Violin Master Class with Movses Pogossian

Please join us on Saturday evening, March 28th at 7:30 pm for a violin master class with UCLA professor of violin, Movses Pogossian, and a small group of pre-selected, young, but advanced, violin students from the violin studios of Aimee Kreston, Gayaneh Kumar, and Cindy Wu, along with pianist Stephen Karr. You will hear performances by each student, followed immediately by a critique and coaching by Mr. Pogossian. He will also give general suggestions to young string players and their parents in the audience as how best to begin preparing for college-level music auditions, even if you are still years away from high school graduation.

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 with such artists as Kim Kashkashian, Jeremy Denk, Lynn Harrell, Ani and Ida Kavafian, and Rohan de Saram. He frequently collaborates with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, teaching annually at their summer music festival in New Hampshire. Movses Pogossian is the Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Dilijan Chamber Music Series, which performs at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and is currently in its tenth season (http://dilijan.larkmusicalsociety.com).

A committed propagate of new music, Movses Pogossian has premiered over 50 pieces, and works closely with composers such as G. Kurtág, T. Mansurian, A. R. Thomas, L. Segerstam, P. Chihara, V. Sharafyan, and A. Avanesov. His newly formed Duo with remarkable Japanese percussionist Kuniko Kato has commissioned several works for this unusual medium, successfully performed during the recent tour of Japan. In Los Angeles, Movses Pogossian frequently performs on Monday Evening Concerts, and is the recipient of the 2011 Forte Award from Jacaranda, given for outstanding contributions to the promotion of new music and modern music. In July of 2008, he made his debut at the Darmstadt Festival in Germany.

His discography includes “Blooming Sounds” and “In Nomine”, solo violin CDs of world premiere recordings of Kurtág, Mansurian, Avanesov, Felder, Segerstam and music by Prokofiev and Hindemith, both on Albany label, as well as 2009 release of G. Kurtag’s “Kafka Fragments” for soprano and violin on Bridge label, which includes a unique video documentary on the work with the composer, and a DVD of an unedited live performance. In his review of the recording, Paul Griffiths writes: “…remarkable is Pogossian’s contribution, which is always beautiful, across a great range of colors and gestures, and always seems on the edge of speaking—or beyond.” Upcoming releases include a Schoenberg/Webern DVD, recorded at Schoenberg’s Brentwood home (with Kim Kashkashian, Rohan de Saram, and Judith Gordon), and Complete Works for Violin by Stefan Wolpe, both for Bridge Records.

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 legendary Louis Krasner. Movses Pogossian is currently Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He resides in Glendale, California with his wife, Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Varty Manouelian, and their three children.

For this master class we are very pleased that pianist Stephen Karr is able to join us. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Stephen Karr is a young conductor and keyboardist establishing himself as a compelling interpreter of a wide variety of orchestral and operatic works. Stephen is the co-founder of Pacific Opera Project. He serves as music director and has led all of the company’s productions, most recently Tosca and La bohème AKA “The Hipsters,” as well as the highly successful trilogy of Mozart/da Ponte operas which he led as both conductor and recitative accompanist. He also recently conducted performances of Sweeney Todd at California State University, Northridge, substituting on short notice for an indisposed colleague. He has worked at such opera companies as the OPERA Iowa outreach tour of Des Moines Metro Opera as music director, the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, which took him to the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman as assistant conductor and principal keyboardist for performances of The Music Man, Opera New Jersey for a critically acclaimed production of Menotti’s The Consul, Opera Santa Barbara and Palm Beach Opera. Additionally, he has been on staff with schools such as Chapman University, Michigan State University, UCLA, USC and Westminster Choir College.

Stephen’s other pursuits include work as a continuo harpsichordist, which he has applied to west coast premieres of two operas by Francesco Cavalli (La Calisto with POP in 2014 and Il Giasone with Opera UCLA in 2010), Opera UCLA’s production of Handel’s Agrippina in 2012, Glimmerglass’s Armide in 2012 and a performance of Le quattro stagioni with the American Youth Symphony featuring Sarah Chang as soloist and conductor. Stephen is also an organist, and has appeared in concert throughout the East Coast, as well as a performance with James Conlon at Royce Hall of Zemlinsky’s Psalm 13. He is currently the organist at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church in Huntington Beach. Stephen is also an accomplished author, who provides supertitles for most of POP’s productions, in addition to titles for Opera UCLA, pre-concert lectures for POP, the Glimmerglass Festival and Palm Beach Opera, and program notes for the Broad Stage.

Stephen holds degrees in organ performance from Westminster Choir College and Mercer University, and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from UCLA, where he studied with Neal Stulberg and led performances of John Adams’s Chamber Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6, Verdi’s Falstaff, and Le nozze di Figaro, which he conducted from the fortepiano as conductor and recitative accompanist. He is also a co-founder of the school’s resident new music ensemble, contempo flux.

Cost is $10 per per person. Seating is limited to sixty audience members. Please reserve your seats now by emailing shop@metzlerviolins.com, and let us know the number in your party. Please pay at the door. All paying audience members will receive a $10 gift card for future use at the Metzler Violin Shop.