Santa Barbara Strings Artistry of Strings Benefit Concert

Santa Barbara Strings Artistry of Strings benefit concert will take place on Saturday, March 9 at 7 pm at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara. The benefit will provide support to nurture young string musicians and sustain their teaching artists.   The artists appearing will be Mary Beth Woodruff, violin, founder and director of Santa Barbara Strings; Jane Chung, violin; Basil Vendryes, viola; and Andrew Smith, cello.   

The program is as follows: Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6, Shostakovich String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108, and Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 12. A complimentary Artists’ Reception will follow the concert featuring local wines. Tickets for the Artistry of Strings ($40 for adults, $10 for students) are available online, or at the event. For more information, please visit santabarbarastrings.org.

The annual event supports Santa Barbara Strings in its mission to nurture young musicians through orchestral experiences and in chamber ensembles. The weekend of the Artistry of Strings also includes a masterclass for Santa Barbara Strings chamber ensembles and an orchestra rehearsal led by guest conductor Basil Vendryes assisted by Jane Chung and Andrew Smith. Derek Katz, UCSB Professor of Musicology, will be, once again, writing the program notes for the event.  

 “Each year we put together a special concert for our community that showcases masterworks of the string chamber music repertoire to benefit our organization. Our student body and their families not only get to hear exceptional chamber music performed by educators with whom they now have long-established relationships, but the students then get to work with these teaching artists who are so incredibly generous with their time each year that they come for the Artistry of Strings,” said Founder and Artistic Director Mary Beth Woodruff. She added, “We love the ‘Farm to Table’ feel of this concert with its inclusion of local artists, educators, and fantastic wines from our region donated by the wineries for the event. We continue to strive to provide the highest quality string chamber and orchestral music experience for local young musicians who want to make this kind of music a part of their lives.” 

A comprehensive classical music program for young string players in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, Santa Barbara Strings offers young musicians experience string orchestras and chamber music ensembles. The program supports students ages 5-19 in their development with a team of music educators and coaches. There is a professional music educator for every six students in the orchestras, and one for every 3-4 students in chamber ensembles.  

Mary Beth Woodruff’s pedagogical approach for Santa Barbara Strings teaches the students following the natural progression of music history from the Renaissance and Baroque eras to contemporary music, with careful attention paid to matching repertoire with the technical proficiency of each string ensemble. The young musicians train through three levels of progressive string orchestras and can also participate in chamber music ensembles with their peers. The students have the opportunity to develop high-level sight-reading skills, compose music, and study and perform masterworks each year.  

The Artists

Mary Beth Woodruff, Artistic Director, violin

An established teacher and accomplished artist, Mary Beth Woodruff has been on the faculties of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Songfest International at the Colburn School, and the Westmont Academy for Young Artists. In addition, Ms. Woodruff was professor of violin/viola at the Biola University Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where she served as head of chamber music studies, lectured in music history, strings literature/repertoire, and strings pedagogy for seven years. She soloed with the Biola Symphony Orchestra on a concert tour of Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and on tour to China. She has performed with the Boston Philharmonic, the New England Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Music of Boston, the Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra Winter Festival in Israel, as well as the Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Opera Santa Barbara. Ms. Woodruff earned her Master’s Degree in Violin Performance at Carnegie Mellon University on a full scholarship, following undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in music and chemistry. Her principal teachers have included Julia Bushkova, Ronald Copes, Andres Cardenes, Arturo Delmoni, and John Harbison. She currently serves on the MIT Educational Council, is the Santa Barbara center representative for the Royal Conservatory of Music Development Program, and maintains a private violin and viola studio. Ms. Woodruff is the Concertmaster of the Santa Maria Philharmonic.  

Jane Chung, violin

Jane Chung performs as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has collaborated extensively with dance for more than a decade, including as resident musician and composer for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. In 2009, Ms. Chung premiered and managed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s first project with live music—a collaboration for which her playing was praised as “excellent” and “sweet-voiced”—and continues performing with the company in ongoing projects. With the aid of a Yale AlumniVentures grant, she has developed and premiered numerous dance repertoire across the Northeast. Ms. Chung performs on a 1782 Joseph and Antonius Gagliano violin.  

Basil Vendryes, viola

Basil Vendryes has been Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic orchestras.  As violist with the Aurora String Quartet (1986-95) Mr. Vendryes performed extensively and has recorded the complete Mendelssohn Quartets for Naxos.  He currently serves on the faculties of the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, the Castleman Quartet Program in Fredonia, New York, the Green Valley Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Interharmony International Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy.  He is also the founder/director of the Colorado Young Sinfonia. He has recorded for Columbia, Phillips, Decca, RCA and Nonesuch, as well as chamber music for the Ariel, Cadenza Music, Centaur, CRI and Naxos labels.  Mr. Vendryes plays on a rare Italian viola made in 1887 by Carlo Cerruti.  

Andrew Smith, cello

Andrew Smith is an associate professor of music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he performs regularly as a member of The Cerberus Trio. He is a member of the Camerata Deiá, a group founded in 2001 to be the resident ensemble with The Festival Internacional de Deiá , a summer festival in Mallorca, Spain. He is also a founding member of The Adriatic Chamber Music Festival, a summer music program in southern Italy, where he has taught and performed since its inception in 1998.   For two years, Mr. Smith was principal cellist with the West Virginia Symphony, where he was in residence with the Montani String Quartet. He has won several awards and prizes, including first prize in the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation competition in Santa Barbara, and an Esperia Foundation grant to study with the eminent Hungarian cellist Csaba Oncay at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. In the fall of 2008, he joined the Las Vegas Philharmonic as principal cellist.  

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Santa Barbara Strings presents The Artistry of Strings

A benefit concert providing support to nurture young string musicians Saturday, March 9, 7 pm Concert and post-concert complimentary Artists’ Reception with wines generously donated by local winemakers.

Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara Tickets, $40 for adults, $10 for students are be available online at santabarbarastrings.org, or at the event. For more information, please visitsantabarbarastrings.org.

Mary Beth Woodruff, Artistic Director, violin Jane Chung, violin Basil Vendryes, viola Andrew Smith, cello  

The program includes music of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn.