Culver City Symphony Orchestra / Marina del Rey Summer Symphony

  • CCSO | Explore
    • The Orchestra >
      • History
      • Frank Fetta, Conductor and Music Director
      • SoCal Symphony Society, Board of Directors
  • CALENDAR OF EVENTS
    • Clyde Mitchell Program Notes
    • Maxim Kuzin Program Notes
  • Online Concerts
  • Membership and Donations
  • Previous Seasons
    • MARINA CONCERTS, 2022
    • 2019-20 Season >
      • CONCERT February 16, 2020, 3:00PM • Winter 20 | 20 Years in Culver City
      • CONCERT October 19, 2019, 7:30PM • Autumn 20 | 20 Years in Culver City
    • Marina Concerts/2019 >
      • 1. Marina Concerts. "La Boheme" and "Phantom of the Opera"
      • 2. Marina Concerts. Dance in America.
      • 3. Marina Concerts. "Kiss Me Kate."
  • Parness Concerto Competition
  • Contact
  • Supporters and Sponsors
  • Free-Easy-Donate

Parness Concerto Competition

​2019

The Competition is Friday,

​November 22, 2019


Sponsored by SoCal Symphony Society and
 

Culver City Symphony Orchestra

P. O Box 4846, Culver City, CA 90231

www.culvercitysymphony.org   

info@culvercitysymphony.org




Murphy Recital Hall,

Loyola Marymount University/LMU, 


One LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045 -


WINNERS AND HONROABLE MENTIONS
 

JUDGES:


•Frank Fetta: Principal Conductor and Music

Director/
Culver City Symphony Orchestra and

Marina del Rey Symphony


•Chika Inoue: Saxophone,

Touring Concert Artist, 
Professor-Cal State

Dominguez Hills


•Brad Keimach: Conductor, Stage Director,

Educator


•Wojciech Kocyan: Piano, Professor-Loyola

Marymount University


•Marina Manukian: Violin, Touring Concert

Artist, Studio Musician, 


Artistic Director: Enlightenment Music Series



    We are pleased to announce the Winners and Honorable Mentions for the Parnes Concerto Competition, 2019.


WINNERS


Yirou Zhang, Violin, Age 15
Edward Lalo: “Symphonie Espagnol”


Kevin Cho, Piano, Age 16
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto, No. 1, bflat minor


Abriana Church, Piano, Age 20
Serge Prokofiev: Piano Concerto,
​No. 2, g minor



HONORABLE MENTIONS


Timotée Allouch, Piano, Age 13
Felix Mendelssohn: Capriccio Brillante, b minor


Shawn Xie, Piano, Age 16
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto, No. 1, bflat minor


Dallas Noble, violin, Age 19
Jean Sibelius, Violin Concerto



Congratulations.


Our great thanks to all of the contestants

whose talents, musicality and dedication to

music and their instrument always make the

decisions of judges a very thoughtful and

difficult process. We wish the Best to all

contestants as they continue with their studies.



We give big thanks to the contestants’ parents

and guardians who shepherd these young

musicians around the SoCal sprawl.



Our tremendous thanks for the music teachers

who continue the great traditions of Classical

Music and explore the new.


The competition is sponsored by Culver City

Symphony Orchestra, whose Board of Directors

along with our appreciated volunteers produce

and run the Parness Concerto Competition.



Terry Pincus-CoChair

Matthew Hetz-CoChair




Regards.

Matthew Hetz, President/Executive Director

Culver City Symphony Orchestra

Marina del Rey Symphony

SoCal Symphony Society

    ​
D I R E C T I O N S

Enter the campus at Lincoln Boulevard and

LMU Drive. Drive to the kiosk and state you are

going to the Parness Concerto Competition,

Murphy Hall. Drive up the hill, and at the top is

Drollinger Parking Plaza. Enter, park, and pay.

Make sure to follow directions.



Exit the parking structure the same way you

drove in. At the street turn right and at the end

of the street turn right again. Walk to Hogan

Hall and enter the double doors. Go through

the building lobby to the other double doors

and exit the building. You will be in a courtyard,

turn left and walk towards a courtyard exit.  

The side entrance to Murphy Recital Hall will

​be on your right. 

