Montecito Festival to celebrate 10-year anniversary at La Sierra University

Free festival concerts will be held most evenings July 18 -- Aug. 2 at the university’s Hole Memorial Auditorium and other campus venues, and will feature noted guest artists, the Montecito Festival Orchestra, a cello ensemble, a piano ensemble, festival faculty and students.

The three-week festival has occurred the last three years on La Sierra’s campus. This year’s group of approximately 200 students range in age from 10 to 27 years and come from 15 countries in Europe, South and North America, and Asia. The students, who specialize in voice, string, piano, and wind instruments, engage in intensive group and individual study with professional musicians who function as festival faculty. Instructors include professors from La Sierra’s music department such as department Chair Elvin Rodriguez, Director of Keyboard and Collaborative Studies Kimo Smith, Director of Vocal Studies Raejin Lee, and adjunct vocal instructor Javier Gonzalez. La Sierra’s adjunct flute professor and arts academy director Martin Glicklich is co-directing the festival with founder Chan Ho Yun.

“We are in existence because of the incredible support from La Sierra’s music department and Elvin Rodriguez,” Yun said. “We love this collaboration. We believe in having music accessible to everyone.”

Noted festival guest artists will give master classes and some will serve as featured performers. They include:

• Andrés Cárdenes, Grammy-nominated violinist/violist who has appeared on four continents with more than 100 top orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfonica Nacional de Caracas.

• Cho-Liang Lin, Grammy-nominated violinist, soloist with major orchestras around the globe, and music director of the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest.

• Daniel Shindarov, Russian-born violinist and former concertmaster of the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

• Donald McInnes, violist, collaborator with many of the world’s major artists, including Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Lynn Harrell, and Yo-Yo Ma.

• Glenn Dicterow, acclaimed violinist, served as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for 34 years.

• Hyung-ki Joo, composer and pianist, arranged and recorded Billy Joel’s classical album of solo piano pieces titled “Fantasies and Delusions” for Columbia/Sony Classical Records. The album reached no.1 on the Billboard Classical Charts.

• Jean-Yves Thibaubet, Grammy-nominated pianist, recorded more than 50 albums, numerous credits include soloist for Dario Marianelli’s Oscar-winning score for the film “Atonement,” and his film “Pride and Prejudice.”

• Lynn Harrell, Grammy-winning cellist, frequent guest with leading major orchestras of the United States and Europe, collaborator with famed artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

“We have a gem here. It’s second to none,” said Yun. “We’re very proud of it and that we’re in Riverside.” The festival is an invitation to the community “to join in great music making,” he said.

The music festival, held annually in the Santa Barbara area, moved to La Sierra in 2015 to accommodate the festival’s growth.

The festival’s students also give outreach performances. Festival organizers are open to presenting free concerts at hospitals, nursing homes and other such venues in the Riverside area, Yun said. This season, student musicians will present an outreach orchestra concert in Laguna Niguel on July 22 in collaboration a symphony in the area.

A full concert calendar is available under festival information at http://www.montecitomusicfestival.com. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A campus map is available at https://lasierra.edu/campus-map/.