Pavel Farkas, Concertmaster

Cal Phil's Concertmaster Pavel Farkas is the Artist Professor of Violin and Orchestra Studies at the University of Redlands School of Music. He was born in Czechoslovakia, joined the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra at the age of 17, and only five years later became its concertmaster. He was also a member of the Slovak National String Quartet, representing Czechoslovakia during numerous performances in Western Europe and Russia. Farkas has served as Concertmaster of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Dutch Broadcasting Orchestra and the Orqesta Nacional de Mexico.

Other significant musical activities of Professor Farkas include having been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a co-founder of the Pacific Symphony and serving as the concertmaster for the touring companies of both the Bolshoi and Joffrey Ballets. Farkas has appeared as a soloist in Russia, Germany, Holland, Japan and the People’s Republic of China. He has recorded for Grammy winners Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, Cher, Barry White, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Michelle Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind and Fire and the Police. His credits include film scores for the movies Titanic, Ghost, Dances with Wolves and many other Hollywood blockbusters.

Professor Farkas regularly visits his native country of Slovakia for appearances with the Slovakian Chamber Orchestra. He appeared as soloist in the Millennium Concert with the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra (January 2000) and also recorded the 1958 Violin Concerto by renowned contemporary Slovak composer Alexander Moyzes.

Roger Allen Ward, Composer-in-Residence

Few orchestras are able to boast of a Composer In Residence who is also both a performing member of the ensemble and an administrator for the group.  Fewer still can claim one as talented as Cal Phil’s first-ever resident composer, Roger Allen Ward (b.1963). 

Roger was born and raised on the Oklahoma prairie.  Bored with his early piano lessons, he took up the cello at age 11.  Not content to just play one instrument, by age 14 Roger was also playing oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, euphonium, trombone and tuba.  To his chagrin, he wasn’t ever coordinated enough to learn percussion.  His initial music studies at college were in oboe performance, but he soon realized that his talents lay in composition and he switched focus, studying with composers Evan Tonsing, Michael Hennigan and Carolyn Bremer.

After taking his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma, ward moved to Southern California to attend the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with many notable composers including Mel Powell, Lucky Mosko, Morton Subotnick, Arthur Jarvinen, Michael Jon Fink, Marc Lowenstein, Mary Jane Leach, Mark Trayle, Sarah Roberts and Annie Gosfield.  In addition to instrumental composition, his work at CalArts included Balinese music, interactive computer music and vocal performance.  After leaving CalArts, he joined Cal Phil full time, having started his relationship with the orchestra as an intern.

Now in his tenth year with the orchestra, Roger has distinguished himself throughout national music circles and is noted for the “powerful lyricism” of his music.  His compositions, which consistently draw praise from musicians and concertgoers alike, have been heard around the country in concert halls and radio broadcasts.  The Los Angeles Times raved of the “most impressive effect” of his music, while the Pasadena Star-News described its “tuneful medleys and mind-reeling fast passages.”

For Cal Phil, Mr. ward has written seven orchestral works: earth: you are here, there was enough time for everything, pacific vistas, walk of stars, freeways & surface streets, california dreaming, festive music and music for percussion and orchestra and three chamber works, short stories (horn, violin and piano) meditation: the four elements (flute, harp and strings) and dirty martini (brass quintet).  In July 2009 Cal Phil will premiere his first symphony.

In addition to the Cal Phil, significant ensembles that have performed his music include the California EAR Unit, CalArts New Century Players, Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can All-Stars and ensembleGREEN.  His music for solo harp was premiered on the World Music Institute's Interpretations series at Merkin Hall during the 1998-1999 season.  He composed the original score for the feature-length video Nudity and Adult Situations, directed by Shaun Vinyard, which was selected to open the 1998 Blue Sky International Film Festival in Las Vegas.  His compositions range in genre from experiments in music concrete to improvisational pieces, opera, choral, solo pieces, songs, large ensemble works and chamber music.

Roger was twice selected as a participant in the Arcosanti Young Composers Seminar and was the first ever winner of the Gregory Sauer solo cello composition competition.  Recently, he has twice been a guest artist at California State University at Long Beach.  During his time at CalArts, he taught composition and music theory through the CalArts Community Arts Partnership at several locations throughout Los Angeles County.

He resides in Pasadena with his ginger-sesame Shiba Inu, Sascha.

Sing Out Loud: Meet Marya Basaraba

Cal Phil Chorale Chorus Maestra, Marya Basaraba, is originally from Montreal, where she studied Orchestral Conducting with Maestro Alexander Brott and Choral Conducting with Wayne Riddell at McGill University.  She has an eclectic performance background as an actor, television and radio host, operatic and symphonic soloist, vocal coach and choral conductor.  She was the Co Founder of the Southern California Chamber Orchestra and is the Director of Music and Performing Arts Ministries at Grace Lutheran Church and Chorus Master at Temple Akiba, both in Culver City and the Music Director of the Spirit Alive Fellowship in Irwindale.

Maestra Basaraba is the Chorus Master of the Redlands Bowl Festival Opera for which she prepared the chorus for The Barber of Seville, Tosca, La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. She was the Artistic Director of the 2007 and 2008 Peace Through Music concerts presented by the Pasadena Human Relations Commission and, as the Artistic Director of the Nevada State Opera, she produced La Bohème, Carmen, Madama Butterfly and Don Giovanni.

She is a highly acclaimed soloist with an extensive repertoire of both soprano and mezzo soprano roles in Aida, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, Carmen, Cavaleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, Cosi fan Tutte, Die Fledermaus, Der Rosenkavalier, The Mikado and the Mothers in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hansel and Gretel and Albert Herring.  Her symphonic repertoire includes Mahler's Fourth Symphony, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and the soprano and alto solos in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  Ms. Basaraba's oratorio repertoire includes the Mozart, Duruflé, Fauré and Verdi Requiems, Rossini's Petite Messe Solonelle and both the soprano and alto solos in Handel's Messiah and the Vivaldi Gloria.

She has performed with the San Diego, Victoria, Texas, Vancouver, Newfoundland, West Coast and Montreal Symphonies, the Strauss Symphony of America and the Torrance, Marina del Rey/Culver City, Rio Hondo, Bellflower, Los Angeles Doctors, San Bernardino, Pacific Palisades, Inland Empire and Channel Island Symphonies; the San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley and Riverside Master
Chorales, the Tudor Singers and Le Studio Ancienne de Montreal, the Toronto Operetta Theater, L'Opera de Montreal, L'Opera du Chambre de Quebec, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Bel Canto Opera, Mukungwha Opera, Arizona Opera, Nevada State Opera, Opera East (Nova Scotia), Santa Clarita Light Opera, Redlands Bowl Festival Opera and the Long Beach Opera.

Maestra Basaraba is the Chorus Master of the Redlands Bowl Festival Opera for which she prepared the chorus for The Barber of Seville, Tosca, La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. She was the Artistic Director of the 2007 and 2008 Peace Through Music concerts presented by the Pasadena Human Relations Commission and, as the Artistic Director of the Nevada State Opera, she produced La Bohème, Carmen, Madama Butterfly and Don Giovanni.

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