Terry Pincus, Co-Chair

Matthew Hetz, Co-Chair



Judges, Parness Competition, 2019


Frank Fetta is now in his 41st year as Principal

Conductor and Music Director of the Culver

City Symphony Orchestra and its summer

configuration as the Marina del Rey Symphony. 

Mr. Fetta is the director of symphonic activities

at Redlands Bowl and Music Director Emeritus

of the San Bernardino Symphony, the Torrance

Symphony and Opera A La Carte.  



    Mr. Fetta’s Guest Conducting include the

Pasadena Symphony, the Oakland.Symphony.

the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, the San

Diego Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony,

the United Chinese Musicians Orchestra, the

Riverside Symphon, the Fresno Philharmonic,

the State Street Ballet, the Fresno Opera and

Ballet, the Inland Dance Theatre and the Loren

Zachary Society and the Glendale Phiharmonic. 



Marina Manukian, violin, joined the Radio and

Television Violin Ensemble of Armenia at age

eleven, becoming the youngest professional

musician in the former Soviet Union. She

received her musical training from Georgi

Ajemian, Alice Schoenfeld, Yehudi Menuhin,

Sandor Vegh, Edward Schmieder, and Sidney

Weiss. 


    Marina has studied at the prestigious

Mozarteum School of Music in Salzburg,

Austria and is also a USC graduate with

Highest Honors.


      She is the winner of numerous music awards

and prizes including the 1st prize for National

Young Artist Competition, in former U.S.S.R.,

Aspen International Music Festival and 
Herb

Alpert
 Music Award from A & M Records. The

Los Angeles Times identifies Marina Manukian

as "a violinist extraordinaire…whose virtuosity

is exceeded only by her calmness and

confidence..”.


    From 2006 Marina has been the Artistic

Director of The Enlightenment Music Series


which presents concerts performed by the

selection of expert chamber musicians, soloists

and recording artists from around the world. In

addition, Marina has recorded for over 700

television and motion picture scores.



Chika Inoue is a much sought after solo

saxophonist, chamber musician, clinician and

master teacher. A native of Osaka, Japan,

Chika has performed in festivals and concerts

throughout North America, Italy, Germany,

USA, China and Japan. 


    She appears as a saxophonist in the Los

Angeles Philharmonic. Chika has won first prize

laureate such as at the Japan International

League of Artists Music Competition, La Jolla

Symphony & Chorus Artists Competition, and

Beverly Hills National Auditions. A graduate of

the USC Thornton School (DMA), California

State University, Fresno (MA), and UCLA Herb

Alpert School of Music (BA), she is currently on

music faculty at California State University,

Dominguez Hills. Chika is an endorsed artist

for Selmer Paris Saxophones and Vandoren.

www.chikainoue.com 


Wojciech Kocyan was praised for his “highly 

distinctive performances (…) superb, intelligent 

artistry (…)” (.Classics Today.com) and 

“incisive temperament, impeccable technique 

and sumptuous tone” (Le  Monde de la 

Musique.
) He studied with two of the world’s 

most esteemed piano pedagogues:  Andrzej 

Jasinski in Poland, where he received his 

Masters Degree and with John Perry at the 

University of Southern California, where he 

received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.

    He is a laureate of several international 

piano competitions, including F.Busoni, 

Wideman and Viotti, as well as a special prizes 

winner of the XI International Chopin 

Competition and a First Prize winner of the 

Paderewski Piano Competition.  He performed 

in Europe, America, Mexico, Australia and 

Japan, participating in music festivals such as 

Musica Antiqua Europae Orientalis, Capri 

Festival, Bydgoszcz International Music 

Festival, H.M.Gorecki Festival, Beethovenfest, 

Paderewski Festival, Liszt Festival in Vienna, 

San Francisco Liszt Festival, Cervantino 

International Music Festival, Morelia 

International Music Festival and the Chopin 

Festival in Paris.  He has recorded for 

television, radio and film and his performances 

were broadcast in Europe, United States and 

Australia.  His solo and chamber music 

recordings can also be found on DUX, Naxos 

and Spotify.

     In 2007 the Gramophone magazine, 

published in London and considered the world’s 

most prestigious classical music journal, chose 

Mr. Kocyan’s recording of Prokofiev, Scriabin 

and Rachmaninoff as one of 50 best classical 

recordings ever made, alongside recordings of 

such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Dietrich 

Fisher-Dieskau, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and 

Arthur Rubinstein. His latest CD, of works of 

Robert Schumann, was released on DUX label 

in 2012.

