Niv Ashkenazi
Virtuoso violinist Niv Ashkenazi has captivated audiences with his heartfelt musicianship and emotional performances. Praised for his "extremely colourful interpretations, characterized by maturity and authority" (Pizzicato Magazine), he has made several Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center appearances, and has performed in Europe, the Middle East, and across North America. His conviction that the impact of music serves people beyond the concert stage motivates him to collaborate on projects that create a strong emotional bond with his audience.
Niv was the first ever Artist in Residence at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) and Artist in Residence for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. His debut album, Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope, the first solo album recorded on one of the Violins of Hope, was released in March 2020 on Albany Records. It has received international critical acclaim and was named one of the 10 best classical recordings of 2020 by the Chicago Tribune. His performances and educational work with Violins of Hope led him to be recognized by the City of Los Angeles in 2021 for his humanitarian work, and have been featured on ABC7, Good Day LA, Spectrum 1 News, Telemundo, the Los Angeles Times, and other major news outlets. Niv was one of the featured soloists, alongside Yo-Yo Ma, for the soundtrack of the PBS documentary Harbor from the Holocaust.
Niv has performed chamber music with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Juilliard String Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Ariel Quartet, and Lydian String Quartet. Other performance highlights include solo recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center's Concert Hall, Terrace Theater, and Millennium Stage, The Soraya, the Granada Theatre, and the Perlman Music Program Alumni Recital Series.
Dyad, his innovative violin and bassoon duo with bassoonist Dr. Leah Kohn, gave their Kennedy Center debut in 2023 and has performed on concert series throughout the West and East Coast, collaborated with dance companies, and frequently commissions and performs new works alongside traditional repertoire. Their arrangement of Bloch's Prayer is published by TrevCo Music Publishing, and they presented and performed at the 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium and the 2022 International Double Reed Society conference. Niv has appeared as a soloist with the Long Beach Symphony, Culver City Symphony Orchestra, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra among others. He has been a guest artist and given masterclasses at La Sierra University, California State University Northridge, and Westmont College.
Niv is revolutionizing violin education with Eye for Technique, an innovative project that uses slow motion technology to develop decision-making and enhanced artistry. This work led to him being the recipient of Music Academy of the West's 2023 Alumni Enterprise Award. Eye for Technique has helped students from Curtis, Rice, USC, and CSUN, among others.
Niv holds both a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Itzhak Perlman and Glenn Dicterow. He is on faculty at California State University, Northridge.
Tereza Stanislav
Dividing her time among chamber, solo, orchestral and recording projects, Tereza has been hailed for her “expressive beauty and wonderful intensity” (Robert Mann) of her playing, her “sure technique and musical intelligence” (Calgary Herald), and “ her sweet tone, brilliant phrasing, uncannily pointed rhythm and pure intonation (even at the violin’s highest and lowest extremities)” (Huffington Post).
Tereza was the featured soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of the Violin Concerto by Benjamin Wallfisch about which the Los Angeles Times wrote, “she gave a magisterial rendition” and “held the audience rapt.” An active and highly sought after chamber musician, she has appeared in venues including the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. She has performed in concert with artists including Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Jon Kimura Parker. In 2004, Tereza released a CD in collaboration with pianist Hung-Kuan Chen.
She served as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera’s 2010 production of The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Maestro Plácido Domingo.
In 2009, Tereza was invited to be the Chamber Music Collaborator for Sonata Programs and member of the jury for the Sixth Esther Honens International Piano Competition.
An advocate for new music, Tereza has worked with composers including Steve Reich, Gunther Schuller, Joan Tower, Toshio Hosokawa and Louis Andriessen. World premieres include Gunther Schuller’s Horn Quintet (2009) with Julie Landsman, Louis Andriessen’s The City of Dis (2007), Gernot Wolfgang’s Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges (2009), and as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, James Matheson’s Violin Sonata (2007); West Coast premieres include Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations and Gernot Wolfgang’s Jazz and Cocktails. She is featured on a new recording of Wolfgang’s Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges on Albany Records, Reich’s Daniel Variations on Nonesuch, a self-released solo cd with Hung-Kuan Chen and the complete Pleyel string quartets with the Enso Quartet on Nonesuch.
Henry Shin
Conductor and violinist Henry Shin has served as the music director and conductor of the Glendale Youth Orchestra since 2019. Since 2015, Mr. Shin has also served as Director of Orchestras at Pasadena City College. A strong proponent of bringing music to underserved youth in Los Angeles, he is the music director and conductor of the nationally-acclaimed Harmony Project Orchestras, Hollywood, the Valley Philharmonic Orchestra in Porter Ranch, and with the Kadima Conservatory Philharmonic in Pacoima. For 7 years, Mr. Shin also served as the assistant conductor of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute (EMMI) Chamber Orchestra at the prestigious Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica.
Prior to his arrival in Los Angeles, Mr. Shin served as assistant conductor of the San Francisco Civic Symphony and with the University Symphony Orchestra at UC Berkeley. For almost 10 years, he served as music director and conductor of the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony. He has also been music director of the San Francisco Arts Education Project’s Event Players, a premiere children’s musical theater troupe, leading sold-out performances of Carousel, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, and On the Town.
In 2009, Mr. Shin gained international recognition when he was a prizewinner at the prestigious International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon, France – notable alumni to include Seiji Ozawa and Osmo Vänskä.
Mr. Shin has studied conducting with David Milnes, John Barnett, Carl St.Clair, and Neal Stulberg, among others. He has also worked alongside Kurt Masur, James Conlon, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Daniel Lewis, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. In 2006, he received the Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship, allowing him to be a conducting apprentice at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany. Mr. Shin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley, his Masters degree in conducting from the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music, and currently completing his doctoral studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
