We are excited to present The Muck’s first ever Classical Music Series brought to you free over live stream! This seven week series was produced with the assistance of The American Federation of Musicians (AFM Local 7). Series sponsored by Ting.
Concerts will stream live on The Muck’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheMuckenthaler
February 25 at 7pm:
Jung-A Lee, Piano; Tony Ellis, Trumpet
Jung-A Lee studied at Yale University, Boston University, and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and received her DMA from Boston University. And in addition to serving on the faculties of Vanguard University and Biola University she has given recitals in churches and concert halls all over the world including Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Hungary, Slovakia, Canada, China, and South Korea. In 2018 Cynthia Ellis (flute), David Chang (clarinet), and Jung-A Lee (piano/organ) formed a trio, Synergy out of mutual love for classical music. In July 2021 Synergy will be featured at MTAC Convention as performers/lecturers. Lee currently serves as organist at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California.
Tony Ellis has held the position of Second Trumpet with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra since 1985. He earned his Bachelor and Masters Degree from California State University, Fullerton. Tony also held the position of Principal Trumpet with the Opera Pacific Orchestra and has recorded several CDs with Southwest Chamber Music as solo trumpet, including the Grammy winning recording Carlos Chavez, Vol. 2, in 2006. In 2011 Tony recorded William Kraft’s Encounters III which was nominated for a Latin Grammy award. By day, Tony is the instrumental music at Santa Fe Middle School, wining the Teacher of the Year award in the second year of his tenure in 1988. Tony enjoys racecar driving and playing golf. He is married to Cindy Ellis, Principal Piccolo with the Pacific Symphony. He and Cindy share their home with their three Labrador Retrievers (the ‘labradorables’), Tosca, Piper, and Summer.
March 4 at 7pm:
Musique Sur La Mer, String Quartet
Karen Linkletter is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and studied with Margaret Rowell and Gabor Rejto. She performs regularly in Southern California as a freelance musician. Dr. Linkletter has performed with numerous chamber groups and symphony orchestras, including many concert tours in Asia and Europe.
Lisa Santana, violist, is an active freelance musician. She is currently principal viola with the Whittier Regional Symphony and plays regularly in the Santiago String Quartet and with several other ensembles in Southern California. Lisa has taught viola at Concordia University and now teaches privately.
Mari Haig, graduate of Occidental College, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum Laude, studied at the Aspen Music Festival with Dorothy Delay and Mark Peskanov, and later with Eudice Shapiro of USC. Mari has a studio of private students. Mari performed tribute concerts at the Royal College of Music in London in 2011 for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and in 2012 for the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth!
Maestro Marcy A. Sudock is the founding music director and conductor of Musique Sur La Mer Orchestras and Academy of Music, including the Musique Sur La Mer Orchestra and Ensembles (professional) and the Musique Sur La Mer Youth Orchestras programs for the past twenty-one years.
March 11 at 7pm:
Duo Imaginalis (guitar and piano), Hugo Nogueira (guitar) & Ekaterina Bessmeltseva (piano)
Ekaterina Bessmeltseva is a concert pianist whose performances span North America, Europe and Russia. Dr. Bessmeltseva has appeared as a soloist and a chamber player at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York, 2013 and 2014), Elebash Concert Hall (New York, 2009), Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall ( Las Vegas, 2016), Los Angeles Valley College (Los Angeles, 2018), Rimsky-Korsakov Museum ( St. Petersburg, Russia, 2003).
Hugo Nogueira won the 2011 American Guitar Society competition in Los Angeles” California After attending three prestigious conservatories in Brazil” he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Composition in 2007 and a teaching credential in 2010 Hugo continued his studies earning his Master’s Degree in Guitar Performance at Azusa Pacific University Additionally."
To read more visit: https://duoimaginalis.com/
March 18 at 7pm:
Distant Fires Trio, Harp Trio (harp, flute, cello)
This trio of harp, flute and cello is lead by Ellie Choate:
Ellie Choate is a versatile harpist based in Long Beach. She performs classical music in chamber, opera, and symphony groups such as Opera Santa Barbara, the Southern California Brass Consortium, CalArts New Century Players, and most recently with the San Bernardino Symphony.
