This Season's Featured Soloists (in order of appearance, with upcoming soloists featured first)
Members of Salastina:
Kevin Kumar, violin Yoshika Masuda, cello HyeJin Kim, piano
Kevin Kumar, violinist, has been a soloist with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest concertmaster of symphonies on the U.S. West Coast and around Europe. He has performed as a chamber musician around the world and is also a studio musician, having played on countless Hollywood movies, tv shows, and albums. He benefited from a supportive family as well as amazing teachers and colleagues, which led him to understand that building community is just as important as individual artistic excellence. For that reason, Mr. Kumar co-founded and co-directs a local non-profit concert series called Salastina (salastina.org). He is also the co-artistic director of ChamberFest Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes region of NY. Mr. Kumar is a graduate of Stanford and attended USC, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. He is based in Southern California, where he lives with his wife and dotes on his young kids. Mr. Kumar grew up in Diamond Bar and attended high school in Claremont. This is his second solo appearance with the Claremont Symphony.
Yoshika Masuda has performed throughout Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico, the US, and much of Western Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. He is the winner of national competitions in Australia, Japan, and the US and was also awarded the prestigious YAMAHA Music Foundation of Europe String Award. Chamber music forms the core of Mr. Masuda's musical endeavors, and he has performed alongside Peter Frankl, Bruno Giuranna, Gil Kalish, Cho-Liang Lin, Roger Tapping, Don Weilerstein, and the Kronos Quartet. He is the co-founder of the SAKURA cello quintet and the resident cellist for Salastina. He was also the former cellist of the Rolston Quartet, with whom he toured throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. Mr. Masuda studied with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music and Ralph Kirshbaum at the USC Thornton School of Music. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music and has also served on the summer faculty of the Montecito International Music Festival, Heartland Chamber Music Festival and the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program.
Born in Seoul, pianist HyeJin Kim studied at the prestigious Yewon Arts School and Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, where she earned her MA in Musical Arts as a “Konzertexamen.” She received an artist diploma at the Colburn School in its Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Fabio Bidini. Ms. Kim first attracted international attention at age 17 when, as its youngest participant, she won third prize in the prestigious Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy. Since then, Ms. Kim has been a prizewinner at numerous other international competitions including the 2008 Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the German Academic Exchange Service Prize, the Steinway & Sons Advancement Award Competition, and the Toronto International Piano Competition. In 2013, HyeJin made her recording debut performing Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Eduard Topchjan on Sony Classical. She has collaborated and toured internationally with numerous orchestras. In 2021, her first solo album Miroirs was released on Navona Records, and a recording of Clementi early sonatas on Naxos was released recently as well.
Ms. Kim is a resident pianist of Salastina, as well as artistic director of Rendezvous de la Musique Festival. She continues her musical performances in various venues as a soloist, a recitalist, and a chamber musician. An appreciative recipient of generous support by the Amron-Sutherland Grant for Young Pianists from the Colburn School, Ms. Kim has served as a professor in the international division at Chugye University of the Arts and is currently a faculty member at the Colburn School.
Salastina invites listeners to join with composers, musicians, and artists to celebrate the beauty of the past and present, and to carry it into the future with a spirit of inclusiveness. Founded in 2010 by violinists Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar, Salastina's roster consists of Resident Artists and special guests. In 2022, Salastina was voted "Best Chamber Ensemble" by San Francisco Classical Voice's Audience Choice Awards. Salastina brings the joy and intimacy of chamber music to in-person and online audiences. Live performances take place in Pasadena and West Los Angeles and occasionally in Orange County. On its Main Series, Salastina presents repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present day. Salastina's popular online Happy Hour series gives audiences a peek behind the creative curtain. These 21st-century salons give audiences access to music-makers normally kept at a distance. Since April 2020, Salastina has produced over 100 such events. Past guests include violinist Hilary Hahn, EGOT-winning composer Alan Menken, mandolinist Chris Thile, multiple Grammy-award winning composer Eric Whitacre, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and many more. As of October 2022, Happy Hours now occur with the option to attend in-person. Outside of live performances, Salastina offers a tuition-free Young Artist Program. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Salastina musicians have played private, virtual bedside concerts for patients in UCLA's ICU. Salastina is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. To learn more, visit www.salastina.org.
Yoshika Masuda has performed throughout Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico, the US, and much of Western Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. He is the winner of national competitions in Australia, Japan, and the US and was also awarded the prestigious YAMAHA Music Foundation of Europe String Award. Chamber music forms the core of Mr. Masuda's musical endeavors, and he has performed alongside Peter Frankl, Bruno Giuranna, Gil Kalish, Cho-Liang Lin, Roger Tapping, Don Weilerstein, and the Kronos Quartet. He is the co-founder of the SAKURA cello quintet and the resident cellist for Salastina. He was also the former cellist of the Rolston Quartet, with whom he toured throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. Mr. Masuda studied with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music and Ralph Kirshbaum at the USC Thornton School of Music. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music and has also served on the summer faculty of the Montecito International Music Festival, Heartland Chamber Music Festival and the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program.
Born in Seoul, pianist HyeJin Kim studied at the prestigious Yewon Arts School and Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, where she earned her MA in Musical Arts as a “Konzertexamen.” She received an artist diploma at the Colburn School in its Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Fabio Bidini. Ms. Kim first attracted international attention at age 17 when, as its youngest participant, she won third prize in the prestigious Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy. Since then, Ms. Kim has been a prizewinner at numerous other international competitions including the 2008 Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the German Academic Exchange Service Prize, the Steinway & Sons Advancement Award Competition, and the Toronto International Piano Competition. In 2013, HyeJin made her recording debut performing Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Eduard Topchjan on Sony Classical. She has collaborated and toured internationally with numerous orchestras. In 2021, her first solo album Miroirs was released on Navona Records, and a recording of Clementi early sonatas on Naxos was released recently as well.
