Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44
Johnny Lee and Jia Tianyun, violins
Michael Larco, viola
David Garrett, cello
Junko Ueno Garrett, piano
Series coordinator and pianist Junko Ueno Garrett will be joined by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, live from the Sanctuary.
Read about the Schumann Piano Quintet at the LA Phil website!
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Violinist JOHNNY LEE joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2005 under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Previously, he was Assistant Concertmaster of the Charlotte Symphony and Concertmaster of the Canton Symphony. He was also a member of the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago.
Johnny has been a featured soloist with the LA Phil twice, performing Vivaldi concertos at Walt Disney Concert Hall and at the Hollywood Bowl. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Charlotte Symphony, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and various local orchestras here in Los Angeles.
An avid chamber musician, Johnny appears frequently on the LA Phil’s Chamber Music series. As a founding member of Ensemble Ditto, Johnny helped introduce more than 15,000 people to chamber music as South Korea’s most popular classical musical presentation of 2008. He has recorded three albums with the group, performing works by Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky.
Johnny began playing the violin at age five and won his first competition three years later. An Ohio native, he spent his weekends taking lessons at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). After graduating from Harvard College with a cum laude degree in Economics, Johnny realized music was his true passion and returned to CIM, where he received his master's degree in 2003.
TIANJUN JIA is a multiple award-winning violinist and avid chamber musician hailing from China. She has made frequent guest solo appearances with numerous symphony orchestras all over the world. Jia has also won prizes in many renowned international competitions. She received her early formal training in Shanghai, where she rapidly rose through the schools affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Jia subsequently moved to London to pursue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 2008, earning her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. She is currently continuing her studies as a Starling Fellow at the USC Thornton School of Music under the tutelage of Midori Goto.
Tianyun Jia has given several solo recitals at prestigious venues, such as London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Purcell Room in the Southbank Centre, and Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall. In her native China, she has performed as soloist in Shanghai Concert Hall and Beijing Concert Hall. In recent seasons, she has made solo appearances with the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jia studied in London with György Pauk and won scholarships from the London Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, from the City of London’s Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Hattori Foundation, and the Ruggiero Ricci Foundation. She was awarded Second Prize in the 2011 Third China Violin Competition, which was held in Qingdao. She has participated in masterclasses led by Midori Goto, Maxim Vengerov, Thomas Brandis, Ruggiero Ricci, Aaron Rosand, and with the Emerson and Tokyo string quartets. Tianyun Jia is currently a faculty member of the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, China. She has been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since September 2017.
MICHAEL LARCO was Assistant Principal Violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 2005-2012, and joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in July 2012.
He has collaborated in concert with Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Alisa Weilerstein, and Rachel Barton Pine. Recent appearances have included a Chicago “Dame Myra Hess” recital debut, broadcast live on WFMT, with pianist Soojin Ahn; performances at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach); Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall with Griffey and Warren Jones; Chamber Music Rochester (NY); Skaneateles Festival (NY); and Monadnock Music (NH). Larco was a founding member (2000-2005) of New York City-based Fountain Ensemble.
He has served as principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, and James Conlon. In recent seasons, he has performed in the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, An active chamber musician and coach, Larco has been a faculty member at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and School for Strings (NYC). Most recently, he has coached alongside the Biava String Quartet at the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar at the Hartt School.
Larco received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Samuel Rhodes. In 1999, Larco was awarded the Frank Huntington Beebe Scholarship for studies in Europe. While living in Italy from 1999-2000, he studied both at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl and in Cremona, Italy with Bruno Giuranna.
DAVID GARRETT joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2000, after tenures with the orchestras of Houston, San Antonio, Shreveport, New Orleans, and Grand Rapids. He also appears frequently as recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist, including performances on the LA Phil’s Chamber Music and Green Umbrella series. Garrett pursues a wide range of musical interests: he has recorded modern cello works for the Albany and Opus One labels; his doctoral dissertation included publication of previously unknown Baroque cello works; and along with his wife – Occidental College faculty pianist Junko Ueno Garrett – he performs cello and piano recitals as the Belrose Duo, including several tours in the U.S. and Japan. Away from the cello, Garrett enjoys playing the viola da gamba, musical arranging, and publishing.
