Arturo Cardelús hails from Madrid, Spain. He studied piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Salamanca. Cardelús then shifted his focus, studying composition and film scoring at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he graduated summa cum laude and received the composition department’s highest award. Cardelús’s works have been performed across Europe, Asia, and the United States. His latest orchestral piece, Loon’s Lament, was premièred at Madrid’s National Auditorium. Cardelús has also composed chamber works commissioned by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Natalia Ensemble, and Cuarteto Granada. Cardelús currently lives in Los Angeles.

Laurentius Dinca received his first training at the music academy in Bucharest, and later studied at the Musikhochschule of Lübeck after being awarded a performance grant to study in Germany. From 1980 Dinca was Konzertmeister of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonie-orchester) before joining the first violins of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1984. Among the chamber music ensembles to which Dinca belongs are the Athenaeum Quartet, the Philharmonic Virtuosi and the Berlin Philharmonic Violins.

Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin
Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia. She has appeared as a soloist with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and has collaborated in concert with artists including Gary Graffman, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Ida Kavafi an and Midori at prominent venues such as The Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress (Washington DC) and Carnegie Hall (New York City). Ms. Wu is currently the Artist in Residence of the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, and teaches violin and chamber music as an adjunct professor at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

Maureen Choi, violin
Maureen Choi studied at Michigan State University, The University of Minnesota, and Berklee College of Music and has performed as a soloist for orchestras in Europe, Australia, South Korea, Canada, and the U.S. She has won international competitions in South Korea and the U.S. for both violin and piano and has recorded and performed with artists such as Rodney Whitaker, Johnny O’Neal, Josh Groban, Kanye West, and Larry Harlow. Her band, Maureen Choi Quartet, won the International Jazz Competition of Talavera performing her original compositions and arrangements.

Michael Kaufman, cello
Michael Kaufman was born in 1987 in New York City. In 2004, he was the only cellist to be accepted into the Young Artist Program of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Alison Wells. He then received a Bachelor of Music Degree with distinction and a Performer’s Certifi cate from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Steven Doane. During this time, he had masterclasses with cellists such as Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Pieter Wispelwey and Miklós Perényi and chamber music coaching with Robert Levin, Pamela Frank, Daniel Hope and members of the Tokyo, Emerson and Orion String Quartets. Michael Kaufman earned his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California and is currently pursuing a Doctorate, studying with Ralph Kirshbaum.

Sami Myerson, cello
Sami Myerson is a graduate of Rice University and of the New England Conservatory, where she studied cello performance.

John Torcello, accordion
A graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, John Torcello has a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition. He also holds an MBA in Marketing/Management from Woodbury University in Burbank, California. He has performed with ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic in venues as diverse as the Hollywood Bowl, New Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Music Center (all in Los Angeles).

Timothy Loo, cello
Cellist Timothy Loo joined the Lyris Quartet in 2008. A passionate chamber musician, he founded his fi rst quartet (the Denali Quartet) in 1999 while pursuing his Advanced Studies in Cello with Ronald Leonard at the University of Southern California. As a member of the Denali Quartet, he participated in masterclasses with the Julliard, Vermeer, and Takács Quartets. In 1999, Mr. Loo co-founded Mladi, Los Angeles’ conductorless chamber orchestra and performed with this group until 2008. He is currently the principal cellist of the Long Beach Opera Orchestra.

Steve Dress, double bass
Steve Dress is a graduate of The Juilliard School of Music where he was the recipient of the Cartwright Scholarship. He studied under the virtuoso Eugene Levinson, Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Dress has been a featured bassist, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, in New York’s most prestigious and legendary venues, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and The Juilliard Theater with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Laurentius Dinca and Berlin Philharmonic Soloists

Arturo Cardelús hails from Madrid, Spain. He studied piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Salamanca. Cardelús then shifted his focus, studying composition and film scoring at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he graduated summa cum laude and received the composition department’s highest award. Cardelús’s works have been performed across Europe, Asia, and the United States. His latest orchestral piece, Loon’s Lament, was premièred at Madrid’s National Auditorium. Cardelús has also composed chamber works commissioned by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Natalia Ensemble, and Cuarteto Granada. Cardelús currently lives in Los Angeles.