Ellie’s career spans work in the commercial music industry, with performances on and off camera in major motion pictures, television, and sound recordings such as “Ratatouille”, “Mission Impossible”, Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company”, “Bold and the Beautiful”, “Days of Our Lives”, and Josh Groban’s PBS special. She also can be seen backing headline artists, such as Jennifer Hudson at the Ravinia festival.
Cellist, Karen Linkletter is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and studied with Margaret Rowell and Gabor Rejto. She performs regularly in Southern California as a freelance musician. Dr. Linkletter has performed with numerous chamber groups and symphony orchestras, including many concert tours in Asia and Europe.
Flutist, Mary Palchak enjoys an active career as a freelance flutist in Southern California. She has played with the Pacific, Long Beach and Pasadena Symphonies, Long Beach Opera and numerous touring ballet companies, including Bolshoi, La Scalla and American Ballet Theater.
As Founding Artistic Director, President and Principal Flutist of the California Concert Artists, now Orange County's most active professional chamber music series, she has organized and performed numerous concerts with Southern California's finest musicians in addition to premiering compositions written specifically for the ensemble.
March 25 at 7pm:
Woodwind String Quartet (violin, woodwinds, viola, cello)
Maestro Marcy A. Sudock is the founding music director and conductor of Musique Sur La Mer Orchestras and Academy of Music, including the Musique Sur La Mer Orchestra and Ensembles (professional) and the Musique Sur La Mer Youth Orchestras programs for the past twenty-one years.
Marcy Sudock graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. She also participated in the Starling-Delay Symposium on Violin at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She has been a professional performing violinist both as a soloist, chamber musician, studio and orchestral musician for more than fifty years. Since then, Ms. Sudock, has become a sought after violinist, conductor and instructor. As a violinist, she has performed with such diverse, notable artists as Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie, Lou Rawls, Marni Nixon, Steve Mercurio, Leonard Penario and Freddie Hubbard.
Lisa Santana, violist, is an active freelance musician. She is currently principal viola with the Whittier Regional Symphony and plays regularly in the Santiago String Quartet and with several other ensembles in Southern California. Lisa has taught viola at Concordia University and now teaches privately. She holds a
BA in Music and an MA in Linguistics from Cal State, Long Beach, where she studied viola with Louis Kievman.
Karen Linkletter is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and studied with Margaret Rowell and Gabor Rejto. She performs regularly in Southern California as a freelance musician. Dr. Linkletter has performed with numerous chamber groups and symphony orchestras, including many concert tours in Asia and Europe. She has played with the Long Beach Ballet, Pacific Symphony, Millennial Choir and Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Laguna Playhouse, South Coast Symphony, and other regional ensembles. Dr. Linkletter has been a guest lecturer and solo performer at Tamagawa University in Tokyo and other venues where she has combined her knowledge of history and music. She has a studio of private students and coaches several chamber ensembles and high school groups. Dr. Linkletter has a PhD in History from Claremont Graduate University. She is currently the Research Director at the Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute, where she advances curriculum and research related to leadership and the arts. She is an avid horseback rider and enjoys time with her horses, Spencer and Chance.
Joseph Stone is a full-time free-lance musician in the Los Angeles/Orange County area. He is Principal Oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra, Long Beach Municipal Band, and the Desert Symphony and Second Oboe of the Long Beach Symphony. Recent solo appearances include performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra (2016) and Bach Double Concerto with L.A. Phil Concertmaster Martin Chalifour and the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay (2017). Mr. Stone is an adjunct Professor of oboe at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB and teaches oboe, clarinet, and saxophone at Whittier College.
April 1 at 7pm:
Palchak Flute
Flutist, Mary Palchak enjoys an active career as a freelance flutist in Southern California. She has played with the Pacific, Long Beach and Pasadena Symphonies, Long Beach Opera and numerous touring ballet companies, including Bolshoi, La Scalla and American Ballet Theater.
As Founding Artistic Director, President and Principal Flutist of the California Concert Artists, now Orange County's most active professional chamber music series, she has organized and performed numerous concerts with Southern California's finest musicians in addition to premiering compositions written specifically for the ensemble.
Her solo CD, Flute Music by French Composers, won critical acclaim in Fanfare Magazine and is a best-selling classical flute CD worldwide. Mary Palchak earned her Master's Degree from the St. Louis Conservatory where she studied with St. Louis Symphony Principal flutist Jacob Berg. Other teachers include Anne Diener Giles, Julius Baker and Louis Moyse.
