June 2023 Calendar Announcement
Salastina Concludes Season withChamber Arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
Featuring Guest ArtistsMezzo Soprano Clara Osowski and Tenor Thomas Cooley
Sunday, June 11, 2023, 7:30 pm,at The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino
Program also Available to Stream On-Demand for Limited Time
(Los Angeles, CA – March 10, 2023) Salastina, hailed as a visionary chamber ensemble, caps its 2022-23 Season with Arnold Schoenberg’s 1920 chamber arrangement of Mahler’s profoundly moving orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”), featuring celebrated guest artists Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano, and Thomas Cooley, tenor, on Sunday, June 11, 2023, 7:30 pm, at The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino. One of the composer’s final works, the six-movement piece, based on classical Chinese poetry and sung in German, is a meditation on the beauty and transience of life.
Osowski, who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), appears as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. Cooley, a singer of great versatility, expressiveness, and virtuosity, has been praised for his “sweet, penetrating lyric tenor” (New York Times).
Featured Salastina artists include Co-Artistic Directors and Violinists Kevin Kumar and Maia Jasper White; Meredith Crawford, viola; Yoshika Masuda, cello; and Ben Smolen, flute; with special guest Ted Botsford joining them on double bass. Classical KUSC personality Brian Lauritzen hosts the program.
Salastina offers a unique perspective on the chamber music genre with a range of live and virtual performances presented with the ensemble’s signature spirit of playfulness, curiosity, and heart. Salastina has been described as classical music’s wingman. By day, its resident artists are world-class performers and studio musicians who have played on scores for countless favorite films and television shows. By night, they are on a mission to broaden the definition of what classical music was, is, and can be.
Tickets to the live performance on June 11 are $40; $10 for students. Extending its reach beyond the concert stage, Salastina is also offering the option to stream the program ($10/household) on-demand for a three-day period, from June 11-13, 2023. Rothenberg Hall is located at The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. For tickets and information, please visit www.salastina.org.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ted Botsford (double bass) joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in August 2017. Prior to his appointment in Los Angeles, he played in the Seattle Symphony and as Assistant Principal Bass and Acting Principal Bass of the Oregon Symphony. Botsford is also Principal Bass of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA. An avid chamber musician, Botsford has performed with Music in the Vineyards in Napa, CA as well as with several Portland area groups. He also presented a recital of contemporary solo bass music at the 2017 International Society of Bassists convention in Ithaca, NY. In addition to performing, Botsford is very dedicated to teaching, maintaining a private studio and teaching at workshops around the country. A graduate of Rice University, Botsford earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in bass performance with Paul Ellison. He also received the Diplôme and Teaching Certificate from the Institut International François Rabbath.
Thomas Cooley (tenor), a singer of great versatility, expressiveness, and virtuosity, has been praised by for his “sweet, penetrating lyric tenor” (New York Times). He has collaborated with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Nicholas McGegan, Robert Spano, Manfred Honneck, Donald Runnicles, Helmuth Rilling, Osmo Vänskä, Eji Oue, Bernard Labadie, Jane Glover, and Franz Welser-Möst. Internationally in demand for a wide range of repertoire in concert, opera, and chamber music, Cooley performs regularly with major orchestras such as the Atlanta, St. Louis, and National Symphonies; the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Copenhagen Philharmonic; Bavarian Radio Symphony; Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi; the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig; and the Osaka Philharmonic.
Meredith Crawford (viola) is Principal Viola of the Pacific Symphony and an in-demand studio musician, recording soundtracks for “Frozen 2,” “Mulan,” and the most recent installments of “Star Wars,” among other films. Recent reviews have hailed her “glorious sound [and] tasteful musicality” (Voice of OC), and called her a “sensitive, poetic singer on her instrument” (Classical Voice). She has appeared as Guest Principal Viola with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Riverside Philharmonic and has substituted for Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2010 as well as with Irvine’s Mozart Classical Orchestra. She completed her senior year at Oberlin after winning the first professional orchestra audition she’d ever taken. Salastina audiences love her for the way musicality seems to flow effortlessly out of her every pore.
