration with Nathan Frankel, he founded a new "K17" concert series in LA and was proud to represent such world-favorite artists as David Geringas, Gilles Apap, Giovanni Sollima, and many others.
Jonah Sirota | Viola