    Dr. Kocyan serves as the Artistic Director 

and President of the Paderewski Music Society 

in Los Angeles and the Director of the 

American International Paderewski Piano 

Competition in Los Angeles. He is also the 

President of the California Association of 

Professional Music Teachers, Santa 

Monica/South Bay Chapter and serves on the 

boards of several other cultural organizations.

    Dr. Kocyan is a Clinical Professor of Piano 

and Artist-in-Residence at Loyola-Marymount 

University in Los Angeles.




​

​The competition, and the orchestra, rely upon your

generosity. Will you consider a donation to help promote

young musicians? 

"I played with that orchestra in 1992. It was my first full

concerto performance...an important moment in my life,

and an exciting one."  


Robert Thies, Pianist, on performing with the orchestra

as a winner of the Parness Competition.


​Mr. Thies later went on to be awarded First Prize in the

Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. The

only American pianist awarded First Prize in a Russian

Competition in four decades.  He is active with concerts

and recordings of concertos, chamber music and solo

performances.  

Parness Concerto Competition

Culver City Symphony Orchestra

SoCal Symphony Society

www.culvercitysymphony.org

info@culvercitysymphony.org


P.O Box 4846 Culver City, CA 90231

    Contact us.

Submit
Judges, Parness Competition, 2019



Brad Keimach made his Carnegie Hall debut in 

1986 leading the Westfield Symphony 

Orchestra in a concert performance of FIDELIO 

that theNew York Times said "was marked by 

an organic continuum that was quite exciting."  

He and the WSO returned to Carnegie Hall in 

1987 with a program featuring the Mahler 

Fourth Symphony and led that ensemble in 

critically acclaimed performances of TRISTAN 

UND ISOLDE, OTELLO, LA TRAVIATA, AIDA, 

RIGOLETTO, TOSCA, LA BOHEME, DON 

GIOVANNI, ABDUCTION FROM THE 

SERAGLIO, and a new concert version of 

Bernstein's ON THE TOWN, the Resurrection 

Symphony
 of Mahler, a concert of music from 

Gershwin's PORGY AND BESS, and an All-

American concert featuring pianist Earl Wild 

playing the Gershwin Concerto in F.  


    As a director, Brad Keimach staged 

productions of Moliere/Strauss's "Le Bourgeois 

Gentilhomme," and Stravinsky's "Soldier's 

Tale," as well as "The Orchestra That Lost the 

Beat," a theater/concert work for children.

    A graduate of New York's prestigious 

Juilliard School, Brad Keimach studied at 

Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein, and holds 

an MFA Degree from the Purchase 

Conservatory of SUNY.  He has served as 

Music Director of the Westfield Symphony, the 

Metropolitan Orchestra, the Musica Viva 

Chamber Symphony, the West Orange 

Collegiate Orchestra, and was Associate 

Conductor of the Cathedral Symphony.  He has 

appeared as a guest conductor with the 

Shreveport Opera, the Cosmopolitan Orchestra 

in New York's Town Hall, the Long Island 

Symphony, the Purchase Symphony Orchestra, 

the Kean Chamber Symphony, the Music 

Project, the Merrick Symphony, and the 

Eglevsky Ballet Company.  He also led an 

acclaimed series of NUTCRACKER 

performances at the SUNY Performing Arts 

Center in 1996.

    Mr. Keimach served for four years as a 

Teaching Artist for the Lincoln Center Institute 

for the Arts in Education, training teachers and 

their students in developing perceptual skills in 

the arts.  He has also served on the faculties of 

Kean College, and Purchase Conservatory of 

SUNY,  and has maintained a private studio for 

advanced conducting students since 1980.  He 

has served on the faculty of California State 

University at Northridge and Antioch University. 

In Southern California, he is known for his 19 

year tenure as conductor of the Glendale Youth 

Orchestra.



Matthew Hetz-Timer/Alternate Judge

President/Executive Director-

Culver City Symphony Orchestra

Professor/Emeritus, Santa Monica College

​​

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today for Orchestra e-mails.

Submit