Kevin Kumar (violin) has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also acted as concertmaster in Europe, and on the West Coast, including Los Angeles. He is the co-founder/director of Salastina, and on the East coast he’s the co-director of LakeMusic Festival. Kumar has performed in various ensembles and festivals internationally, and has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts. He has given several world premieres of chamber music and solo works by modern composers, and he is also active in the television and motion picture industry, having played on scores by composers such as John Williams, Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. He received the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship and an Advanced Studies in Music Diploma from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. Kumar also attended the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University.Yoshika Masuda (cello) is Chair of Strings at Chapman University’s Hall-Musco School of Music. He is also a member of the cello quintet Sakura. Born in Japan, Masuda grew up in Australia and England. He has performed throughout Australia, Japan, China, Mexico, the USA, the UK and much of Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. He received the prestigious YAMAHA Music Foundation of Europe String Award. A keen advocate of contemporary music, Masuda has given the U.S. & world premieres of works by Reena Esmail, Toshio Hosokawa, Derrick Skye, Bent Sørensen, Nick Strimple, and Jörg Widmann. His interests outside of the classical genre have led him to perform with artists such as Ben Folds at the Sydney Opera House and Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl. Yoshika is also featured on Leonard Cohen’s last album You Want It Darker, which was released in 2016 on Columbia Records.Clara Osowski (mezzo soprano), who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. She was a recipient of the prestigious 2018-2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music. Additionally, Osowski became the first-ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany, in 2017; was a finalist in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition and was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder; and won the Houston Saengerbund Competition. She recently made her London debut at Wigmore Hall and has appeared with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, the Kansas City Symphony, the Minnesota Opera, and Milwaukee Symphony, among others.
Benjamin Smolen (flute) has performed around the globe. He joined the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in 2011, where he holds the Valerie and Hans Imhof Principal Flute Chair. He has also performed as guest Principal Flute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Pasadena Symphony. Smolen has appeared twice on National Public Radio’s From the Top with pianist Christopher O’Riley. In addition to his work on stage, Smolen is active in the Hollywood scoring industry and has recorded with such esteemed film composers as John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, and Randy Newman, and can be heard on Neil Young’s album, Storytone. Smolen completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University, during which time he also completed a Performance Diploma at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He earned a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance at the New England Conservatory.Maia Jasper White (violin), whose performances are described as “ravishing” (Los Angeles Times), has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in France, Israel, Portugal, Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands and on both American coasts. An avid chamber musician, White is co-founder and co-artistic director of Salastina and serves as the Director of Chamber Music at Caltech, having previously taught chamber music at Colburn. She has been a member of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 13 years, was a member of Pacific Symphony for 10 years, and previously served as Concertmaster of the Crested Butte Music Festival orchestra. She is an active studio musician, recording film scores for such movies as “Star Wars,” “Avatar,” “Frozen,” and “Encanto.” In 2008, White recorded early duos of Schoenberg with Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour for Yarlung Records. She holds a master’s degree from USC Thornton School of Music and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, during which time she studied at the Paris Conservatory.
EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
WHAT/WHO:Salastina Presents Gustav Mahler, arranged by Arnold Schoenberg: Das Lied von der ErdeClara Osowski, mezzo soprano
Thomas Cooley, tenor
Kevin Kumar, violin
Maia Jasper White, violin
Meredith Crawford, viola
Yoshika Masuda, cello
Ted Botsford, double bass
Ben Smolen, flute
WHEN/WHERE:
Sunday, June 11, 2023, 7:30 pm
Rothenberg Hall, The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108
PROGRAM:
GUSTAV MAHLER, arranged by Arnold Schoenberg: Das Lied von der Erde
TICKETS/INFORMATION:Concert Tickets: $40; $10 for students
Streaming On-Demand Tickets: $10/household (available to stream on-demand for a 3-day period, from June 11-13, 2023)
www.salastina.org
Artists, program, ticket prices, date and venue subject to change.
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