Garrett is a dedicated advocate for music education. He coaches youth orchestras, visits schools, and is cello teacher for the El Sistema-inspired Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. At the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSU Long Beach Garrett maintains one of Southern California’s top cello teaching studios. Garrett’s community service extends beyond the Philharmonic’s projects; he is a board member of the Los Angeles Bach Festival and the Los Angeles Violoncello Society and an active member of the First United Methodist Church of Pasadena. In his spare time Garrett enjoys games and sports; in particular, he is an avid, if frustrated, golfer.
Japan-born JUNKO UENO GARRETT has captivated audiences around the world with her colorful tone, poetry, expressiveness, dynamic technique, and wide range of repertoire. She began playing piano at the age of three, trained at the prestigious Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo studying under Professor Hiroshi Miura, and received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying under Professor John Perry in the United States. Junko received “The Japanese Consul General’s Award” for her contributions to international relations and understanding between countries. She was chosen to tour to celebrate the 150 years of Us-Japan relationship and the 125 years of Brazil-Japan relationship.
In 2019-2020 season Junko starts with Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9 in Pasadena, CA where she coordinates the concert series, 3rd@1st. Throughout the season, she will perform a wide range of repertoire and themes, Piano 4 Hands Concert “From Home Entertainment to Concert Hall”, “Music in Paris” for Cello and Piano Concert, including Chopin: Sonata and Debussy: Sonata, Piano Concert “Stories in Music”, including Schumann: Humoreske, Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Granados: Ochos valses poeticos, Chamber Music Concert with Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians, including Franck: Piano Quintet and Brahams: Trio. She frequently performs at LA Phil’s Chamber Music series and major concerts series around Los Angeles area. (details at www.junkopiano.com) The spring of 2020 she returns to Hong Kong International Music Festival, Shenzhen, China, for adjudicating, performing and teaching masterclass, and the summer of 2020 she returns to Académie internationale d’été de musique de Lyon, France, for performing and teaching.
Under the culture exchange program of the Japan Foundation, Japanese Embassies and Consulate Generals of Japan she has toured South and Central America in 2018, 2015, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2002, and 1999, including Brazil (Mozart Concerto No. 23 with Orquestra de EMBAP), Venezuela (Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 with Orquesta Sinfonica Venezuela under Alfredo Rugeles), Ecuador (Chopin Concerto No. 2 with Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Ecuador under Medardo Caisabanda), Colombia’s Teatro Colón and Boyacá International Cultural Festival, Rio de Janeiro’s Musica no Museu at Mosteiro de Sao Bento, Brazil-Curitiba’s Capela Santa Maria, Argentina’s Teatro Gran Rex, Brasilia’s Teatro da Caixa, Peru’s Sociedad Filarmonica, Uruguay’s Auditorio Carlos Vaz Ferreira and Teatro Miguel Young, Costa Rica’s Teatro Eugene O’Neill, El Salvador’s Teatros Nacionals des San Salvador and Santa Ana, Cuba’s Basilica Menor del Convento, Chile’s Centro Cultural Las Condes, and Mexico City. In 2018 and 2016 she toured East Coast and Midwest of U. S. under the Japan Foundation’s culture program.
Her other engagements include performances at Radio France; French Festivals in Turenne, Chambre and Treignac; Le Chateau de Sedieres; Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center; New York’s UN, Charles Wang Center and Flushing Town Hall; Boston’s Berklee College; San Francisco’s Japan Center; Kansas City’s Carlsen Center; Denver’s King Academic Performing Arts Center; Salt Lake City’s Libby Gardner Concert Hall; Tampa’s Carrollwood Cultural Center; Georgia’s Falany Performing Arts Center; Houston’s Texas Music Festival; Tucson; Indiana; Fairbanks; Philadelphia; Atlanta; Idaho Falls; Shreveport…. In the summers of 2009 and 2007, at the invitation of the U.S. State Department, Junko toured in Japan as part of the Belrose Duo, performing and lecturing on American music in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Okinawa, Sapporo, Tottori, and Fukuoka. Other activities include concert tours to India introducing Western Music to Indian audiences. She often gives masterclasses where she performs, and give recitals at universities.
She is a president of Pasadena Chapter of Music Teachers National Association and a frequent adjudicator for MTNA, CAPMT, MTAC, Southern California Junior Bach Festival, and Southwestern Youth Music Festival. She is a program coordinator of Third@First Concert Series in Los Angeles. Junko holds a faculty position at Occidental College, and is a chamber music coach for Junior Chamber Music. She is a Kawai artist and lives in Los Angeles. Junko is a passionate Sumo advocate and a founder of the Los Angeles Sumo Fan Club. www.junkopiano.com