Igor Veligan, Iris Stone, Yuko Tanaka, Leslie Chin
Igor Veligan, PCO Concertmaster and violinist will be soloist for Concertos #1, #3 and #5. Igor is a native Ukrainian and graduated from Odessa State Conservatory, UA. He immigrated to the United States in 1996. Igor currently teaches violin and viola at University of the Pacific; where he invests his passion, love of music and professional expertise in guiding the younger generation of musicians. His CD entitled “Voices of Eastern Europe” with pianist Natsuki Fukasawa, features Armenian composer Arno Babajanian, Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk and Romanian composer George Enescu. Igor and Natsuki have performed together in the United States and Europe. Since the 2022 outbreak of the ongoing war in the Ukraine, Igor has performed in numerous fundraisers to aid the needs of the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom and democracy. http://igorveligan.com/
Iris Stone will be violin soloist for Concertos #2 and #4. Originally from Germany, Iris resides in San Francisco where she is a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. She appeared as part of the Stone-Zimmermann violin-piano duo, and performed and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Iris performed in the great concert halls of Europe, Asia, and the United States. She has been a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, has been Assistant Concertmaster of San Francisco’s Women’s Philharmonic and Principle of the Monterey Symphony Orchestra. Iris Stone first came to the United States in 1993 as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Subsequently she worked with violinist Donald Weilerstein, founding member of the Cleveland Quartet, and later awarded a long-term residency at the prestigious Banff Center for the Arts in Canada. For the past decade, Iris also has taken on acting roles performing with companies around the Bay Area such as California Shakespeare Theatre.
Yuko Tanaka will be the harpsichordist for all six concertos and especially featured in Concerto #5. Yuko is from Tokyo, Japan. She performs with Bertamo, Archetti, Musica Pacifica, California Bach Society ensembles and has recorded with Moscow Chamber Orchestra and American Bach Soloists. She has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. Yuko performs around the world, and for 15 years as a soloist with the Carmel Bach Festival. She serves as Director of Music Discovery Workshop (a program of San Francisco Early Music Society), maintains a private studio, conducts master classes, and appears as guest lecturer at various universities. Yuko received a doctorate in early music from Stanford University and she has recorded with Koch International, Delos International and Magnatune.com.
Leslie Chin will be soloist for concertos #2 and #4 has lived and worked in the Bay Area as a professional freelance flutist for over 30 years, performing with SF Ballet, SF Opera, Oakland Symphony, Fremont Symphony, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Marin Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony and West Edge Opera. She has recorded music for video games and movies. She also plays in the pit for Broadway shows (“Porgy and Bess,” “American in Paris,” “The King and I,” “Wicked,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” and “Lion King.”) Leslie plays lots of instruments in the flute family: piccolo, alto flute, recorder, pennywhistle, ditzu (chinese bamboo flute), pan pipes, bansuri. She performs on the pennywhistle with a local Pogues cover band. Leslie is grateful to have played flute at Burning Man 2019 with ArtHaus Collective’s full-length performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet. She enjoys playing chamber music and has performed with the Bellavente Wind Quintet in the SF Symphony’s AIM program for over 20 seasons.
