Arcana Nomadica, Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival

Program Geamparale – Traditional Romanian Hungarian Songs – Traditional, arr. Luanne Homzy Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Hungarian Dance No. 5, from Hungarian Dances Sergei Orekhov (1935-1998) Moskovskaya Polka Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian Dance, from Swan Lake Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Winter, from The Four Seasons – arr. and transcribed by Nikolai Sivchuk Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) Caprice No. 24 With a Swing, arr. Luanne Homzy Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) a la Zingarese, arr. Luanne Homzy Hajduk – Traditional Polish Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) Zigeunerweisen, op. 20 Grigoraș Dinicu (1889-1949) The Lark The Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival is being held this summer in Lani Hall, a 133-seat auditorium located in the Schoenberg Music Building on the UCLA campus. All concerts are free of charge, and no reservations are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Lot 2 is the closest campus parking lot; visit here for full details on UCLA visitor parking, including campus parking maps and rates. This year’s Festival will be livestreamed on the Center’s YouTube Channel and each concert recording will be available to watch for three weeks following the concert date. Please subscribe to our channel to be notified when the concerts go live. Arcana Nomadica Luanne Homzy, violin Nikolay Sivchuk, accordion Luca Pino, guitar Felix Kochendörfer, bass Arcana Nomadica is a collective of musicians and artists led by violinist Luanne Homzy, taking audiences on a journey through time with rich folk and Gypsy-Romani music from Europe and the Americas. A performance may travel from a French waltz to a Hungarian csárdás, a Romanian hora, a Russian romance and dance, or an Argentinian tango—perhaps even a Disney tune in disguise—alongside jazz, classical, and beloved songs. The trio’s passion is to weave a common thread through these traditions, evoking the wonder, soul, passion, and beauty of music across cultures. Arcana Nomadica, “traveling secret,” pays homage to the Romani musicians who journeyed across the globe after leaving India roughly fifteen hundred years ago. Traditionally nomadic, they absorbed the music of the lands where they settled, transforming it with their own unmistakable voice, always playing directly from the heart. Their traditions were passed down through generations, often orally rather than in written form. The musicians of Arcana Nomadica are deeply honored to have studied with and performed alongside these masters, and are devoted to helping keep this extraordinary tradition alive, and to introduce it to new audiences. Luanne Homzy Internationally acclaimed American/French-Canadian violinist Luanne Homzy is highly sought after for her technical facility, sensitive musicality, and expansive versatility. Based in Los Angeles, she works as a studio musician, a composer, and is the leader of Arcana Nomadica and of the California String Quartet (CSQ) . First Prize winner of the Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition in 2009 (with the Saguaro Piano Trio) , she has performed concerti with the Montréal and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestras, and the Colburn Chamber Orchestra. Having served as concertmaster for the Colburn Orchestra, the Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra, and the American Youth Orchestra, she has worked closely with masters such as Sir Neville Mariner, Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, David Newman, and John Williams. Ms. Homzy has collaborated with artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Franklin Cohen, Ani Kavafian, Paul Coletti, Ronald Leonard, Niklas Schmidt, Paul Neubauer, the Tokyo String Quartet, and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In December 2019, she was awarded Second Prize at the Roby Lakatos International Violin Improvisational Competition, and since her introduction to many of the most highly regarded Hungarian Gypsy musicians, she became a pupil of Miklós Lakatos. During the pandemic, she recorded a full album of Hungarian Gypsy Music, remotely from her home studio, with the Miklós Lakatos Gypsy Orchestra, who recorded from Budapest. The album is currently available as a digital download on BandCamp at Equally at home in many genres, whether it be classical, jazz, rock, gypsy, or Eastern European folk music, Ms. Homzy performs worldwide with crossover supergroup Trio Dinicu, hailed as “dazzling” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She has been featured with artists such as Roby Lakatos, the John Jorgenson Quintet, Florin Niculescu, and Tcha Limberger, and has performed with Coldplay, Pink Martini, Billie Eilish, Danny Elfman, and Sting, among others. In addition to her performing career, Ms. Homzy composes and arranges jazz, popular, classical, folk, and world music for diverse performing ensembles. Recent works include her composition Un Souvenir d’hiver commissioned by the California String Quartet, her string quartet arrangement of “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay, and her orchestral arrangement can be heard on Kid Cudi’s track “Kitchen.” As a studio musician, she can be heard (and occasionally seen) in hundreds of movies and TV shows such as Sinners, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Zootopia 