School of Music Presents Visiting Artist Series

October 17, 2002 | Written By Jody Godoy '05

Azua Pacific’s School of Music presented the first concert in the Distinguished Visiting Artist Series on Saturday, October 5. The concert featured a string sextet performing selected chamber music of Johannes Brahms.

The sextet featured violinist Charles Stegeman, director of the Visiting Artist Series. Stegeman is concertmaster of the New West Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Opera, as well as the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra. He is also an associate professor and chair at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. As an APU visiting scholar for the second year, Stegeman works with the university’s string musicians two to three times a semester.

The sextet also included violinist Rachel Purkin, Concertmaster of the Wheeling Symphony and Co-concertmaster of both the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; world-famous violist and teacher, Donald McInnes; violist Brian Denbow, winner of a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance in 2001; cellist Ronald Leonard, chair of the string department at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California; and cellist John Walz, who currently holds the position of principal cellist in the Los Angeles Music Center Opera.

The concert took place in Munson Recital Hall on East Campus. For more information on upcoming school of music events, please consult the online calendar or call (626) 815-3848.