The Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra (also known as LAV) is an instrumental ensemble of professional musicians based in Los Angeles, California, committed to the support and advocacy of music education in schools and the community. LAV supports music education through collaborative partnerships with the community, schools, agencies and other arts organizations and by donating 100 percent of net revenues from its subscription performances to advance music education. [1]
Carlo Ponti founded the orchestra in December 2013. [2]
The ensemble debuted at Napa Valley Festival del Sole in July 2014. [3] [4]
LAV's ninth concert season (2023–24) is currently being performed in Los Angeles, California under Carlo Ponti, [5] music and artistic director.
The Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra is an orchestra of professional musicians; its sizes ranges from 22 strings to a full orchestra of about 45 musicians, depending on the works performed. [6]
The Russian National Orchestra was founded in Moscow in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. It was the first Russian orchestra to perform at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican and in Israel.
Sean Bradley is an American conductor, composer, violinist, music theorist, educator, and impresario. Bradley is conductor of the Bradley String Orchestra, and president of Concert Talent—a production company which provides corporate entertainment, engagement marketing, talent management and logistical support for major label recording and touring artists. In recent years, his activities as an entrepreneur have increasingly included funding and leading a variety of music-related projects on the World Wide Web. He is the founder of Bravoflix, the first online subscription video service in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the performing arts, as well as a technology consultancy providing custom web application development and cloud computing. As a musician, he performs regularly on stages in the U.S., China, and Mexico.
The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (PVCO) is a chamber orchestra that is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1991 by Daniel Spalding.
The Pacific Symphony is a symphony orchestra located in Orange County, California. The orchestra performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as a part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. From 1987 to 2016, the orchestra's Summer Festival concerts took place at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.
Laszlo Varga was a Hungarian-born American cellist who had a worldwide status as a soloist, recording artist, and authoritative cello teacher.
Eula Beal Garnett professionally billed as Eula Beal, was an American opera lyric contralto. During her relatively short touring career, she performed with distinguished collaborators not only in concert on the US West Coast but also in Concert Magic, a 1947 film billed as "the first motion picture concert."
El Sistema is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu. It later adopted the motto "Music for Social Change." El Sistema-inspired programs provide what the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies describes as "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children." By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema included more than 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The original program in Venezuela involves four after-school hours of musical training and rehearsal each week, plus additional work on the weekends.
Andrew von Oeyen is a concert pianist. He is a citizen of the United States and France.
The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California, for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizing adventurous, eclectic, and challenging music, principally by contemporary composers. A secondary focus of the Festival is the discovery or rediscovery of rare or little known works by past masters.
Daniel George Lewis was an American orchestral conductor and University Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California (USC).
Carlo Ponti Jr. is an Italian orchestral conductor working in the United States. He is the son of late film producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and Italian actress Sophia Loren, and the older brother of film director Edoardo Ponti.
Symphony Silicon Valley is the professional symphony orchestra of San Jose and the South Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 2002 following the demise of the San Jose Symphony, the orchestra debuted to rave reviews and standing ovations on November 23, 2002 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Started initially by Ballet San Jose as a way to keep their core musicians employed and in town after the closure of the San Jose Symphony, the orchestra was so successful that it was spun off as its own separate nonprofit organization after the first year.
Nolan Ira Gasser is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist. He was the chief musicologist for Pandora Media, Inc. and the architect of the Music Genome Project, the proprietary musical analysis system that underlies the popular Internet radio service. His classical compositions have been performed by orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists around the world, in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Rose Bowl.
Festival Napa Valley is a music, food, wine and lifestyle festival held in Napa Valley, California. It is presented by Napa Valley Festival Association, a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of vintners and local leaders.
Gabala International Music Festival is an annual festival of classical music held every summer beginning in 2009 in Gabala, Azerbaijan. The festival is organised with the support of Heydar Aliyev Foundation at the initiative of the rector of the Baku Academy of Music Farhad Badalbeyli and conductor Dmitri Yablonski. At this festival, musicians perform in the open air. Participants have included musicians from Europe, the US and Israel, as well as musicians from republics of the former USSR. In 2009, a contest of young pianists was held at the same time with the musical festival. Jazz and mugham evenings were held along with classical music concerts. In 2010, the festival was held on August. General director of UNESCO Irina Bokova was in the opening ceremony of the festival. The festival began with the performance of overture from Uzeyir Hajibeyov's "Koroglu" opera as in 2009. Opening ceremony of the festival was charged to Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Such musicians as Dmitri Yablonski, Yuri Bashmet, Khloe Khanslip and other Azerbaijani and foreign musicians took part in the festival. In 2011, the festival lasted from July 15 to August 5.
Manoochehr Sadeghi is a Persian-American naturalized citizen, born in Tehran, Iran. He is considered a Grandmaster or Ostad of the santur, a Persian hammered dulcimer. He has been lecturing, teaching, recording and performing Persian classical music on the santur professionally for over 50 years. In 2002, Sadeghi received the Durfee Foundation Master Musician Award and he is a recipient of a 2003 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an American orchestra based in Pasadena, California. In 2010 it took up residence at the Ambassador Auditorium, where its Classics Series runs from October through April. Since 2012 it performs a summer series at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden from June through September.
Kevin Kwan Loucks is a Korean–American classical pianist, arts entrepreneur, and nonprofit executive. In September 2021, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chamber Music America in New York City. He previously served as Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, a presenting organization in residence at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, and also served as Director of Innovation and Program Development at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. He co-founded Chamber Music | OC, an arts organization headquartered in Lake Forest, California, and is a founding member and current pianist of the award-winning piano trio, Trio Céleste.
Edward "Teddy" Paul Maxwell Abrams is an American conductor, pianist, clarinetist, and composer. He is currently Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra and the Britt Festival Orchestra.
Amber Wagner is an American soprano who has performed internationally to critical acclaim. She has often performed in the operas of composer Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.