2, Hoppers, Encanto, The Mandalorian, Jungle Cruise, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, A Star is Born, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, La La Land, Glee, Rent: Live on Fox, and on albums by Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Leonard Cohen, and Seal. She’s a recurring performer at the Oscars and the Grammys. She also orchestrated the HBO show Into the Storm and, along with Project:CSQ, recorded the whole show remotely during the pandemic. Luanne Homzy, originally from Montréal, studied with Robert Lipsett and Arnold Steinhardt on a full scholarship at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, and later obtained her Master’s from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in Germany. Nikolay Sivchuk Nikolay Sivchuk, the brilliant bayan (button accordion) player from Russia, is a talented teacher, arranger, and composer who continues the best traditions of the Russian bayan school of performers. He was born in 1981 in Surgut (Russia) , where he started his musical education. In his childhood Nikolay, a very talented and virtuoso player, was already a winner of several competitions of international caliber. In 1996, he was awarded a scholarship and became a member of the international program New Names, the charitable foundation which helps the most gifted young musicians of Russia. Through the New Names program, Nikolay met the legendary Russian Professor Viacheslav Semionov, and some years later continued his education as a student in Semionov’s class at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. During his studies, Nikolay Sivchuk became a laureate of the most prestigious all-Russian and international competitions: 1998 – “Baltica Harmonica” International Competition and Festival, Saint Petersburg – First Prize (solo) 1999 – First All-Russian Youth Delphic Games, city of Saratov – Gold Medal (solo) 2000 – International Competition named after V. V. Andreyev, Saint Petersburg – Second Prize (solo) 2001 – First All-Russian Open Competition of bayanists and accordionists “Yugoria”, city of Surgut – First Prize (as a part of “Yugoria” Duo) , Second Prize (solo) 2002 – XXXIX Internationaler Akkordeonwetttbewerb Klingental Competition, Germany – First Prize (as a part of “Yugoria” Duo) 2003 – Coupe Mondiale International Accordionists Competition, Slovak-Hungary – First Prize (solo) 2005 – XLII Internationaler Akkordeonwetttbewerb Klingental Competition, Germany – Third Prize (solo) 2006 – Shanghai Spring International Competition, China – Grand Prix (as a part of “Yugoria” Duo) Today, besides his solo recitals, Nikolay collaborates with many recognized and famous performers, such as cellist Boris Andrianov, guitarist Yamandu Costa, guitarist Dimitri Illarionov, violinist Elena Revich, pianists Vadym Kholodenko, Andrey Gugnin, and others, constantly increasing the geographic spread of his concerts. Through intensely colorful and bright performances, Nikolay Sivchuk always shows the amazing capacities of the bayan. Audiences enjoy Nikolay’s versatile and profound musicality and his courageous and brave interpretations of modern and classical pieces, thereby discovering the place of this relatively young instrument in the history of classical/art music. Luca Pino Luca Pino is a Los Angeles-based guitarist whose hot jazz stylings are cut from the cloth of Django Reinhardt, Oscar Aleman, and Freddie Green. He leads his own quartet, Pino Noir, in which he reimagines the 1930s Paris swing sound with exciting arrangements, electric fashion sense, and original compositions. He has headlined various gypsy jazz festivals, such as Djangofest Northwest in Seattle and Djangojazz Festival in Mexico, not to mention a teaching stint at Django In June in Massachusetts. His penchant for early twentieth-century swing guitar has also led him to world tours with Postmodern Jukebox, as well as performing with local acts such as Lizzy & The Triggermen and Jonathan Stout’s Boulevardiers. Felix Kochendörfer Felix Kochendörfer was born in Weimar, Germany, into a musical family and started playing violin in primary school. In his early teenage years he picked up the trombone, which got him into jazz, and he started to learn upright bass at the age of seventeen. Soon after, he joined a group of young musicians dedicated to the music of Django Reinhardt, with whom he toured through Germany and Italy. Felix has lived in Germany, Denmark, and Austria before moving to the United States, where he continues to be an established bass player in the Los Angeles gypsy jazz scene. He has appeared with artists such as Yorgui Loeffler, Christiaan van Hemert, Trio Dinicu, Jimmy Grant, Brad Brose, and the New Orleans Swinging Gypsies. He studied Acoustics Engineering at Dresden University of Technology and Aalborg University, Denmark and now works primarily as an audio engineer in Los Angeles, following his passion to develop high-quality loudspeakers and audio systems. About The Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival Ambroise Aubrun, D. M. A., Artistic Director The festival was founded in 1988 by Professor Henry J. Bruman (1913–2005) , who sought to introduce new audiences to chamber music at informal concerts on the UCLA campus. The festival is made possible by the Henry J. Bruman Trust, Professors Wendell E. Jeffrey and Bernice M. Wenzel, by a gift in memory of Raymond E. Johnson, and with the support of the UCLA Center for 17th-& 18th-Century Studies. Photo courtesy of the artists.