CROWN CITY STRING QUARTET
The Crown City String Quartet has been the premier group featured in the HDCM Concert Series and an audience favorite since their debut in the High Desert Chamber Music inaugural concert. Founded in 2007, their performances have been praised as “sublime” and “simply moving and spectacular”.
Based in the Crown City, Pasadena, California, the members have worked together in the Motion Picture and TV recording studios and are current and former members and principal players of some of Southern California’s most renowned music organizations, including the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Chamber Orchestra.
They are regularly featured in a number of concert series in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest.
A recent review described the group’s performance as “rich, smoky, heavy with nostalgia. Its textures were rendered with limpid gracefulness…felt old-fashioned in the best way: genuinely and unapologetically Romantic in the best of the Central European tradition.” (Ted Esteban Ayala Villaroel, Culture Spot LA)
The group is dedicated to Educational Outreach efforts, and regularly conducts performances and Q&A sessions at various locations. They also instruct and mentor the Spotlight Chamber Players, a HDCM Educational Outreach program.
With a refreshing and unmistakable camaraderie that is present both on and off-stage, the group is recognized for delivering dynamic and engaging performances of standard repertoire.
Upcoming Concerts
01/14
HDCM Concert Series
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2023 @ 7:30pm
Location: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon - 61980 Skyline Ranch Rd. Bend, Oregon
Program: William Grant Still “Danzas de Panama”, Florence Price “Andante Cantabile”, Jessie Montgomery “Strum”, Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet Op.44 No.3
Admission: Tickets through HDCM
ISABELLE LAFORÊT SENGER
A Southern California native, violinist Isabelle LaForêt Senger received her Master’s degree from UC Los Angeles, magna cum laude, and Bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego, summa cum laude. While in San Diego, she was a member of the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Chamber Orchestra, as well as Principal Second Violin of the Orquesta de Baja, California. After returning to Los Angeles, she performed with numerous prominent orchestras including the Los Angeles and Pacific Opera Orchestras and the Pasadena, Long Beach, and Pacific Symphonies.
Her primary instructors include Mark Kaplan, Mark Baranov, and Janos Nygyesy. She has participated in the Spoleto Festival, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Eastern Music Festival, and the Meadowmount School of Music.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Senger is a founding member of the Crown City String Quartet. She has performed as a guest artist and in recital with such artists as Martin Chalifour, Heiichiro Ohyama, Frank Almond, Trio West, Orloff/Walz Duo, and the Thies Consort. As a recipient of the Maxwell H. Gluck Fellowship, she was a member of the Gluck Piano Trio, representing the UCLA School of Music at a number of institutions and workshops in Southern California. As a member of the Spoleto Quartet, she performed throughout Italy in 1999 representing the Spoleto Festival Chamber Program at locations including Konzertsaal Pfalzbau, Wiener Konzerthaus, Spoleto Duomo Piazza, and Teatro Puccini di Firenze.
Ms. Senger has worked with renowned composers in the Motion Picture recording studios, and has performed regularly on the Television series’ The Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and King of the Hill. She has contributed to the albums of many of today’s top recording artists, including Christina Aguilera, John McLaughlin, James Blunt, Mandy Barnett, Tiffany (produced by Dr. Dre), Evanescense, and Kanye West. She has also performed live with Andrea Bocelli, Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, Yanni, John Tesh, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Keely Smith.
After moving to Bend in 2007, Ms. Senger founded High Desert Chamber Music, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In addition to serving as Executive Director, she develops, organizes, and instructs all the Educational Outreach programs offered through the organization. Ms. Senger has been featured on the cover of the Bend Bulletin’s “U Magazine”, and has been the recipient of the Cascade Business News “Accomplished Under 40” award.
KEVIN KUMAR
A recent performance “allowed Kumar to demonstrate that, in addition to making an utterly beautiful sound, he is a born leader, and the performance responded to every last facet of a work gigantic in stature.” (Bernard Jacobson, Music-Web International) Also praised by press for his “obvious communicative powers”, “sense of sheer enjoyment”, and having “the precision and tonal richness of a virtuoso”, violinist Kevin Kumar has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among numerous other orchestras. Kumar has also been active as an orchestral player, serving as Concertmaster of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra under Valeri Gergiev and Semyon Bychkov in tours throughout major European cultural centers. He was personally invited by Sir Georg Solti to participate in the Solti Project at Carnegie Hall.
As a devoted chamber musician he has performed in various ensembles and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Central America and participated in numerous radio and television broadcasts, including a featured appearance on a primetime NBC sitcom. Kumar has given the world premieres of chamber music and solo works by composers such as Grammy-nominated composer Javier Navarrete, Daniel Catan, R.I. Gordon, and Jeremy Cavaterra. He is also active in the television and motion picture scoring industry, having played on scores by John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, and many others.
Kumar is the co-founder/co-artistic director of the Salastina Music Society. This Los Angeles based chamber music series, which has inspired praise and excitement from both critics and audiences, seeks to redefine the classical concert experience by exploring new concert formats while providing world-class performances of the greatest artistic works of human genius. On the east coast, Kumar is the co-director of the Canandaigua Lake Music Festival, a summer chamber music series in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
In addition to attending Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music, Kumar received the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship and his Advanced Studies in Music Diploma from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. He has studied with Alice Schoenfeld, Viktor Tretyakov, Linda Rose, and Gennady Kleyman and benefited from master classes with Dorothy Delay and other musical luminaries. In addition to an 1837 Rafael & Antonio Gagliano, he performs on a modern violin by Los Angeles maker Mario Miralles.
CARRIE HOLZMAN-LITTLE
Violist Carrie Holzman-Little received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Primary instructors include William Primrose, Heiichiro Ohyama, Ron Copes, and Louis Kievman. She was invited to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, the Blossom Music Festival under the umbrella of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Music Academy of the West under the direction of Maurice Abravanel.
Ms. Holzman-Little currently holds positions as Assistant Principal Viola of the Pasadena Symphony and member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Crown City String Quartet. She is on the faculty of the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival, Verdugo Young Musician’s Association, and also runs a private teaching studio. She has spent the past twenty years as a member of the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon under the direction of Helmuth Rilling.In addition to her work as a performer, Ms. Holzman-Little holds the position of Personnel Manager of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Music Paradigm, and Orchestra Santa Monica.
DANE LITTLE
Cellist Dane Little is a native of Washington, where he earned a Bachelor of Music from Washington State University. After studies with Stephen Kates in Baltimore and Claus Adam in Aspen. Mr. Little came to Los Angeles to study with Robert Martin at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts. As a busy and sought-after performer in prominent Los Angeles based organizations, he holds the position of Assistant Principal Cello in the Pasadena Symphony and is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, in addition to working in the Motion Picture and TV studios. He has spent the past twenty years as a member of the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. Also an avid chamber musician, Mr. Little and his wife, Carrie, are both members of the Crown City String Quartet. He is also a member of the Mountain Trio, a group he formed with pianist and sibling, Lorna Eder.