VEM Ensemble to Perform at Holy Trinity Armenian Church on March 31

VEM violinist Ji Eun Hwang was born in Korea and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across United States and South Korea. She began her music studies at an early age and studied in the Preparatory school of Korea National University of Art and in Seoul National University with a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance. After then, she studied with an Artist Diploma in violin performance at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University with Professor Mark Kaplan and Ik-Hwan Bae with a full scholarship. She attended Tanglewood Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Texas Music Festival with full scholarships and Pontlevoy music festival in France. Her musical development has been furthered in masterclasses with Mihaela Martin, Patinka Kopec, Samuel Rhodes, Yael Weiss, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Mauricio Fuks, and Lucie Robert. In the past year, she has been the featured performer with many solo and chamber recitals and won several violin competitions. She played at the Yurim promising artist recital and the Young San young artist recital, and performed with the Gwangju Symphony Orchestra and City of Mokpo Symphony Orchestra. Since 2012, she has joined Sejong Soloists as a guest artist and she is a principal violinist of the Sejong City Philharmonic Orchestra. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in violin performance at Herb Alpert School of Music, UCLA with Professor Movses Pogossian.

Aiko Jimena Richter is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and joined VEM in 2018. She has been a fellow at major festivals including the National Orchestral Institute, Domaine Forget Academy, Festival Napa Valley, and Kent/Blossom Music Festival, during which she performed with the Cleveland Orchestra. She is also featured on the 2015 Naxos label recording of Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 as a member of the NOI festival orchestra. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed in masterclasses for Gil Shaham, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ani Kavafian, Brooklyn Rider, and the Kronos Quartet among others. Aiko earned her B.M. at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill as a student of Nicholas DiEugenio and is currently pursuing her M.M. at UCLA with Movses Pogossian and Varty Manouelian.

Violist Morgan O’Shaughnessey has performed live on RAI Radio 3 at Palazzo Quirinale for the President of the Italian Republic. He has presented several recitals of modern Italian works at Teatro la Fenice in Venice as a part of the festival lo spirito della musica di venezia, as well as recorded an album of the complete chamber music of Gino Gornini in collaboration with the Giorgio Cini Foundation, which was released on the Tactus label. He performs on a fine viola by Vincenzo Cavani di Spilamberto, and a bow by Darrell Hanks of Ashland, Oregon. His extensive discography with legendary producer Sylvia Massy includes string arrangements for Johnny Depp, Rihanna, and Soilwork. He holds a BM from San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with Jodi Levitz and members of the Kronos Quartet. His other musical interests include the Scottish highland bagpipes, Swedish nyckelharpa, and Quebecois fiddle music. A passionate advocate for community involvment in music and art, O’Shaughnessey is the artistic director for Springsart Series: a non-profit community concert series that produces accomplished regional artists in interactive artistic community events in a yurt deep in the forest near Ashland, Oregon. Visit www.moshalto.com for more information on upcoming concert engagements and album releases.

Jason Pegis, named “a true talent” by Montreal’s Le Devoir, started cello lessons at age 16 and holds a Bachelor’s of Music from Willamette University where he studied with Jason Duckles and Valdine Mishkin, and a Master’s of Music from McGill University where he studied with Matt Haimovitz. While working on his Bachelor’s, he joined the school’s Waller Piano Trio, which made news as the first chamber group from Oregon to become national finalists of the 2014 MTNA Young Artist Chamber Music Competition. He has seen much success in solo competitions as well; in 2013 and 2016 he won the Willamette University Concerto Competitions, and in 2015 winning the Eugene Symphony Young Artist Competition and Outstanding Cellist Award, after which he appeared as a soloist with the orchestra for two outdoor concerts for audiences of thousands. He also received the 2016 Zodiac Music Festival Young Artist Award, numerous instrumental scholarships from Mu Phi Epsilon, grants from the Williamson Foundation for Music, and an 1880 Neuner-Hornsteiner cello loan from the Carlsen Cello Foundation. In 2017, he became a finalist of the McGill Concerto Competition, and held a principal cello position of the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Jason has performed chamber music with artists like Johannes Moser, Axel Strauss, Victor Fournelle-Blain, Neal Stulberg, and Denis Bouriakov. He currently studies with Antonio Lysy in Los Angeles where he has started his Doctorate of Musical Arts and string teaching assistantship at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

Praised for possessing “extraordinary expressivity, and a beautiful voice” (Long Beach Gazette), Danielle Segen is an emerging talent in the Los Angeles music scene. Danielle earned her Master of Music degree at University of California Los Angeles, where she studied with Juliana Gondek. At UCLA she was seen regularly on the opera stage with past appearances including Prince Charming in “Cendrillon,” Dorabella in “Cosí fan tutte,” and the titular role in both “Tragedy of Carmen” and the West Coast premiere of William Bolcom’s “Lucrezia.”

Equally at home singing new compositions as she is performing from the standard repertoire of opera and art song, Danielle has been sought after to workshop, record, and perform new works. Most recently she collaborated with composer Jeff Kryka to record the theme music for “Traces of the Brush,” a critically acclaimed documentary on world renowned Chinese art historian and calligrapher Fu Shen, directed by Eros Zhao. With the VEM String Quartet Segen has enjoyed international success, performing at the Komitas Chamber Music Hall in Yerevan, Armenia as well as in the Dilijan Chamber Music Series at Zipper Hall. This upcoming year will see Danielle on concert stages across the U.S. and internationally with VEM performing Armenian art song arrangements, as well as world premieres of a new song cycle for mezzo-soprano and string quartet by Artashes Kartalyan and a new string quartet arrangement of Tigran Mansurian’s “Four Hayrens.”

VEM will perform at 1 p.m., Sunday, March 31 cosponsored with Holy Trinity Armenian Church at 145 Brattle St.

For a sample performance, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdGXmv8YIyc .

For general questions or tickets, email tcadirector@aol.com.