Her son: Phillip Matsuura
Twenty-two-year-old American pianist Phillip Matsuura began his musical studies at the age of four and studied at the Oberlin Conservatory. An alumnus of YoungArts, the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards and a gold medal laureate of the Southern California Bach Festival, Matsuura has garnered prizes and recognition on stages throughout his native Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and nationwide.
An avid chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Matsuura was a member of the Colburn School’s Honors Piano Quartet and his expansive collaborative repertoire includes a vast palette of lied and mélodie literature, duo sonatas and chamber music. A proponent of new music, Matsuura has worked with young composers in several premiers and first recordings.
April 8 at 7pm:
Huntington Brass Quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba)
Tim Hall is a free-lance musician who is both a regular in major local ensembles and a seasoned touring musician.
Tim can often be heard with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera, the Pacific Symphony, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the California Philharmonic, the Long Beach Opera, the Pasadena Symphony, the Long Beach Municipal Band, and the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters Orchestra.
The past year alone has found Tim on stage or in the pit for the Pacific Symphony, the L.A. Opera, the L.A. Master Chorale, the National Ballet of Canada, the Australian National Ballet, the Long Beach Chorale, and the Pacific Chorale, as well as in lighter concerts with Herb Alpert and comedian/singer Martin Short.
Ron Minor was born in San Diego in 1954. His forty-five year career as a trombone player and composer has been wide-ranging both musically and geographically. After starting out as a freelance musician, playing principal trombone with the Riverside Symphony and the early Pacific Symphony, he spent fifteen years traveling, living and working primarily outside of the United States, with significant stops in Venezuela, South Africa and Germany. He returned to the Los Angeles area in 1996 and has since performed with Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Pops Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, Long Beach Opera, New West Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, and Florida’s Sarasota Opera.
Martin Rhees has performed with many symphony orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Honolulu Symphony, and Grant Park Orchestra. Mr. Rhees has also performed with Frank Sinatra Jr., Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, the Percy Faith Orchestra, the Mantovani Orchestra, and Manheim Steamroller. As a recording musician, he has worked in all of the major motion picture studios and can be heard on a range of media. He has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl (LAPO), Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (LA Opera), the Amanson Theater and the Mark Taper Forum.
Mr. Rhees is the Principal Horn of the San Bernardino Symphony and holds the degrees of Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Instrumental Music Education from the California State University, Fullerton. Mr. Rhees completed post- graduate work at the University of Southern California where he earned a Master of Music degree in Horn Performance. He has studied with Vincent DeRosa, Dale Clevenger, Todd Miller, and Kaoru Chiba.
Alfred Lang has been an active teacher and performer in southern California since 1979. He taught at UCI for 20 years and has been teaching at Soka University for 15 years. He has appeared with too many ensembles to list here, but they include Pacific Symphony, Pacific Chorale, Orange Coast Symphony, South Coast Symphony, Long Beach Opera and Ballet, Pageant of the Masters Orchestra, Long Beach Chorale, etc. He has recorded four CD's for the Music Minus One Group in New York and is a regular staff member of the Humboldt State Brass Chamber Music Workshop.
“A player of astonishing flamboyance” (Los Angeles Times) and “impressive dash” (Orange County Register), Doug Tornquist grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley. He came to Los Angeles for his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Jim Self and Tommy Johnson. He earned his master’s degree from Wichita State University, where he played the the WSU faculty brass quintet, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and toured with the Saint Louis Symphony, under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.
He returned to Los Angeles in 1987 to earn his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from USC and soon became a busy freelance performer, playing everywhere from amusement parks to the ballet, opera and symphony (sometimes on the same day). He has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and all the regional orchestras. He has recorded with Diana Krall, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Randy Newman, Meatloaf, and Beck, among others, The first time he was invited to play on a film score was in 1989 for Edward Scissorhands; since then he’s played on the soundtracks of over 600 films, tv shows and video games. He was the (tuba) voice of Wreck it Ralph, played on John Williams’ most recent scores and was a featured soloist with John Lithgow on I’m a Manatee. He regularly records for Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson Williams, James Newton Howard, Randy Newman, Christophe Beck and many other composers.
Thank you to Ting for sponsoring this series.