Ms. Kim is a resident pianist of Salastina, as well as artistic director of Rendezvous de la Musique Festival. She continues her musical performances in various venues as a soloist, a recitalist, and a chamber musician. An appreciative recipient of generous support by the Amron-Sutherland Grant for Young Pianists from the Colburn School, Ms. Kim has served as a professor in the international division at Chugye University of the Arts and is currently a faculty member at the Colburn School.
Salastina invites listeners to join with composers, musicians, and artists to celebrate the beauty of the past and present, and to carry it into the future with a spirit of inclusiveness. Founded in 2010 by violinists Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar, Salastina's roster consists of Resident Artists and special guests. In 2022, Salastina was voted "Best Chamber Ensemble" by San Francisco Classical Voice's Audience Choice Awards. Salastina brings the joy and intimacy of chamber music to in-person and online audiences. Live performances take place in Pasadena and West Los Angeles and occasionally in Orange County. On its Main Series, Salastina presents repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present day. Salastina's popular online Happy Hour series gives audiences a peek behind the creative curtain. These 21st-century salons give audiences access to music-makers normally kept at a distance. Since April 2020, Salastina has produced over 100 such events. Past guests include violinist Hilary Hahn, EGOT-winning composer Alan Menken, mandolinist Chris Thile, multiple Grammy-award winning composer Eric Whitacre, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and many more. As of October 2022, Happy Hours now occur with the option to attend in-person. Outside of live performances, Salastina offers a tuition-free Young Artist Program. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Salastina musicians have played private, virtual bedside concerts for patients in UCLA's ICU. Salastina is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. To learn more, visit www.salastina.org.
Albert Rice, clarinet
Albert R. Rice studied clarinet with Kalman Bloch, Mitchell Lurie, and Rosario Mazzeo and completed an M.A. in Music Performance and a Ph.D. in Musicology at the Claremont Graduate School. He has played principal clarinet with the Claremont Symphony Orchestra since 2018 and chamber music in several groups locally and at Tuesday Musicale meetings in Altadena. His passion for early clarinets and music resulted in the publication of five books from 1992 to 2020, four on the history of the clarinet and one on clarinet solo literature, published by Oxford University Press; another book is a catalogue of an important instrument collection entitled Four Centuries of Musical Instruments: the Marlowe A. Sigal Collection, published by Schiffer in 2015. The American Musical Instrument Society honored Dr. Rice in 2011 with their Curt Sachs Award for lifetime devotion to scholarship related to musical instruments.
Jammie Park, cello
Jammie Park is a freshman at Claremont High School and winner of Claremont Youth Symphony Orchestra's 2023 Concerto Competition. She has been playing cello for six years. Before joining CYSO, Jammie was a member of Prelude Symphonic Ensemble (then called Prelude String Ensemble) for four years. She will perform the first movement of Camille Saint-Saëns's Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33.
Emily Linlo, harp
Emily Linlo is currently pursuing a master's degree in harp performance at the University of Redlands under the guidance of Jillian Risigari-Gai Lopez. She has taken masterclasses with Elzbieta Szmyt, Elizabeth Volpé Bligh, Sasha Boldachev, Emmanuel Ceysson, and Claire Jones. As a graduate student, she was awarded a teaching graduate assistantship. She holds a bachelors in music, a DipABRSM & ARSM in piano performance and was a recipient of the Valeria Finzi Memorial Scholarship along with the Promising New Harpist Award. Currently Ms. Linlo is principal harpist of the Claremont Symphony Orchestra, as well as harpist with different ensembles at University of Redlands. She was a harpist for Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra (CYMO) and has played in California State University-Fullerton Symphony Orchestra and various other orchestras. Aside from the harp, she serves as a piano accompanist, an organist at various churches, and was a former handbell ringer.
Gloria Cangahuala, piano
Gloria Cangahuala has played both piano and violin since the age of four. She has been a violinist with Claremont Symphony Orchestra for 22 years and is in her 14th season as its concertmaster; she has been the featured piano soloist twice before with CSO. She is the former Executive Director of CSO; former Executive Director of the Claremont Youth Symphony Orchestra; and pianist, violinist, and cantor at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Claremont. She is also a composer and in March 2020 attended the world premiere of one of her choral compositions in New York.
Ms. Cangahuala is a crossword puzzle enthusiast, and she and her husband Alberto are the 2017 and 2018 doubles champions of the Los Angeles Crossword Puzzle Tournament; the 2019 doubles champions of the Boswords (Boston) Crossword Puzzle Tournament; and the 2020, 2021, and 2022 doubles champions of the Finger Lakes (Ithaca) Crossword Competition. Ms. Cangahuala graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Management Information Technology and a Minor in Music and holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Claremont and works as Business and Development Assistant at the Claremont Community School of Music.
Ms. Cangahuala is a crossword puzzle enthusiast, and she and her husband Alberto are the 2017 and 2018 doubles champions of the Los Angeles Crossword Puzzle Tournament; the 2019 doubles champions of the Boswords (Boston) Crossword Puzzle Tournament; and the 2020, 2021, and 2022 doubles champions of the Finger Lakes (Ithaca) Crossword Competition. Ms. Cangahuala graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Management Information Technology and a Minor in Music and holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Claremont and works as Business and Development Assistant at the Claremont Community School of Music.
